The Biden administration is moving to reclassify cannabis as a Schedule III drug, which would remove the plant from the "most dangerous" list and recognize that it has medical uses.
Portland attorney Amy Margolis sees the move as a way to get much-needed research on cannabis, but it could also pave the way for big pharmaceutical companies to get involved in the established industry in Oregon.
"They're the ones who will be legally operating if they follow the final rules produced by the FDA and the standard FDA approval and sales process for pharmaceuticals," Margolis says. "It certainly injects a concern that now we have real big pharmaceutical interests involved in the cannabis market."
Margolis runs Margolis Legal, a Portland law firm that works with clients in the cannabis industry. She says this proposal doesn't do what many in the industry have been advocating for; removal of cannabis from the schedule of illegal drugs entirely. "I think it's a remnant of the drug war," she says. "I think it's kind of outdated perspectives on cannabis being a hard drug."
Read more at opb.org