There are so many fronts in the war for marijuana legalization that it’s an arduous task to monitor all of them, yet the job has never been more important. And Last month, the Drug Enforcement Administration stealthy over-stepped its boundaries (again) and advanced its prohibitionist agenda. The mainstream media failed to report this, and it was through Technical 420’s own careful review of recently amended DEA codes that this was uncovered.
In October of 2016, the Cannabis Community was sent in to an uproar when the Department of Justice’s Drug Enforcement Administration tried to make CBD Oil’s illegal by redefining what constituted as marijuana extract under the “Final Rule establishing a new Controlled Substance Code Number (drug code) for marijuana extract”. You can read it here: https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/fed_regs/rules/2016/fr1214.htm
The important part of the code can be found under ‘Final Action’ where it states: “Meaning an extract containing one or more cannabinoids that has been derived from any plant of the genus Cannabis, other than the separated resin (whether crude or purified) obtained from the plant.”
Essentially, last October, the DEA tried to categorize any extract from any part of the marijuana plant as a schedule one substance. This excluded extracts from resin or seeds, however, any other extract was a schedule 1 narcotic regardless of THC content.
Private companies, non-profits, and advocacy groups struck back with lawsuits claiming the law was over-reaching. And it seemed that the DEA backed off, and the cannabis community sighed a breath of relief.
However, sometime last month, the DEA quietly and unannounced posted an amendment to the code. The mainstream media, and even most CBD manufacturers, failed to pick it up this new posturing from the DEA. You can read it in full here:
https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/schedules/marijuana/m_extract_7350.html
Under the “Clarification of the New Drug Code (7350) for Marijuana Extract” the definition of marijuana extract changes. While they do make changes to better structure their own legal grounds on the definition of what is marijuana extract, the important part of this updated code is that now anything extracted from marijuana is also included as a schedule one substance.
Just to highlight how absurd this is, consider that you can extract pure omega fatty acids from cannabis resin. No cannabinoids, no THC, just Omega (like 3, 6, & 9) Fatty Acids. The DEA literally just claimed that Omega Fatty Acids are a schedule 1 controlled substance when extracted from cannabis. Enough said.
To be as clear as their new rule is: Anybody selling CBD oil is now undoubtedly and unequivocally selling a schedule 1 substance. Seeds, while still not included in the code, are the only part of the cannabis plant that cannot produce quality CBD oils, just hemp oil.
It now is clear that their goal is to strengthen their positioning in their upcoming court battles over CBD’s scheduling classification. The updated code attempts to redefine CBD to include extracts and attempts to skirt around most of the legal claims of law suits already in the courts dockets. It’s an incredibly unethical and corrupt move.
Not to mention, these codes do not come from elected officials, but rather from bureaucratic actions that do not represent the American people. We will, of course, be keeping an eye on this latest development very closely.
Authored By: Jason Spatafora
