As the Biden administration moves to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, scientists say the change will lift some of the restrictions on studying the drug.

But the change won’t lift all restrictions, they say, neither will it decrease potential risks of the drug or help users better understand what those risks are.

Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, which is defined as a substance with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. The Biden administration proposed this week to classify cannabis as a Schedule III controlled substance, a category that acknowledges it has some medical benefits.

The current Schedule I status imposes many regulations and restrictions on scientists’ ability to study weed, even as state laws have made it increasingly available to the public.

“Cannabis as a Schedule I substance is associated with a number of very, very restrictive regulations,” says neuroscientist Staci Gruber at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “You have very stringent requirements, for example, for storage and security and reporting all of these things.”

These requirements are set by the Food and Drug Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Institutional Review Board and local authorities, she says. Scientists interested in studying the drug also have to register with the DEA and get a state and federal license to conduct research on the drug.

“It’s a burdensome process and it is certainly a process that has prevented a number of young and rather invested researchers from pursuing [this kind of work],” says Gruber.

Reclassifying the drug as Schedule III puts it in the same category as ketamine and Tylenol with codeine. Substances in this category have accepted medical use in the United States, have less potential for abuse than in higher categories and abuse could lead to low to moderate levels of dependence on the drug.

This reclassification is “a very, very big paradigm shift,” says Gruber. “I think that has a big trickle down effect in terms of the perspectives and the attitudes with regard to the actual sort of differences between studying Schedule III versus Schedule I substances.”

Gruber welcomes the change, particularly for what it will mean for younger colleagues. “For researchers who are looking to get into the game, it will be easier. You don’t have to have a Schedule I license,” she says. “That’s a big deal.”

The rescheduling of cannabis will also “translate to more research on the benefits and risks of cannabis for the treatment of medical conditions,” writes Dr. Andrew Monte in an email. He is associate director of Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety and an emergency physician and toxicologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

“This will also help improve the quality of the research since more researchers will be able to contribute,” he adds.

But the change in classification won’t significantly expand the number of sources for the drug for researchers, says Gruber. For 50 years, researchers were allowed to use cannabis from only one source – a facility at the University of Mississippi. Then, in 2021, the DEA started to add a few more companies to that listof approved sources for medical and scientific research.

While she expects more sources to be added in time, she and many of the researchers she knows have yet to benefit from the recently added sources, as most have limited products available.

“And what we haven’t seen is any ability for researchers –cannabis researchers, clinical researchers – to have the ability to study products that our patients and our recreational consumers or adult consumers are actually using,” she adds. “That remains impossible.”

There is very little known information about what is in cannabis products on the market today. Some studies show that the level of THC, the main intoxicant in marijuana, being sold to consumers today is significantly higher than what was available decades ago, and high THC levels are known to pose more health risks.

And Monte cautions that the reclassification itself doesn’t mean that cannabis has no health risks. Monte and his colleagues have been documentingsome of those risks in Colorado by studying people who show up in the emergency room after consuming cannabis. Intoxication and cyclical vomiting (cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome) and alarming psychiatric symptoms such as psychosis are among the top problems bringing some marijuana users to the hospital.

Research on cannabis has been lacking surveillance of these kinds of impacts for decades, he says. And rescheduling the drug will not fill that “gaping hole in risk surveillance,” he writes.

Copyright 2024 NPR

The South Carolina baseball travels to Missouri this weekend for a three-game SEC series. Here is everything you need to watch and listen to the games, plus start times, pitching, weather, and odds.

Information last updated Friday, May 3 at 8 a.m.

[PREDICT & WIN: South Carolina-Missouri series]

South Carolina-Missouri Game 1

• Date/Time: Friday, May 3, 7 p.m. ET
• Television: None
• Streaming video: SEC Network+ (verified TV provider required) with Nate Gatter, Noah Reed
• Radio: Gamecock Radio Network with Derek Scott, Stuart Lake; pregame at 6:45 p.m.
• Streaming audio: Learfield and the South Carolina Gamecocks app (Apple, Google)
• Weather: Partly cloudy, with a low around 60. East wind 6 to 8 mph.
• Odds: South Carolina is a moneyline favorite of -200.

[GamecockCentral for $1: In-depth coverage and a great community]

South Carolina-Missouri Game 2

• Date/Time: Saturday, May 4, 4 p.m. ET
• Television: None
• Streaming video: SEC Network+ (verified TV provider required) with Nate Gatter, Noah Reed
• Radio: Gamecock Radio Network with Derek Scott, Stuart Lake; pregame at 3:45 p.m.
• Streaming audio: Learfield and the South Carolina Gamecocks app (Apple, Google)
• Weather: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly between 3-4 p.m. (CT), then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 4 p.m. (CT). Partly sunny, with a high near 78. Southeast wind 7 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
• Odds: Will be released Saturday morning.

South Carolina-Missouri Game 3

• Date/Time: Sunday, May 5, 2 p.m. ET
• Television: None
• Streaming video: SEC Network+ (verified TV provider required) with Nate Gatter, Noah Reed
• Radio: Gamecock Radio Network with Derek Scott, Stuart Lake; pregame at 1:45 p.m.
• Streaming audio: Learfield and the South Carolina Gamecocks app (Apple, Google)
• Weather: A chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 4 p.m. (CT). Partly sunny, with a high near 73. East wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
• Odds: Will be released Sunday morning.

[Newsletters: Get breaking news and analysis from GamecockCentral]

South Carolina-Missouri: Probable starting pitchers

Friday

• South Carolina Roman Kimball (R-So., RHP) 2-1, 4.10 ERA, 26.1 IP, 26 BB, 36 K
• Missouri Logan Lunceford (So. RHP) 1-4, 7.04 ERA, 47.1 IP, 17 BB, 43 K

Saturday

• South Carolina Eli Jones (Jr. RHP) 3-2, 3.91 ERA, 53.0 IP, 15 BB, 44 K
• Missouri Javyn Pimental (Jr. LHP) 2-2, 3.64 ERA, 42.0 IP, 13 BB, 45 K

Sunday

• South Carolina: TBA
• Missouri TBA

Scouting Missouri

• The Tigers come into the weekend with a 20-26 overall record and a 6-15 record in SEC play.
• Missouri is coming off a 13-1 win over Lindenwood on Tuesday night. Matt Garcia had three RBI and Danny Corona had two hits and two RBI in the win.
• Jackson Lovich leads the Tigers with a .293 batting average while Trevor Austin has 10 home runs and 30 RBI this year.
• On the mound, Ryan Magdic has two saves and 29 strikeouts in 22 innings pitched.
• Kerrick Jackson is in his first season in Columbia. He was the head coach at Memphis from 2021-23. He is the first African-American head baseball coach in Southeastern Conference history.
  (Info from USC Media Relations)

[On3 App: Get South Carolina push notifications from GamecockCentral]

South Carolina-Missouri series

• Carolina leads the all-time series with Missouri 20-13 heading into the weekend.
• Last season, the Gamecocks swept the Tigers, winning 9-8 in the opener on a fielder’s choice and throwing error in the bottom of the ninth.
• Ethan Petry’s RBI single in the 12th gave the Gamecocks the sweep in the 5-4 win.
• Carolina is 5-10 all-time against Missouri in CoMo.
  (Info from USC Media Relations)

[PREDICT & WIN: South Carolina-Missouri series]

Gamecock Radio Network: Affiliates for SEC baseball series

• Allendale, 93.5 FM, WDOG
• Camden, 98.7 FM, WCAM
• Camden, 1590 AM, WCAM
• Charleston, 98.9 FM, WTMZ
• Chesterfield, 107.3 FM, WVSZ
• Columbia, 107.5 FM, WNKT (flagship station)
• Florence, 96.3 FM, WOLH
• Florence, 1230 AM, WOLH
• Greenville, 104.9 FM, WROO
• Greenville, 1440 AM, WGVL
• Myrtle Beach, 100.3 FM, WSEA
• Rock Hill/Lancaster, 107.1 FM, WRHM
• Spartanburg, 98.3 FM, WSPG
• Spartanburg, 1400 AM, WSPG
• Waynesboro, 92.9 FM, WYBO

After having played a Top 25 opponent in each of their last six SEC series, Mark Kingston and the South Carolina Gamecocks will finally get to play an easier matchup on paper as they take on the Missouri Tigers, who currently possess the second-worst conference and worst home record in the league. However, this is a series that’s been hyper-competitive in recent years, as four of the last six games between both teams have been decided by three runs or less.

A big reason why Missouri has struggled to this point in the season is this: despite the fact they have the second-most at-bats and fifth-most plate appearances in the SEC this season, they rank dead last or are tied for dead last in nine out of nineteen hitting statistical categories. The Tigers also rank second-to-last in hits allowed and first in hit batters as far as pitching statistics are concerned.

Friday
South Carolina Roman Kimball (R-So., RHP) 2-1, 4.10 ERA, 26.1 IP, 26 BB, 36 K
Missouri Logan Lunceford (So. RHP) 1-4, 7.04 ERA, 47.1 IP, 17 BB, 43 K

Saturday
South Carolina Eli Jones (Jr. RHP) 3-2, 3.91 ERA, 53.0 IP, 15 BB, 44 K
Missouri Javyn Pimental (Jr. LHP) 2-2, 3.64 ERA, 42.0 IP, 13 BB, 45 K

Sunday
South Carolina TBA
Missouri TBA

How To Watch: No. 15 South Carolina At Missouri

• Gamedays: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, May 3rd-5th, 2024
• Venue: Taylor Stadium (Columbia, MO)
• Game time: 7:00 pm ET for Game 1 | 4:00 pm ET for Game 2 | 2:00 PM ET for Game 3
• TV/Streaming: SEC Network Plus for all games
• Live stream on fuboTV: Start with a 7-day free trial!
• Radio: Gamecock Radio Network

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