CASE Director, Epidemiologist Applauds Government Proposal to Reclassify Marijuana

Published: May 23, 2024

Denise Vidot, Ph.D

The federal government recently initiated the formal rulemaking process to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I—listed on a par with heroin, cocaine, LSD, and a cache of other banned substances—to Schedule III. The move, another step in the process endorsed last year by the Department of Health and Human Services and proposed last month by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), recognizes the plant’s medicinal value.

“For 50 years—a really long time—cannabis has been sitting right next to heroin [in terms of policy], so now we’re grateful to move away from that and get more into the medicinal potential,” said Denise Vidot, an associate professor in the School of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Miami.

Vidot, a cannabis and psychedelics epidemiologist certified in cannabis patient care and director of community and stakeholder engagement at the University’s Clinical Translational Science Institute, highlighted that “we’ve had decades of research” documenting cannabis’s medicinal value but societal stigmas have lingered, stemming any policy shifts.

This article was originally published by the South Florida Hospital News and Healthcare Report. To read more, click here.