No link. The plan does not violate drug treaties.

Dozens of marijuana companies and advocacy groups are pushing back against Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) recent claims that the U.S. would be in violation of international drug treaty agreements if it reschedules cannabis to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

In a letter sent to Romney this month, more than 50 organizations said the senator made “inaccurate claims that neither reflect the current state of medical and scientific knowledge about marijuana nor an accurate application of relevant treaties to proposed reforms.”

Signatories—including major marijuana businesses, industry groups, law firms, ancillary businesses and and cannabis advocacy organizations—said in the April 9 letter that they wanted to “correct the record.”

Late last month, Romney and Sens. James Risch (R-ID) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE) sent a letter to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram arguing that rescheduling marijuana—as recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—would put the U.S. out of compliance with international treaty obligations and make it harder to ensure that other countries continue to enforce drug laws, “including for deadly narcotics like fentanyl.”

The new industry and advocacy group response contends that Romney’s understanding of the law is out of date.

“Your letter cites a 1977 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit describing obligations under the Single Convention that would not be met if marijuana were reclassified under schedule III,” it says. “However, in the many years since the court weighed in, the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted to reclassify cannabis in recognition of its medical uses. Moving marijuana to schedule III, as recommended by HHS, simply acknowledges this accepted reality.”

“The U.S. is not required under any applicable Treaty to keep marijuana in schedule I or II under the CSA. So long as certain requirements are met, the drug Treaties provide the U.S. with the flexibility to classify relevant substances based on scientific and medical evidence and in accordance with domestic laws such as the CSA. The U.S. Department of State addressed this in the fall of 2023 during an intersessional meeting of the UN’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs, stating that the Single Convention is primarily focused on drug trafficking and has an international, rather than domestic, focus.”