States Newsroom turned to Strategies 64 partner Mason Tvert for his thoughts on the federal rescheduling process. A story syndicated by outlets around the country included Mason’s take on the proposal to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III and the rulemaking process that is currently underway.
In a proposed rule published in the Federal Register last month, the DEA specifically asked commenters to weigh in on the economic impacts of moving the drug from Schedule I to the less-restrictive Schedule III list under the federal Controlled Substances Act.
That will likely mean the agency will consider the impact of allowing state-legal marijuana businesses to deduct business expenses from their federal taxes, Mason Tvert, a partner at Denver-based cannabis policy and public affairs firm Strategies 64, said in an interview. Under current law, no deductions are allowed.
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The DEA typically looks at three factors when assessing how strictly to regulate a drug: its medicinal value, potential for abuse relative to other drugs and ability to cause physical addiction.
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Tvert said the accepted medical value question is likely not to be a major factor in an administrative law hearing. Several medical organizations and states that allow medicinal use have already endorsed its medicinal value, he said.
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“The battleground that we’ll see will be around how we define potential for abuse,” [Tvert] said.
