The Issue
Official Petition to the Presidency, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services and the United States Congress.
Launched by:
Compassion Center (Est. 2001) → 25 years of Federally recognized patient care delivery, to over 15,000 U.S. patients; ∞ the oldest Federally recognized cannabis patient care delivery → currently operating in 18 States
In partnership with: Stormy Ray Cardholders’ Foundation, Cannalogix Foundation Research Institute (CFRI), Integrative Providers Association (IPA), Center for Incubation & Findings Research (CIFR), Coalition for Patient Rights, and Pardon Me Please.
The fight for cannabis legalization has been an arduous journey, one filled with advocacy, protests, and hope for change. However, the proposed shift of cannabis to Schedule III within the Controlled Substances Act poses a new threat. This change is deeply personal to me as it's not about forward progress but a step backward into the shadowy realms of criminalization, and inflating black markets. Rather than decriminalizing, this reclassification risks continuing the unjust penal system's targeting of ordinary citizens who merely choose a plant more benign than many legal substances.
Cannabis, historically stigmatized by arcane laws and stigmas, has proven time and again to offer significant medical benefits. According to multiple studies, including research housed within the National Institute on Drug Abuse, cannabis exhibits efficacy in treating chronic pain, epilepsy, and even certain mental health conditions. Yet, these potential life-improving benefits risk being overshadowed by the implications of a Schedule III classification that still associates cannabis with harmful drugs necessitating access only through licensed providers, and current prescriptions, delivered by a pharmacy; and control by the criminal justice system.
Furthermore, reclassifying cannabis as a Schedule III drug doesn't acknowledge the broad shift in societal attitudes nor the legalization momentum across many states. In states where cannabis is legalized, tax revenues have augmented economies, and incarceration rates for minor drug offenses have dropped, allowing for a more just and equitable society. This is progress worth preserving, not reversing.
Given the evidence available and the changing public perspective, it's clear that removing cannabis entirely from the Controlled Substances Act, rather than rescheduling it, aligns with an evidence-based and progressive approach. Doing so will allow for greater research opportunities, medicinal benefits, and an equitable legal system, that does not criminalize citizens already accustomed to accepted easy public access; and social use.
I urge policymakers to consider the countless lives impacted by this plant and to listen to the many voices calling for its complete decriminalization; schedule control of level III will criminalize all without a current prescription, to a plant, not a drug.
Backed by several organizations with multiple decades of fearless frontline service to patients and patient care— Compassion Center, which is the oldest, federally-recognized nonprofit medical cannabis clinic system still in existence; the Stormy Ray Cardholders’ Foundation, the nonprofit organization that took the lead to pioneer and pass the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act in ‘98 as well as their autonomous research extension, Cannalogix Foundation Research Institute (CFRI) in addition to the Integrative Providers Association, an organization representing over 14,000,000 licensed medical professionals, the Center for Incubation & Findings Research (CIFR), the Coalition for Patient Rights (CPR) and Pardon Me Please—we call upon every American who values medical freedom, bodily autonomy, and truth in policy to rise up and sign our petition to deschedule cannabis.
SIGN this petition. SHARE with your community. Deschedule For Patients Rights Now!
Click here to see the the Schedule III proposed rule change.
