A decade ago, marijuana advocates filed a petition with the DEA to lower the drug classification of marijuana from schedule I (the highest) to III, IV, or V. They finally got around to ruling, and it isn't good. Flying in the face of extensive research to the contrary, the DEA ruled about how you would expect from an organization whose very existence hinges on marijuana's illegality. Read on to find out something that will make you angry--if you didn't know about it already.
The DEA ruled “that marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no accepted medical use in the United States, and lacks an acceptable level of safety for use even under medical supervision.
An acceptable level of safety?! What?! Even the most paranoid weed smokers I know can identify it's pretty safe, simply on the premise that paranoia breeds safety first behavior. And that's the paranoid ones!
16 States plus the District of Columbia have instituted medical marijuana legislation, and rather than rising crime rates in those states, crime has decreased!!!!
That same week, from Americans for Safe Access:
The denial also comes the same week as the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) is holding its 21st annual symposium in St. Charles, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. The symposium is sponsored in part by an array of pharmaceutical companies, the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and ElSohly Laboratories, Inc., the federal government’s only licensed source of research-grade cannabis (marijuana) used in therapeutic studies. Currently, several pharmaceutical companies are asking the government to reschedule organically produced THC, the primary compound found in the marijuana plant, so they can sell a generic version of Marinol, which is now made synthetically.
“The government cannot have it both ways, marijuana is either a medicine or it’s not,” said ASA Executive Director Steph Sherer. “If the government is going to sponsor a conference on medical marijuana, it should show the same deference to the millions of patients across America who simply want access to it.” ASA and its grassroots patient base has been urging President Obama since he took office to develop a comprehensive federal policy that would address medical marijuana as a public health issue.
I'm writing about this late, but really, you've probably already heard, and the hypocrisy and corruption in the DEA, and the federal legislation in place makes me want to give Obama a slide-show presentation, and probably smack some of the conservatives that are legislating on this topic while their teenage kids are smoking herb on the regular, and other kids are dieing from speed production in the Midwest.
A Zach De La Rocha KRS-One Black Emperor song comes to mind, which does a better job explaining why this pisses me and many others off. Fuck you DEA!
It may be true o not that marijuana may have medical value. Still it's hard to rely on something that we already seen what it can do to a person.
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