Rescheduling Should Ultimately Lead to Traditional Prescriptions
If you haven’t yet heard, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has decided to move forward with a recommendation to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Control Substances Act (CSA). Once rescheduling is a matter of law, a number of significant changes should occur – including those doctors writing traditional prescriptions for medical cannabis.
Under current federal rules, traditional prescriptions are off the table. Doctors are not legally allowed to write a medical cannabis prescription in the same way they would write one for an antibiotic or blood pressure medication. The best they can do is recommend medical cannabis before sending patients off to a pharmacy or dispensary.
What Rescheduling Accomplishes
From a legal standpoint, rescheduling marijuana removes it from the same classification as highly addictive drugs like heroin and methamphetamine. Schedule I drugs have a very high potential for addiction but little to no medical value. Marijuana is currently on Schedule I.
Rescheduling it to Schedule III puts it in the same class as ketamine and anabolic steroids. By rescheduling marijuana, DEA is essentially admitting that it does have legitimate uses as a medicine. This is the particular aspect of rescheduling that opens the door to traditional prescriptions.
How Medical Cannabis Is Procured
To date, thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia have given the green light to medical cannabis. Utah is the perfect example. In the Beehive State, any adult with a qualifying condition can apply for a medical cannabis card. Organizations like Utahmarijuana.org help patients navigate the state’s system. With card in hand, a patient can then visit a medical cannabis dispensary.
The patient takes their card to the pharmacy rather than a traditional prescription. Ideally, a patient consults with a pharmacist before deciding which products to buy. But ultimately, the patient is left to self-medicate at home. Without a traditional prescription in place, there are no hard-and-fast rules for how medical cannabis should be used.
How Rescheduling Impacts State Laws
Although the federal government’s decision to reschedule marijuana is generally seen as good news, it must be understood that rescheduling does not equal full legalization at the federal level. Even on Schedule III, marijuana will remain heavily regulated.
In states like Utah, where medical cannabis is already legal under Utah marijuana laws, it would also become legal – at least for medical purposes. But in states where medical cannabis is still prohibited, nothing would change. Growing, processing, distributing, and possessing medical cannabis would still be illegal.
Such is the case because of language in the U.S. Constitution that gives states significant leeway in regulating things not explicitly mentioned in the nation’s founding document. Medical cannabis is one such thing. Just as states have the legal right to regulate ketamine and anabolic steroids, they also have the right to regulate medical cannabis.
How Rescheduling Impacts Doctors
Rescheduling’s impact on doctors will be profound. Those in states with legal medical cannabis will ultimately be able to write prescriptions. They might not do so immediately, preferring to wait until the FDA comes up with clear guidelines. But prescriptions are coming.
Doctors will also have more input about how their patients use medical cannabis. But due to their lack of training in pharmacology, I personally suspect the doctors will rely more heavily on input from pharmacists.
Rescheduling marijuana opens the door to a host of possibilities. We do not know exactly what the future of medical cannabis holds, but things look good at this point. If nothing else, legitimate medical cannabis prescriptions will come out of this whole thing.
