The Office of National Drug Policy (ONDCP) director Dr. Rahul Gupta, often referred to as President Joe Biden’s appointed “drug czar,” spoke about the ongoing discussion of rescheduling cannabis.

In a recent interview with Star Tribune on May 24, which was originally featured in the news outlet’s free email newsletter, the first question inquired about Gupta’s “main takeaway” in regard to federal rescheduling. “We’ve had a policy for over half a century where so many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana,” Gupta responded. “We’ve had so many people arrested, prosecuted and incarcerated. We know white, Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, but Black and brown incarceration rates are higher.”

He cited Biden’s October 2022 announcement to pursue pardoning cannabis offenses and instructing the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department (of Health and Human Services (HHS) to review the current schedule category that cannabis is positioned in. Now that request has been acted upon through the HHS in August 2023, with more recent moves suggesting progress within the Drug Enforcement Administration as well, Gupta commented on the importance of what happens next. “This is going to be really important to remove barriers to critical research and perhaps drug development, and it could also lead to more research into the benefits of medical marijuana,” he said. “Clearly this decision is going to have a historic and long-lasting impact.”

When asked if Gupta could offer clarity in how federal law enforcement will alter their prioritization of cannabis, he referred to other substances that are included in the Schedule III classification and thus have much lower priority, such as Tylenol with codeine and testosterone. “It will have an impact on racial disparity, incarceration and prosecutions,” he said. “And whether in Massachusetts or West Virginia or Texas, Americans should be able to get treatment for their condition.”

It’s important to note the differences between rescheduling cannabis and federally legalizing cannabis. Rescheduling cannabis doesn’t include approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which means that it can still lead to cannabis-related prosecution. Furthermore, the status of cannabis as a federally illegal substance means that incarcerations and prosecutions will continue if or when cannabis is rescheduled to a Schedule III substance.

In another interview between WGCU and Gupta published on May 20, he suggested that Schedule I substances have no approved medical use, but anything categorized between Schedule II-V “can be prescribed when appropriate by a licensed provider who has a DEA registration…” However, the FDA hasn’t approved cannabis as a medicine overall, just a few exceptions with drugs derived from cannabis.

The Star Tribune subject shifted to the topic of banking, but preferred to refer the question to others involved more closely in that discussion. “We do know the drugs that are Schedule III are in legitimate interstate commerce within the federal system. I’ll leave it to others to talk about the commercial process,” he said. “The focus for the president has been making sure Americans are able to get the help they need no matter where they live, and on the other side making sure we’re not [harming] people.”

One of the final questions in the interview asked that if a new president is elected later this year, how this entire process of rescheduling could be paused, canceled, or reversed. “The president has given the opportunity to Congress to take action; he did because he could wait no longer,” Gupta said. “The independent reviews of these agencies followed established processes and procedures in getting to this result. That process is driven through science. I can’t provide any hypothetical answers to what may happen. This is a change that is driven by policy, by science, by data, regardless of the political process.”

He concluded the interview by restating how the president is following through with his promise to help the people avoid being incarcerated. “The president has been very consistent: No one should be in jail for using or possessing marijuana,” Gupta said. “These steps to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III is a policy that is consistent with science in the 21st century.”

Former ONDCP director Gil Kerlikowske, who served under former President Barack Obama between 2009-2014, recently spoke on the podcast Sagely Speaking with Mary Bono on May 13. Kerlikowske’s response to Biden’s approach to rescheduling cannabis was more negative. “It’s not medicine. This is all Big Cannabis,” Kerlikowske said. “This isn’t people my age that are just old hippies that want to open up a pot shop somewhere. This is a huge business like Big Tobacco. Absolutely.”

He explained that the HHS decided not to reschedule cannabis due to no evidence of health three years ago, but now has changed its tune, with the DOJ expected to follow suit. Later on in the discussion, Kerlikowske compared the rise of cannabis to the rise of Big Tobacco.

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The first doctor to hold the position of Director of the Office of National Drug Policy, Dr. Rahul Gupta, recently spoke with the Financial Times about how they plan to address the ongoing opioid crisis. “For the first time in history, the federal government is embracing the specific policies of harm reduction,” Gupta said.

Over 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Two thirds of those deaths were attributed to Fentanyl overdoses.

In May, the Biden Administration announced that it would be providing $1.5 billion to a State Opioid Response grant funding opportunity (a follow-up to President Biden’s promise in his State of the Union).

“At this time, less than one out of 10 people in the United States who need addiction care get it. That is why, President Biden released a National Drug Control Strategy to beat the overdose epidemic by going after its drivers: untreated addiction and drug trafficking,” Gupta said in May. “Today we are delivering on key parts of our Strategy through this new funding, which will expand access to treatment for substance use disorder and prevent overdoses, while we also work to reduce the supply of illicit drugs in our communities and dismantle drug trafficking.”

Harm reduction policies and monitoring policies have been implemented in some regions of Europe and Australia, but progress in the U.S. is hindered by legislators who believe it would only promote drug abuse and access.

While the country’s first two supervised drug-injection sites opened in New York in November 2021 to help prevent overdoses, an Appellate Court stated in January that these sites are illegal under Federal law. “The Department supports efforts to curb the opioid crisis ravaging this country, but injection sites are not the solution,” said Acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen. “There are more productive ways to address drug abuse, and today’s ruling by the Third Circuit has confirmed that these sites are illegal and therefore not the answer.”

According to Gupta, the solution of whether or not these injection sites should be shut down would be based on “science, data, and evidence available.” Furthermore, he believes that science will also drive the White House’s approach to cannabis legalization. “We’re learning from those states [with legalization]. We’re monitoring the data and trying to see where things go. But one thing is very clear, and the president has been clear about that. The policies that we’ve had around marijuana have not been working,” Gupta said.

Prior to his appointment to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gupta was an advisor to a multi-state cannabis operator called Holistic Industries (the same company that produces the Jerry Garcia cannabis brand, Garcia Hand Picked.)

In a testimony published on June 15, Gupta expressed the importance of action. “Every life is precious and worth saving,” Gupta wrote. “If this Strategy is implemented as intended, we could save 164,000 lives over the next three years, and help tens of millions of people get into treatment and on the path to recovery. The President and I are committed to seeing this through because American lives depend on it.”

Although President Biden said he was supportive of medical cannabis, he has not taken any action toward legalization. However, he did sign an infrastructure bill in November 2021 to allow researchers to use commercial cannabis, rather than government-grown cannabis, when conducting studies. Most recently, Biden declared methamphetamine as an “emerging drug threat.”

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