tHe War on MariJUana in BlacK anD WHite

programs to treat their underlying addiction rather than prosecute them in the criminal
justice system. 72 Even President Richard Nixon’s administration had initially adopted the
popular view at the time that drug abuse was a health problem, and called for education
and scientific research to learn about the dangerousness of drugs. 73
In 1970, the federal government passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and
Control Act of 1970 (1970 Act), which contained provisions that softened the drug laws:
the repeal of mandatory minimums for drug offenses, 74 re-categorization of possession
of a controlled substance as a misdemeanor, and probation for first-time offenders. Title
II of the 1970 Act, which included the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), established five
drug regulation schedules based on their medical values and potentials for addiction.
Schedule I was reserved for the most serious drugs with purported high potential for
abuse, lack of any accepted medical use, and absence of any accepted use or benefits in
medically supervised treatment. Congress noted a lack of scientific study on marijuana
and claimed that further research was necessary to determine its health effects, and
thus temporarily placed marijuana in Schedule I. 75
72 See 42 U.S.C. § 3401:
It is the policy of the Congress that certain persons charged with or convicted of violating Federal criminal laws, who are
determined to be addicted to narcotic drugs, and likely to be rehabilitated through treatment, should, in lieu of prosecution
or sentencing, be civilly committed for confinement and treatment designed to effect their restoration to health, and return
to society as useful members. It is the further policy of the Congress that certain persons addicted to narcotic drugs who
are not charged with the commission of any offense should be afforded the opportunity, through civil commitment, for
treatment, in order that they may be rehabilitated and returned to society as useful members and in order that society may
be protected more effectively from crime and delinquency which result from narcotic addiction.
Id.
73 See Richard Nixon: Special Message to the Congress on Control of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, <strong>tHe</strong> AMericAn PresiDencY ProJect
(July 14, 1969), available at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=2126&st=&st1.
74 Federal mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses were first introduced by the Boggs Act of 1951. See U.s. sentencing
coMM’n, rePort on cocAine AnD feD. sentencing Pol’Y (2007) [hereinafter rePort on cocAine AnD feD. sentencing Pol’Y], available at http://www.
ussc.gov/Legislative_and_Public_Affairs/Congressional_Testimony_and_Reports/Drug_Topics/199502_RtC_Cocaine_Sentencing_
Policy/CHAP6.HTM. Two decades later, Congress overhauled federal drug policy, repealing the Act with the Comprehensive Drug Abuse
Prevention and Control Act of 1970. Congress members “expressed a general concern that ‘increasingly longer sentences that had
been legislated in the past had not shown the expected overall reduction in drug law violations.’” Id. (citing S. Rep. No. 613, 91st Cong.,
1st Sess. (Dec. 16, 1969)). The Act of 1970 illustrates the government’s shift away from overly punitive drug laws toward a rehabilitative
approach.
75 Ironically, future research about marijuana’s medical benefits has been limited precisely because of its categorization as a
Schedule I drug. Researchers must obtain a special license from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to conduct research and gain
access to supply, which is controlled by the National Institutes of Drug Abuse (NIDA). Rep. Earl Blumenauer & Rep. Jared Polis, The
Path Forward: Rethinking Federal Marijuana Policy 12 (2013), available at http://polis.house.gov/uploadedfiles/the_path_forward.pdf. To
this day, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug, meaning that the federal government considers it as having a higher potential for abuse
than cocaine, a Schedule II drug, and as high a potential for abuse as heroin and LSD. This categorization continues to be criticized as
having no scientific basis:
Based on evidence currently available the Schedule I classification is not tenable; it is not accurate that cannabis has no
medical value, or that information on safety is lacking. It is true cannabis has some abuse potential, but its profile more
closely resembles drugs in Schedule III (where codeine and dronabinol are listed). The continuing conflict between scientific
evidence and political ideology will hopefully be reconciled in a judicious manner.
Igor Grant et al., Medical Marijuana: Clearing Away the Smoke, 6 <strong>tHe</strong> oPen neUrologY J. 18, 24 (2012), available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/pmc/articles/PMC3358713/pdf/TONEUJ-6-18.pdf.
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