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As He Leaves Office, Holder Open to Rescheduling Marijuana
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says that marijuana’s classification alongside heroin as a Schedule I drug under federal law should be reconsidered.
In an interview with Yahoo’s Katie Couric, Holder said, “the question of whether or not they should be in the same category is something that I think we need to ask ourselves, and use science as the basis for making that determination.”
Holder, who is planning to announce his resignation as attorney general, has led the Obama administration’s evolving response to state-level marijuana reforms. During President Obama’s first term, Holder oversaw the federal shuttering of more state-legal medical marijuana providers than were closed by the George W. Bush administration’s Justice Department over two terms.
He also campaigned, just days before Election Day, against a 2010 measure that would have made California the first state to legalize marijuana. During the 2012 cycle, however, the Obama administration was virtually silent about legalization measures that appeared alongside the president’s reelection effort on ballots in Colorado and Washington State.
Following the strong passage of those initiatives, over the course of Obama’s second term Holder’s Justice Department has taken a largely hands-off approach to state-level marijuana reforms, even going so far as to issue specific criteria that, if abided by, would help to avoid federal interference.
Holder’s new remarks, on rescheduling, are the farthest he’s gone yet in saying that federal law should be reevaluated.
The federal government has been petitioned several times to reschedule marijuana over the past few decades, but has decided against a reclassification in every case. One rescheduling petition, however, filed by two state governors, is still pending.
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