Why Drug Laws Are So Complex

Drug laws tend to be both complicated and harmful in unintended ways. It’s often difficult for laypeople to understand exactly which drugs are legal or illegal, exactly which circumstances in which drugs are allowed, and the motivations for making those drugs illegal in the first place.

For example, despite being measurably less dangerous than alcohol (a legal substance), cannabis has been federally restricted for many decades, and it’s only recently that cannabis-derived products like CBD oil have become legal. Cannabis is also gradually becoming legalized at the state level in many areas of the country.

Why are drug laws so complex, and what are the consequences of this complexity?

Antiquated Standards

Many of today’s drug laws are rooted in the Controlled Substances Act, a piece of legislation that emerged in 1970—more than 50 years ago. This act classified drugs into 5 different schedules, with lower-numbered substances being considered more dangerous and therefore more highly restricted. Schedule I drugs, for example, are considered to be drugs with a high potential for abuse, those with no accepted medical use, and with a lack of accepted forms of safe use for the drug.

Many of the scheduled drugs in this system are miscategorized based on antiquated standards and beliefs. Cannabis, for example, is still considered a Schedule I drug by the DEA, despite having little to no addictive potential and plenty of accepted medical uses.

On top of that, the scheduling system is too binary and overly regimented, given our current understanding of how drugs work. Psychoactive substances tend to have a cascade of different mental and physical effects, and their effectiveness and safety depend heavily on things like personal tolerance, dosages, combinations of different substances, genetics, and environmental factors. Strictly categorizing a drug into one tier or another is an outdated mode of consideration.

Limited Knowledge

There’s also a problem with a lack of knowledge on how these substances work. When drugs are both illegal and vilified, it’s hard to get approval to study them in a controlled environment. Accordingly, it becomes hard for scientists and medical professionals to adequately dispel the myths and misconceptions that keep many drugs in “illegal” status.

With a limited scientific understanding of how these drugs affect human health (and how they could be used), legislation often becomes rooted in personal opinions and public perceptions—and it becomes ridiculously difficult to change.

Layers of Legislation

Over the years, many laws and amendments have been passed to modify the legal status of various substances. For example, the Farm Bill of 2018 federally legalized the production and use of hemp (provided it doesn’t contain more than 0.3 percent of THC). Until this time, federal law made no differentiation between hemp and other cannabis plants. Cannabis and hemp have been regulated in different forms at the federal level ever since 1937, with the Marihuana Tax Act, so there are many competing legal codes and references to consider.

Local Differences

On top of that, laws tend to vary significantly between different areas. Though cannabis is federally illegal, many states have legalized the drug for both medicinal and recreational use. Additionally, different states have different laws regarding the manufacture, sale, use, and trade of drugs, and people may face very different penalties depending on where they live.

The Consequences of Complex Drug Laws

Drug laws that are unnecessarily restrictive, complex, and arbitrary have a wide variety of consequences:

• Disproportionate punishments for the poor. The war on drugs has disproportionately affected poor and struggling communities. Low-income communities are more heavily policed, and drug users are more likely to be arrested. On top of that, poor defendants can’t afford to hire a good lawyer, and often face harsher sentences than their wealthier counterparts.
• Higher legal and incarceration costs. Many people end up in jail for recreationally using mild substances—despite posing no danger to themselves or the people around them. Higher incarceration rates mean destabilized families and higher incarceration costs for taxpayers.
• Ill-informed citizens. When laws are too complex, the general public doesn’t bother to try and learn them. This leads citizens to be ill-informed of the real dangers of drugs, and ignorant of laws they may be breaking.
• Inaccessible therapeutics. Many drugs have a potential therapeutic benefit, but restrictive laws prevent those positive effects from being explored and better understood.

In some cases, the motivations for creating drug laws are admirable; legislators could genuinely be interested in protecting human health and reducing the prevalence of tragedies like overdoses and addictions. However, overly complex drug laws often do more harm than good. Would it be better to legalize the majority of drugs? That’s debatable. But it stands to reason that at minimum, we should strive for a simpler, more straightforward legal system.