Schedule 3: It’s Complicated

Before starting THC Group, I thought long and hard about what it was that I wanted to do with my career, and frankly, my life. I promise all of this will make sense at some point and I’ll get to your Schedule 3 content. I became a lawyer because I love policy. I began a career in politics because I love policy. I was drawn to cannabis because I love policy - especially thorny, sticky, and complex policy. I also love to write. I don’t exactly have the patience or organization to write a full-scale book, and I definitely don’t have the patience to teach or go into academia - too much structure. But I love to write.

So, my thought is, from time to time I’d like to share my thoughts on thorny and interesting policy matters. They could be about things I am working on that I want to talk about. They could be topics that I hear about and find myself digging further into for no particular reason. The things that you might see on the news, or throughout your social media feed, or that talking heads might be discussing on their podcasts or segments. The type of thing that everyone seems to have a take on, the things you might see debated on social media comment sections. (An example of that? Remember when President Trump was obsessed with water pressure and shower heads and tried to direct the EPA to amend regulations? I spent a lot of time down that rabbit hole - I have thoughts) I’ll do my homework and hopefully be able to add value to your own thinking. If you want me to dig deeper…hey, maybe that is what my business is for! Contact Us Today!

Ideally, that is what I’d like to see THC Group become. I don’t want to be a non-profit, fundraising think tank. Or even a research firm-for-hire necessarily. There are plenty of those doing really quality work. If you want to bat around a policy idea or concept, and think about how your business might navigate that issue, survive it, or hopefully capitalize on it, I’d love to talk to you. I’d love to work with you. I may even have interesting business concepts myself, it is just a matter of connecting the right people. That is the work that inspires me. That inspiration may sometimes find its way to this format from time to time.

So Schedule 3…what about it?

Well, the good is that it will have a beneficial impact on cannabis research. I’m not talking the type of research you see in ballot campaigns across the country, or happening in your local State House. “It is a gateway drug!” “It is a miracle drug!” No - I mean scientific, peer-reviewed, well-funded research that moves the needle on A LOT of important policies. Health care? Yes, absolutely. Health insurance? Potentially, yes. Agriculture!

Agriculture? Huh? Why agriculture? Pesticides! We always think of cannabis as the product - flower, edibles, wax, tincture, topical, vape…you get it. But cannabis is oftentimes just an ingredient in some of those products. As an ingredient, it is grown in bulk and processed. Growing it wouldn’t be all that complicated if you could grow it like you grow anything else. You could certainly choose to apply nothing to your plants - no fertilizers, sprays, growth hormones, etc. You could also choose to give your garden at home a little boost to grow those tomatoes faster and bigger. Or apply a spray to keep the bugs away. Not with cannabis. Can’t use any of those things. Why? Because the label is the law and nothing is approved for use on cannabis. Why? Because according to the federal government, you can’t legally grow cannabis, so why would they approve things for use on cannabis? Also, cannabis can be combusted, inhaled, ingested, applied topically, taken orally…the list goes on. So how does that chemical interact or chemically alter when that plant is transformed into that new form? So yeah, hopefully some agricultural research can advance, too. Hemp has helped on that front, so rescheduling should help, too. Maybe someday soon enough we can admit that hemp and cannabis are only legally different, not botanically different.

Schedule 3 will undoubtedly be good for health care and especially for medical patients. For as long as medical programs have existed they’ve been largely ignored by traditional health care systems. That has forced medical cannabis patients to carry the burden of “admitting” that they’re using cannabis for medicinal purposes. It doesn’t automatically show up on your electronic medical record. You may not know how your other medications interact with cannabis. Your doctor may not know that your new prescription isn’t as effective because you’re using cannabis medicinally. Schedule 3 should do a lot to normalize medical cannabis and allow for some of these siloed providers to actually acknowledge one another and finally work together. Cancer patients should be able to use medical cannabis for pain, appetite, and other ailments. Pardon the progression, but assisted living facilities, nursing homes, end-of-life and hospice care should be able to use cannabis therapeutically as a substitute for humane pain management and other benefits. Schedule 3 has the potential to improve our quality of life. Don’t discount that.

There are plenty more benefits. 280E for instance. That should be an entirely separate blog post, honestly. Want me to dig even deeper on this for you? I’d love to, and THC Group would love to for you!

So what am I skeptical about? Banking. Legalization. Equity. Who has oversight?

Let's establish something. Schedule 3 is not legalization. It is rescheduling, but still controlled. You’d not be able to purchase over the counter. Why does that matter? Medical dispensaries are not pharmacies, and they’re not retail stores. Pharmacists dispense medicine. Under Schedule 3, pharmacists dispense those medicines after a provider writes a prescription. Retail stores sell items, including over the counter drugs. Think of the Hudson News at the airport - you can buy a book, Swedish fish, a bottle of water, and the travel pack of Benadryl for your allergies. Not cannabis, though. That would still be the case with Schedule 3.

Does that matter? If you’re participating in the adult-use (or as you may know it, recreational) market, I’d have a lot of questions right now. I’d be forecasting what the future looks like for me - where do we go next? What do our adult-use regulators think of this approach? What are they telling the federal government, or their Congressional members? Give me a call. I can help with that!

So how do banks react to that? Medical has been protected for some time through Congressional policy. So banks were always more comfortable banking medical companies. That’ll continue. Banks are gradually getting comfortable with adult-use, that should continue, as any forward progress federally is an encouraging sign. But that doesn’t make it legal. That is something I would keep my eye on. Same for credit card companies and payment processors.

What about equity? What is equity? Rescheduling has a significant and heavy medical focus. The research that will stem from that will be formal, heavily bureaucratic, and very prescribed. Many smart folks will write white papers, academic journals, medical journals, law review articles, and they’ll sit on panels and give keynotes at rubber chicken conference lunches. That is what medical cannabis likely becomes.

Cannabis hasn’t lived in a vacuum just because it has been illegal, or classified as Schedule 1, though. That illegality created an entire culture, not-so underground economy, and for too many people, criminal records. Black and Brown folks, in particular. Rescheduling does not acknowledge that very real, very lived experience for folks. It ignores the War on Drugs and the impact it had on communities, neighborhoods, families, and our history with race and demographics in this country. It does not restore any trust or confidence in government institutions amongst those communities. The sad irony is the relationship to banking, too. Another set of institutions with a shameful history with respect to Black and Brown families and communities.

What I’m getting at is that the impact of Schedule 3 really depends on your history with cannabis. If it is the drug that someone recently suggested you try for your trouble sleeping and you paid a visit to your local dispensary and got some bedtime gummies - maybe a 1:1 CBN/THC treat? Schedule 3 could be good for you. Maybe soon enough you can get that alongside your cholesterol pills and just pay your co-pay. I doubt your CVS or Walgreens will have a “vibe” to it, though.

But, alternatively, if your experience in cannabis began as a means to a better end? If it traces back to a mistake you made in high school, or that maybe a parent made during their own high school years? If that mistake cost you something, like a scholarship, or even admission? Or a job? Or your path to the armed services? Your ability to vote? Access to housing and other programs and services that are supposed to “help” people? Your liberty. Your freedom. I imagine you have feelings about today’s announcement. I doubt you’re celebrating. I doubt you’d consider it an adequate response to that very real trauma the War on Drugs inflicted.

Please understand, that doesn’t mean that Schedule 3 is a bad thing. Not at all. Schedule 3 can certainly be defined as progress in most circles. Medical progress is good. It is necessary. Medical progress is not social progress, though. And medical progress is not capable of erasing the past. On that front, we have plenty more to do, and I hope those that have advocated for the cannabis plant, and those that have pushed for political and social change around the plant, continue to find success as well. I also hope they continue to find, persuade, or elect political leaders that understand the difference between the two.

One point in particular that I want to make, because I think sometimes we mistakenly anonymize, then vilify, our bureaucrats. Please don’t do that. I personally know many of the policymakers and regulators throughout the cannabis space. Those bureaucrats. Most within state and local government, but some within the federal government, too. They’re some of the most dedicated, thoughtful, and smartest people that I’ve ever met, never mind worked with. On that front, I’m generally confident.

There are plenty of other thoughts to go along with today’s Schedule 3 announcement (interstate commerce, lab testing, “no” states, “not yet” states, halfway there states, universal symbols, packaging, labeling, organic…). If you read this and appreciated it, let me know that this experiment might be worth pursuing. I won’t spam your inbox, but maybe I’ll visit it from time to time. I also reserve the right to be wrong, and would welcome the chance to be corrected or learn. If you think I’m off on something, drop me an email and let me know. I’ll probably respond. Maybe that is how I think THC Group can be different over time - I think we all could use a little dose of humility now and then. That said, truly, if you think I could contribute in some way to the success of your business, your venture, your research, or your project, I do hope you’ll reach out. I’d love to learn about what you’re doing, and I’d be even more excited to help in some way.