When one ads up the total cost of the bureaucracy that continues to operate the failed War on Drugs initiative and the privately run prison system that incarcerates many whom their only crime was that they were caught smoking a joint, totals almost 60 BILLION per annum, any wonder why those in charge of these programs do not want a change in the categorization of marijuana?
One might also want to consider the fact that the drug companies have yet to find a way to privatize it and make money from a naturally grown product.
I wonder what is going to happen when Canadas legislation to legalize marijuana kicks in in 2017? Paranoia will kick in again and the Republicans will probably change their mind and want to build that wall between Canada and the U.S. after all.
One might also want to consider the fact that the drug companies have yet to find a way to privatize it and make money from a naturally grown product.
I wonder what is going to happen when Canadas legislation to legalize marijuana kicks in in 2017? Paranoia will kick in again and the Republicans will probably change their mind and want to build that wall between Canada and the U.S. after all.
29
I don't think there should be a food chain mentality when it comes to drugs. At the the very top you have prescription drugs, then marijuana, etc.,etc., until you get to heroin, crack and meth at the bottom. Of course in the middle is alcohol, but we don't dare talk about that lest we cut into the profit of clubs, stores, and restaurants.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but anything that alters your consciousness is a drug and is not good for you. And I know plenty of pot smokers who are addicted, maybe not like heroin and meth users, but they are addicted. And they don't feel normal unless they get their "fix" just like all other addicts.
I'm a substance abuse counselor. So I speak from experience.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but anything that alters your consciousness is a drug and is not good for you. And I know plenty of pot smokers who are addicted, maybe not like heroin and meth users, but they are addicted. And they don't feel normal unless they get their "fix" just like all other addicts.
I'm a substance abuse counselor. So I speak from experience.
7
Still, marijuana, like alcohol, should not be illegal.
8
I smoke pot a couple times a week, and it helps me with my anxiety quite a bit (I suffer from panic disorder). My psychiatrist tells me never to smoke it but I found that it helps me and I ignore his advice. I honestly think he just tells me that bacause it's illegal and not because he's worried about it. I also don't drink and so it also helps me relax in social situations and I have a lot of fun on it. Why should alcohol only be permitted for social situations? I'm never hung over and I rarely have any side effects (once in a while I can get slightly paranoid but it's very rare).
22
Good stuff Maria from Spain,
Maybe this won't help your argument...
"Although over 60% Italian responders and around 80% Spanish responders were aware that ethanol use in pregnancy is dangerous, approximately 50% Italian responders and 40% Spanish ones allowed women to drink sometimes a glass of wine or beer during pregnancy.
Neonatologists and paediatricians rated confidence in the ability to diagnosis FAS and FASD as low, with over 50% responders feeling they needed more information regarding FAS and FASD identification in newborn and child."
http://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2431-11-51
No one is recommending any expectant mother expose their unborn to powerful psychoactive substances, but there are a wide array of cannabis products that are completely safe and immeasurably helpful for soon to be mothers.
Now, setting the ridiculous health risks aside, your comment was particularly naive given your countries relaxed attitude towards private cannabis consumption. The current laws of 90% of American states have the effect of unjustly penalizing minority youth at a rate dwarfing the same white/european populations. The scrutiny these kids receive the second they leave the womb, and the brutally excessive punishments doled out when they don't satisfy this impossible scrutiny, dwarf any ill conceived threat caused to the fetus by cannabis.
Maybe this won't help your argument...
"Although over 60% Italian responders and around 80% Spanish responders were aware that ethanol use in pregnancy is dangerous, approximately 50% Italian responders and 40% Spanish ones allowed women to drink sometimes a glass of wine or beer during pregnancy.
Neonatologists and paediatricians rated confidence in the ability to diagnosis FAS and FASD as low, with over 50% responders feeling they needed more information regarding FAS and FASD identification in newborn and child."
http://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2431-11-51
No one is recommending any expectant mother expose their unborn to powerful psychoactive substances, but there are a wide array of cannabis products that are completely safe and immeasurably helpful for soon to be mothers.
Now, setting the ridiculous health risks aside, your comment was particularly naive given your countries relaxed attitude towards private cannabis consumption. The current laws of 90% of American states have the effect of unjustly penalizing minority youth at a rate dwarfing the same white/european populations. The scrutiny these kids receive the second they leave the womb, and the brutally excessive punishments doled out when they don't satisfy this impossible scrutiny, dwarf any ill conceived threat caused to the fetus by cannabis.
8
By current FDA regulatory criteria of risk vs benefit, aspirin could not today be sold over-the-counter but would be a prescribed drug. The serious and potentially lethal side effects (e.g. bleeding, gastric erosion, Reye's syndrome) make aspirin more dangerous than marijuana, which is not lethal and at least as beneficial as aspirin (another biological, originally obtained from willow trees). To put marijuana on the Controlled Substances list as a Schedule I drug (where even research use is prohibited) comparable to LSD and heroin is lunacy. At least drop it down to Schedule IV (still requires a prescription) where it is better suited -- and meanwhile make aspirin a Schedule IV or V drug as well.
8
The thing that's annoying me about the negative commentary is that you can't make your argument both ways. You can't say, "Where's the research on marijuana's effectiveness?" ...then turn back around and say, "Research shows it to be harmful."
This is the Catch 22 that the DEA has used to keep it a Schedule 1 substance..."There is no research to support changing the status. Oh and by the way, we won't permit that research either."
This is the Catch 22 that the DEA has used to keep it a Schedule 1 substance..."There is no research to support changing the status. Oh and by the way, we won't permit that research either."
16
The DEA needs to be shut down. Eliminated.
No one should be able to tell Americans what they can grow in their gardens and enjoy.
It's called the "pursuit of happiness", but the DEA ignores this. The DEA has ruined countless lives playing god.
The DEA is a criminal organization, anathema to the most basic freedom. The right to your own body and what you put in it.
The victims of the DEA are due reparations. Every day that the DEA is on the loose, playing god, the reparation bill grows.
No one should be able to tell Americans what they can grow in their gardens and enjoy.
It's called the "pursuit of happiness", but the DEA ignores this. The DEA has ruined countless lives playing god.
The DEA is a criminal organization, anathema to the most basic freedom. The right to your own body and what you put in it.
The victims of the DEA are due reparations. Every day that the DEA is on the loose, playing god, the reparation bill grows.
20
Granted that alcohol is legal but don't make the mistake of thinking that marijuana is no more harmful than alcohol. You can have a beer and not get drunk. You smoke marijuana and you are doing it for one reason, to get high. You want to have that going on at your next backyard barbecue?
2
Oh I would much rather than marijuana smokers than alcohol drinkers at my backyard barbecue. Much, much, much rather.
16
Is the DEA the folks who should be making this decision? It's like asking Al Capone if Alcohol should be legal. It's a matter of which side of the jam the bread is on.
19
The DEA and FDA say there is NOT enough evidence to justify removing Cannabis from schedule 1 listing ........but there was no evidence to justify placing it there in the first place !
26
It is funny how the liberals tend to argue that SOME regulating agencies like EPA are good but OTHERS like DEA are bad. Make up your mind on regulations, liberals.
4
Cannabis, in addition to many medical uses for afflictions like nausea, pain, and seizures, has been used entheogenically for millennia.
I know that current science doesn't exactly recognize the ability for people to heal themselves, but through circumspect and moderate usage, I was able to utilize cannabis to assist weaning myself off of what are far more dangerous prescription drugs.
For several years I was prescribed amphetamines due to severe problems focusing (ADHD) as well as benzodiazepines for debilitating social anxiety.
I discovered meditation, especially mindfulness meditation, and realized that combining my practice with a small amount of cannabis every several days allowed for me to make exponential progress in understanding how and why my anxiety and attention problems manifested.
This allowed me, over the course of a year, to completely free myself from those two scourges: Schedule II amphetamines and Schedule IV benzodiazepines, which are both known to be incredibly addicting.
So cannabis -- a Schedule I drug according to the DEA with no accepted medical value -- not only helped me to curb all my other addictions (an anti-gateway drug effect, if you will), but it also became something of a spiritual kickstarter for me that allowed an agnostic, scientifically-inclined philosophile to start embracing the potential for meditation and the ability to change my life through the application of will.
I rarely use cannabis these days, but it saved my life.
I know that current science doesn't exactly recognize the ability for people to heal themselves, but through circumspect and moderate usage, I was able to utilize cannabis to assist weaning myself off of what are far more dangerous prescription drugs.
For several years I was prescribed amphetamines due to severe problems focusing (ADHD) as well as benzodiazepines for debilitating social anxiety.
I discovered meditation, especially mindfulness meditation, and realized that combining my practice with a small amount of cannabis every several days allowed for me to make exponential progress in understanding how and why my anxiety and attention problems manifested.
This allowed me, over the course of a year, to completely free myself from those two scourges: Schedule II amphetamines and Schedule IV benzodiazepines, which are both known to be incredibly addicting.
So cannabis -- a Schedule I drug according to the DEA with no accepted medical value -- not only helped me to curb all my other addictions (an anti-gateway drug effect, if you will), but it also became something of a spiritual kickstarter for me that allowed an agnostic, scientifically-inclined philosophile to start embracing the potential for meditation and the ability to change my life through the application of will.
I rarely use cannabis these days, but it saved my life.
22
Marijuana should be legalized (and regulated) regardless of health benefits it may have. It seems to me that making so many claims about its medically beneficial properties is only raising the bar for making the case by creating more burden of proof. All one needs to show is that it is less harmful than some legal drugs and many toxic "food" products like surgery drinks.
I'm surprised Hillary didn't go further in support of full legalization since it is clearly a very popular position, not only among the leftists.
I'm surprised Hillary didn't go further in support of full legalization since it is clearly a very popular position, not only among the leftists.
7
Follow the money. Look for obscene amounts of money from pharmaceutical, liquor, and for-profit prison interests, to feather the Obamas' post-presidential nest. Hillary Clinton has been pre-bribed by all of the above, and can therefore be counted on not to reverse the President's decision.
10
The DEA is not short cited only in the case of marijuana, of course. Drug policy across the board and in all government agencies is guided not by common sense and practical argument, but by hoary moral preconceptions and judgments.
11
The reason pot isn't readily available for medical use is simple. The pharmaceutical companies don't want it legalized. They have cornered the market for expensive drugs and don't want to compete with pot. Marijuana is a weed, something almost anyone with a garden can grow. The cost would be pennies compared to the current prescription drugs. So don't blame the DEA, or the NIH, follow the money...it leads back to Big Pharma.
20
I do not understand why the DEA should be making the decision. They are tasked with enforcement of drug laws, not making policy.
18
My aunt died of melanoma. She wasn't a pot smoker or a drinker. As she neared the end of her life she sought out legal ways to end her suffering and because she lived in Oregon she was able to acquire a lethal dose of phenobarbital. Ultimately that is what she decided on.
A few weeks before her death she decided it was time. However a nephew suggested she try marijuana for the pain. He got her some and she tried it. "It's like liquid velvet" she said. My father who has never been in favor of marijuana legalization remarked that after seeing how it affected her that should he find himself in a similar situation that he too would try marijuana.
The drug was no final miracle but it did give the two of them another few weeks together to hold hands and watch the fireflies in the twilight. To say that marijuana has no place in our society is one of the greatest idiocies I have experienced as an American. To ignore the historical legacy of this failure is to mark one's thinking with this idiocy. Obama's failure, and the DEA's perfidious "reasoning" shame us as a nation. It is a question of liberty and fairness as well as science. End the prohibition now.
A few weeks before her death she decided it was time. However a nephew suggested she try marijuana for the pain. He got her some and she tried it. "It's like liquid velvet" she said. My father who has never been in favor of marijuana legalization remarked that after seeing how it affected her that should he find himself in a similar situation that he too would try marijuana.
The drug was no final miracle but it did give the two of them another few weeks together to hold hands and watch the fireflies in the twilight. To say that marijuana has no place in our society is one of the greatest idiocies I have experienced as an American. To ignore the historical legacy of this failure is to mark one's thinking with this idiocy. Obama's failure, and the DEA's perfidious "reasoning" shame us as a nation. It is a question of liberty and fairness as well as science. End the prohibition now.
30
I find it ironic that conservatives, those alleged bastions of individual rights and freedom are the very people who would infringe on people's individual rights and freedoms. How un-American!
15
As a college administrator, each week I see reports of student incidents: sexually inappropriate behavior, altercations, and vandalism, among others. The overwhelming majority of this nonsense is fueled by alcohol. We never have these problems with students smoking marijuana. If we are made aware that they have marijuana, we need to implement disciplinary measures, because it remains illegal. But I've never understood this dichotomy. Alcohol is far more dangerous and results in much more antisocial behavior. That's just not the experience we have with marijuana users. So, why is that illegal and alcohol on every corner? It makes no sense.
75
The war on drugs is how the state keeps minorities downtrodden.
20
This issue has always been a slap in the face to "Free Market Republicans" - These guys are dying to get their hands in the pie- but their bible wielding pastor tells them not to. Jesus drank wine- he didn't take bong rips- hence the problem.
9
What strikes me as weird is the existence of the DEA. Every other country just has police. The RCMP enforce Canadian laws at the national level; all of them. We don't ask their opinion on the appropriate laws for cannabis; that's a political and medical question and they are far too busy catching crooks to do the double-blind medical studies required for a useful opinion.
You don't need a special agency to tackle drug criminals; they aren't that much different from other kinds of smugglers and racketeers. You could really use a special Financial Enforcement Agency; the last time THOSE criminals went on a spree, they harmed the whole world.
Take this particularly outrageous bit of stupidity as your breaking point: defund the DEA and use the money to start enforcing the existing laws that address crime on Wall Street. Best wishes to the FEA!
You don't need a special agency to tackle drug criminals; they aren't that much different from other kinds of smugglers and racketeers. You could really use a special Financial Enforcement Agency; the last time THOSE criminals went on a spree, they harmed the whole world.
Take this particularly outrageous bit of stupidity as your breaking point: defund the DEA and use the money to start enforcing the existing laws that address crime on Wall Street. Best wishes to the FEA!
28
The DEA has become a criminal enterprise aided and abetted by Congress. Using cold consent against unsuspecting innocent citizens to take away their property without due process. Just because a law exists , it does not necessarily make it right . When I look at the huge markets of seized possessions online, I see a tremendous money grab by law enforcement.
17
Editorial: Stop telling me what to do. Stop telling me what I should believe...what I should come to think as dangerous and really dangerous. I'll read the science and research and draw my own conclusions, thanks.
7
That's exactly how I feel about the DEA, and after seeing people who smoke pot for over sixty years looking much better than those drinking alcohol or smoking tobacco for that same period, I don't need to see the slanted by who paid for it research.
12
Editorial; noun- a newspaper article written by or on behalf of an editor that gives an opinion on a topical issue.
Why would they take your advice? You don't seem amenable to Editorial Boards advice and have not provided a counter argument disputing their point.
Why would they take your advice? You don't seem amenable to Editorial Boards advice and have not provided a counter argument disputing their point.
5
They're not telling you what to think
This is their opinion
AND they have given you a forum to voice YOUR opinion
Be grateful you live in a country with the most open free press in the world
And this is MY opinion. Get it now?
This is their opinion
AND they have given you a forum to voice YOUR opinion
Be grateful you live in a country with the most open free press in the world
And this is MY opinion. Get it now?
7
When pregnant women ingest cannabis, they expose their offspring to potentially harmful chemicals that have been demonstrated to have an impact on development. Cannabis is not a joke. Although scores of millions of Americans regard it as a "perfectly harmless" intoxicant, the fact is that the lives of bystanders -- like the offspring in utero -- are indeed being held hostage to someone's need to feel detached from their stressful reality. No, we cannot legislate ethical behavior, nor expect everyone to always do the correct, virtuous, upstanding thing. But we can certainly maintain laws and regulations that convey a message about risks and consequences for selfish, foolish, excessive self-indulgence. Even though heroin is very different from cannabis, the widespread availability of the latter and the deceptive marketing campaigns of those who profit from selling this commodity fully warrant maintaining the higher level of rating, and legal impediments to decriminalization.
1
You have any concerns about pregnant women smoking or drinking alcohol? Maybe we should criminalize those products too in order to "save the children!"
12
When the government makes laws that fly in the face of common sense (think 55 mph speed limit), not only do the People ignore the law -- they slowly lose the ability to differentiate between laws that make sense and laws that are stupid. The overall impact is a loss of respect for the rule of law.
Such is the case we have with cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug. Tens of million of people, including our President, have used cannabis with no ill effect. People have moved cross country to provide legal medicinal cannabis for themselves and their children.
Break out your mighty pen, Mr. President, and remove cannabis entirely from the DEA's control and list of scheduled drugs.
Such is the case we have with cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug. Tens of million of people, including our President, have used cannabis with no ill effect. People have moved cross country to provide legal medicinal cannabis for themselves and their children.
Break out your mighty pen, Mr. President, and remove cannabis entirely from the DEA's control and list of scheduled drugs.
10
It is a testament to our ridiculous drug laws that cannabis is equated with heroin by Federal law and legal for any adult to buy and consume here in Colorado.
The experiment that the States are making with cannabis will continue to prove how feckless and useless the "lawmakers" in Congress and the DEA really are. Peoples lives are ruined in the name of following the law when simple observation of what is happening right here in our country clearly shows a lack of harmful effects or outcomes for cannabis users and society.
The experiment that the States are making with cannabis will continue to prove how feckless and useless the "lawmakers" in Congress and the DEA really are. Peoples lives are ruined in the name of following the law when simple observation of what is happening right here in our country clearly shows a lack of harmful effects or outcomes for cannabis users and society.
8
What does Pot have in common with flossing?
Seems like a good argument would lie in asking the DEA how it justifies the classification to begin with. If they have no empirical data to justify the classification then it is an incorrect unjustifiable designation. Might there be a law that says they must have proof to justify the DEA recommendation that pot is a Class 1 substance?
Seems like a good argument would lie in asking the DEA how it justifies the classification to begin with. If they have no empirical data to justify the classification then it is an incorrect unjustifiable designation. Might there be a law that says they must have proof to justify the DEA recommendation that pot is a Class 1 substance?
4
God purportedly punishes the US for failing to interdict people's pursuits happiness. The war on drugs is a religious crusade.
I cannot fathom why a constitutional amendment was required to ban alcohol, while cannabis is prohibited by administrative actions.
I cannot fathom why a constitutional amendment was required to ban alcohol, while cannabis is prohibited by administrative actions.
6
Greed seems to be the most obvious reason for this willful blindness to reality. Jobs, pensions, careers, a lot of money goes bye bye from the DEA with legal pot. The prison expense goes down, as does law enforcement costs - and state sales tax income climbs - win win.
As much as I admire and respect all that President Obama has done despite record opposition, his silence and basic inaction on this huge issue is shocking, especially being a past pot smoker himself. Millions of Americans continue to be wrongly incriminated(especially blacks and minorities), in what is clearly the most severe widespread mass injustice since slavery. Pot is a far safer choice than alcohol, and is in many cases "life enhancing". Steve Jobs, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, etc. etc., did not exactly see their lives ruined by pot.
As much as I admire and respect all that President Obama has done despite record opposition, his silence and basic inaction on this huge issue is shocking, especially being a past pot smoker himself. Millions of Americans continue to be wrongly incriminated(especially blacks and minorities), in what is clearly the most severe widespread mass injustice since slavery. Pot is a far safer choice than alcohol, and is in many cases "life enhancing". Steve Jobs, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, etc. etc., did not exactly see their lives ruined by pot.
15
Why should they? It fills the criminal justice system with millions of dollars and protects their jobs. Those are the only reasons for not declassifying weed. Don't believe anything else.
16
To all of the naysayers out there;
As the CEO of worldwide respected martial arts brand, I have always practiced a drug free policy when it came to my own body. I trained daily and consider myself to be a lifetime athlete at the age of 45
However earlier this year, I suffered a severe herniation on my C5 & C7 vertebrae and suffered from permanent nerve damage. I have a 7 inch deep scar on the back of my neck that looks like something out of Frankenstein. The pain is something that I can't even begin to describe but think about someone beating your arm with a baseball bat while hammering a wooden stake in your hand and this is what I experienced every minute of every day. This is NOT an exaggeration. To control the pain I was prescribed opioids in huge quantities to control the pain. The opioids slowed the healing process and turned me into a junkie. My wife and children literally watched me slowly die in front of their eyes. At the advice from my Sensei, I started to replace the opioids with a high CBD count cannabis that was medically prescribed to me in the state of California.
The cannabis derived products quickly relieved me of pain that NO opioid could match and I can state will great confidence and conviction that cannabis saved my life
There is no question about it! Any politician , official or lobbyist who attempts to thwart the use of cannabis research and distribution is nothing less than your common heroin drug dealer. It's time the naysayers be gone.
As the CEO of worldwide respected martial arts brand, I have always practiced a drug free policy when it came to my own body. I trained daily and consider myself to be a lifetime athlete at the age of 45
However earlier this year, I suffered a severe herniation on my C5 & C7 vertebrae and suffered from permanent nerve damage. I have a 7 inch deep scar on the back of my neck that looks like something out of Frankenstein. The pain is something that I can't even begin to describe but think about someone beating your arm with a baseball bat while hammering a wooden stake in your hand and this is what I experienced every minute of every day. This is NOT an exaggeration. To control the pain I was prescribed opioids in huge quantities to control the pain. The opioids slowed the healing process and turned me into a junkie. My wife and children literally watched me slowly die in front of their eyes. At the advice from my Sensei, I started to replace the opioids with a high CBD count cannabis that was medically prescribed to me in the state of California.
The cannabis derived products quickly relieved me of pain that NO opioid could match and I can state will great confidence and conviction that cannabis saved my life
There is no question about it! Any politician , official or lobbyist who attempts to thwart the use of cannabis research and distribution is nothing less than your common heroin drug dealer. It's time the naysayers be gone.
21
My brother died of hepatitis C over 8 years ago which was contracted from intravenous drug use. In my years of going to rehabilitation centers, like my brother, all of the residents which participated in group therapy sessions with family members indicated that the entree to their drug addiction was marijuana. Not everyone is an addict but society should not kid ourselves regarding how marijuana is the stepping stone to a life of torment for those who are afflicted by addition. Although there may be appropriate uses for medical purposes for marijuana, it still is a drug and one that should be strictly regulated to protect those that are predisposed to addiction which then lead to stronger drug use.
2
There is no evidence to prove that marijuana is a "stepping stone" to more powerful, illicit drugs. The claim is based on hearsay, often from titled authority figures who simply rely on their impressive titles to justify their claims.
11
and they all put on their pants one leg at a time. post hoc ergo proctor hoc, a classical fallacy of logic.
7
Cannabis becomes a gateway to other drugs when it becomes unavailable to its users. Then some try substitutes.
3
It appears to me that opposing sides are having arguments based on independent premises. Marijuana refers to 200 different compounds, whose addictive potential is further modified by route of intake, whereas therapeutic doses of cannabidiol and THC, have already been approved by FDA and therefore by the DEA's definition have medical value. Why not just break up the compounds into individual constituents, or qualify the concentrations in strains, to then leave those entities on different schedules? This works for heroin and oxy, which are scheduled 1 and 2, greatly facilitating research and medical use into the latter but still exemplifying risks in the former.
1
Alcohol has more of a place as a Schedule 1 drug than marijuana. Alcohol has been proven to have zero benefit, with a huge potential to destroy lives.
9
Regarding presidential stances on the issue, this article neglects to mention the only candidate who supports legalization, Gary Johnson, will be on the ballot in all 50 states. Ending the drug war has been in the Libertarian platform for over forty years.
Bach in 1972, it was president Nixon's National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse who "recommended that cannabis prohibition end, which would remove it from Schedule I. Instead, Nixon disregarded the compelling results of his own appointed commission". He "saw marijuana as part of the culture war that was destroying the United States"
http://www.alternet.org/story/12666/once-secret_%22nixon_tapes%22_show_w...
http://naturalsociety.com/thank-president-nixon-dea-us-prison-industry-c...
https://www.johnsonweld.com/
Bach in 1972, it was president Nixon's National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse who "recommended that cannabis prohibition end, which would remove it from Schedule I. Instead, Nixon disregarded the compelling results of his own appointed commission". He "saw marijuana as part of the culture war that was destroying the United States"
http://www.alternet.org/story/12666/once-secret_%22nixon_tapes%22_show_w...
http://naturalsociety.com/thank-president-nixon-dea-us-prison-industry-c...
https://www.johnsonweld.com/
12
Nixon's idea of "culture" was some kind of paranoiac's bad dream.
5
I can guarantee everyone reading this and beyond that this morning there were thousands and thousands of people who woke up hung-over from drinking last night, and as such incapable of going to work, attending a family function, or any of a whole host of things their friends and family might be relying on them to do. Parents who wont be there for their kids today. Men and women, who made some seriously bad choices last night that may impact them and others for years to come - maybe a lifetime if its an unwanted pregnancy. Besides the auto-accidents, there will be many visits to ER's for broken bones, and other random injuries. All due to the misuse and outright abuse of alcohol.
But most of those people who smoked some weed last will wake up basically fine and most will go to work today. Most will fulfill their obligations, and maybe more - and many will have perhaps had their first restful night sleep for the first time all week. (due to pain, stress, etc)
The overall cost to themselves, close relations and society in general of those who misuse and/or abuse alcohol - will far outpace in the millions of dollars compared to the losses of those who got high last night.
The skewed and absurd POV of those now in positions of power over the ranking of marijuana as a drug - remain wholly entrenched in the propaganda of the late 60's and 70's when our very often drinking while on the job elected officials swallowed whole the lies of idiotic movies like "Reefer Madness".
But most of those people who smoked some weed last will wake up basically fine and most will go to work today. Most will fulfill their obligations, and maybe more - and many will have perhaps had their first restful night sleep for the first time all week. (due to pain, stress, etc)
The overall cost to themselves, close relations and society in general of those who misuse and/or abuse alcohol - will far outpace in the millions of dollars compared to the losses of those who got high last night.
The skewed and absurd POV of those now in positions of power over the ranking of marijuana as a drug - remain wholly entrenched in the propaganda of the late 60's and 70's when our very often drinking while on the job elected officials swallowed whole the lies of idiotic movies like "Reefer Madness".
27
not the 50's and 60's - reefer madness born as a job-saving program at the end of prohibition.
3
DEA = in bed with the cartels. Decriminalization hurts them both.
16
You know you are living in a sick country when you pay tax to a government that makes war on you.
29
Well, you say that Heroin and LSD are DEEMED to have no medicinal use. But you merely DEEM weed to have medicinal purpose.
I have heard LSD works on Serotonin receptors, and produces the highs that make you forget your pain. Some people insist that Heroin has been good for their pains and aches as well - mental and physical.
Obama admits to using weed and blow, and breaking our criminal laws. He should not be allowed to have a say in this matter. The last time I checked, he is no scientist, and he does not have a law license.
I have heard LSD works on Serotonin receptors, and produces the highs that make you forget your pain. Some people insist that Heroin has been good for their pains and aches as well - mental and physical.
Obama admits to using weed and blow, and breaking our criminal laws. He should not be allowed to have a say in this matter. The last time I checked, he is no scientist, and he does not have a law license.
5
In reply to @PiSonny; wait till you have endured the pain from severe spinal cord surgery and experienced the opioids slowly draining the life out of your body that you will start to change your narrow views on the use of cannabis. I like you never was a proponent of cannabis use but this experience has opened my eyes to the incredible and almost magical properties locked inside the chemical structure of cannaboids. It saved my life and it will save you or your children if they too face a major injury in the future. It's time you let go of your preconceived notions about cannabis and stop joining hands with a pharmaceutical industry that cares nothing of your health and only that of your wallet.
4
"Obama doesn't have a law license."
He was a professor of Constitutional Law at U. Chicago.
He is the President, of course he should have a say. And he should overturn this immoral and anti-scientific scheduling of marijuana.
He was a professor of Constitutional Law at U. Chicago.
He is the President, of course he should have a say. And he should overturn this immoral and anti-scientific scheduling of marijuana.
6
@JustinReilly,
I say: he does not have a law license.
You say: he taught constitutional law.
Do you even know what I wrote?
I say: he does not have a law license.
You say: he taught constitutional law.
Do you even know what I wrote?
3
The war on drugs will never end. It is a perpetual, unwinnable, war.
There is too much money involved. Too many people make money off of keeping marijuana illegal. Thousands of cops. Thousands of prison guards.
And there can be no doubt that keeping it illegal feeds corruption in our government.
All drugs should be de-criminalized. The DEAs entire existence illustrates the dysfunction of our government.
There is too much money involved. Too many people make money off of keeping marijuana illegal. Thousands of cops. Thousands of prison guards.
And there can be no doubt that keeping it illegal feeds corruption in our government.
All drugs should be de-criminalized. The DEAs entire existence illustrates the dysfunction of our government.
28
More government ignorance wrapped in lies.
11
In Saudi Arabia where I worked for Raytheon in the 1970's, there was a contractor nicknamed "Mad Dog Myers," so called because he was always high on marijuana.Fell of his motorcyle one day,had his arm bandaged and kept the blood soaked bandage on for weeks. Entered his flat one day--this was in Jiddah-- and found a half eaten schwarma sandwich on a record on his phonograph that had obviously been there for days. That's what Mary Jane, as we called marijuana in those days, can do to you. It makes you careless, indifferent to your surroundings and you become a burden to others. In contrast, those who drank the local aperitif known as "sediki(friend),"moonshine flavored to taste like gin or whiskey depending on your preference, maintained their composure."Say no to dope!"
1
This might be true of Maddog and his character, but I also know a number of incredible bright, hyper-successful entrepreneurs with hundreds of employees they use marijuana for recreational purposes and they're amongst the most industrious people I've ever come across. One person's inability to handle their drugs does not speak for everyone.
11
When I was in college a few years ago I knew a guy who drove his car off a bridge and almost killed himself because he'd been drinking and thought it'd be "a good challenge" to drive himself. I also knew a number of people who smoked weed and none of them ever did anything close to that stupid.
I also knew a close friend who's father was an alcoholic. After abusing himself and various family members, he drank himself into an early grave.
I've also known plenty of people who've used both substances safely and without causing any damage to themselves or others.
Point is, these kinds of drugs aren't dangerous unless misused. They should be regulated, not banned.
I also knew a close friend who's father was an alcoholic. After abusing himself and various family members, he drank himself into an early grave.
I've also known plenty of people who've used both substances safely and without causing any damage to themselves or others.
Point is, these kinds of drugs aren't dangerous unless misused. They should be regulated, not banned.
7
People who are fastidious get high and polish silver.
The drug doesn't change personalities.
The drug doesn't change personalities.
6
Here we are, all still stuck w/ Nixon's old tool to beat down the Left he feared so much. It's strange to me that the govt is so solid on this dangerous substance issue while allowing indeed fully supporting truly sinister companies like Monsanto (one of Hillary's big contributors) to create promote and market GMO food-like-products which have not been studied and have no actual value other then being patented & owned by Monsanto ....think about what corporate ownership of patents on life forms means, is totally sinister....also consider the totally un-natural "genetic engineering" tech of combining DNA from different species, spider genes spliced into corn for example...something that never could or would happen through natural selection. GMO food like products are actually dangerous poisons, unwanted & illegal in most of the world, yet our Govt allows them while wasting tax payer funds on the DEA chasing down marijuana users, sellers and growers....and that criminal cost bill is paid by the taxpayers to for profit prisons. This is no way to run our country.
19
"To encourage a lot more research on marijuana" -- YES.
"To remove it from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act" -- ONLY if the research shows it to be not harmful.
Apart from the medical side of the issue, the pro-marijuana and other pro-narcotics voices are those of the vegans, anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol users, and other from the extreme left of the political spectrum.
"To remove it from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act" -- ONLY if the research shows it to be not harmful.
Apart from the medical side of the issue, the pro-marijuana and other pro-narcotics voices are those of the vegans, anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol users, and other from the extreme left of the political spectrum.
1
Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my!!!!
3
I wonder-wink, wink- if racial and/or cultural prejudice have anything to do with marijuana'a status? Mexican immigrants in the early decades of the 1900s as well as jazz musicians used the devil weed during the years marijuana and hemp became illegal.
8
The Hearst newspaper empire popularized "marijuana" over "cannabis" to link the drug to sinister Mexicans. Hearst had a lot of money in forest land and feared hemp would make superior paper.
5
The fact that marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug is ludicrous. Most Opiates, including Opium and Morphine, are classified as a Schedule II drug. So is cocaine.
13
From the editorial: "Having marijuana on that list is deeply misguided since many scientists and President Obama have said that it is no more dangerous than alcohol."
Sometimes I can only shake my head at the cognitive dissonance.
According to the CDC, alcohol is responsible for about 90,000 deaths every year in the US. That's about three times the number of deaths caused by guns, which you lot are always shrieking about. And it doesn't even touch the staggering number of sexual assaults, domestic beatings, and tragic, non-fatal accidents that unregulated alcohol brings about every day.
We tried to root the societal cancer of alcohol abuse out of our nation with Prohibition, but it was too deeply rooted, and Prohibition failed. So maybe we have to deal with the sad and violent consequences of freely available alcohol. I just can't understand why on earth you would wheel out alcohol as a benchmark by which to measure acceptable consequences of deregulating other substances. "Oh, only up to 90,000 deaths and countless battered women, abused children, and careers, families, and lives ruined by addiction every year? Let's have another one of those!"
If you can demonstrate that marijuana is far LESS harmful than alcohol (which does seem plausible enough), then you'd have some grounds for argument. As it stands, your logic is utterly bankrupt.
Sometimes I can only shake my head at the cognitive dissonance.
According to the CDC, alcohol is responsible for about 90,000 deaths every year in the US. That's about three times the number of deaths caused by guns, which you lot are always shrieking about. And it doesn't even touch the staggering number of sexual assaults, domestic beatings, and tragic, non-fatal accidents that unregulated alcohol brings about every day.
We tried to root the societal cancer of alcohol abuse out of our nation with Prohibition, but it was too deeply rooted, and Prohibition failed. So maybe we have to deal with the sad and violent consequences of freely available alcohol. I just can't understand why on earth you would wheel out alcohol as a benchmark by which to measure acceptable consequences of deregulating other substances. "Oh, only up to 90,000 deaths and countless battered women, abused children, and careers, families, and lives ruined by addiction every year? Let's have another one of those!"
If you can demonstrate that marijuana is far LESS harmful than alcohol (which does seem plausible enough), then you'd have some grounds for argument. As it stands, your logic is utterly bankrupt.
7
Death from cannabis consumption alone is virtually unknown. Without doubt it is far safer than alcohol.
4
No, it's not morally bankrupt due to the simple fact that people go to jail, some for years, for smoking and possessing a PLANT.
1
Then the NYT should publish an article citing studies to that effect, and push marijuana based on its comparative safety. The logic in the sentence I quoted is worse than embarrassing, and illustrative of why Americans shouldn't look to our newspaper editors for intellectual substance, let alone intellectual leadership.
DEA funding should be classified as Schedule 1. They're so obviously addicted to the money, that they cannot make rational judgments anymore.
20
What we need is a substantial marijuana lobby. Policy is driven by money. When the marijuana lobby can grease the politicians with enough cash, significant changes will be made.
11
What we need is a war on political corruption so that we won't need lobbyists.
3
no one treat pot like heroin - no one.
3
The FDA and DEA's stance on marijuana is inexplicable. The scientific evidence on the efficacy of medicinal marijuana in the treatment of numerous conditions is overwhelming , no thanks to the FDA, DEA, USDA NIH and MIMH, etc... Reefer Madness is still a paralyzing stigma that seems to effect the judgment of highly trained scientists and MD's entrusted with the public's safety and well-being. The true Reefer Madness is the unwillingness of these powerful agencies to drag themselves out of the 19th century and and foster and embrace science rather than rhetoric.
8
Conflicted interest explains much of the inexplicable in the US.
4
Why no mention of the drug lobby in this piece? That is disingenuous.
13
Your headline needs revision. Rather than "stop treating Marijuana like Heroin", it should read "start treating Marijuana like Morphine". It is absurd that the controls on marijuana research are tighter than those on opiods.
7
Of course it should not be a schedule #1 drug. Legalize but proceed with caution. I'm old enough to see what pot smoking can do to kids- Some of my friends and I fooled around with it in high school, college and left it there- Some of my other friends made it a part of their daily lives and I can attest that it made them socially withdrawn, unmotivated and YES- it did act as a "gateway drug" and led them to try the big 3! Yes- You can say the same about alcohol- but there is something inherently different about being HIGH of pot and Buzzed of alcohol. I always found that it made me jittery and paranoid- and I usually thought I was going to die, while my friends laughed at me hysterically. As for medicinal purposes [i.e. cancer patients] If I were afflicted with terminal cancer and had only weeks to live- the last thing I would want to be- is high off pot! I would say to my friends, "Hey guys I'm dying!" and they would answer, "We know.." My worst, paranoid fears manifested.
1
Another anecdotal non-scientific commentary that refuses to face the fact that marijuana can help many people and harms far fewer than our traditional high of alcohol.
I know a lot of "potheads" who make a lot more than I do. And I am in the top 10%. Does that prove anything? Not really but it sure makes me think that anti-marijuana folks are the real "heads."
I know a lot of "potheads" who make a lot more than I do. And I am in the top 10%. Does that prove anything? Not really but it sure makes me think that anti-marijuana folks are the real "heads."
4
Being in a mental state that is illegal can make people feel paranoid.
5
"Fox News is ahead of President Obama on this issue.
He could lead on this. That would contribute to a positive Obama legacy."
Call me crazy, but I think Obama, and the country as a whole, have major issues to worry about that are more important than people's right to get high.
He could lead on this. That would contribute to a positive Obama legacy."
Call me crazy, but I think Obama, and the country as a whole, have major issues to worry about that are more important than people's right to get high.
5
People are losing their freedom because of it.
Some people actually need it to stop seizures or to keep them from going blind (glaucoma).
These are some of the people who are going to jail.
It's also a major source of funds for Mexican drug cartels, who are taking over entire towns in Mexico and contributing to violent crime in many US cities.
It's a complex issue, and the current laws --concocted during the Nixon administration -- are responsible for many casualties among the innocent.
Some people actually need it to stop seizures or to keep them from going blind (glaucoma).
These are some of the people who are going to jail.
It's also a major source of funds for Mexican drug cartels, who are taking over entire towns in Mexico and contributing to violent crime in many US cities.
It's a complex issue, and the current laws --concocted during the Nixon administration -- are responsible for many casualties among the innocent.
2
I bet the police also have better things to do than shake down people for a joint in their pocket? How 'bout we free them up to deal with real crime and criminals!
5
"It's also a major source of funds for Mexican drug cartels, who are taking over entire towns in Mexico and contributing to violent crime in many US cities."
It's all because marijuana is illegal. If it were legalized and could be grown anywhere by anyone, the cartels wouldn't be able to make money from marijuana (and about half the U.S. prison population would probably be allowed to go free).
It's all because marijuana is illegal. If it were legalized and could be grown anywhere by anyone, the cartels wouldn't be able to make money from marijuana (and about half the U.S. prison population would probably be allowed to go free).
5
What truly fascinates me is that we view opioids, the prescription drug forms of heroin, in a completely different manner than heroin or, for that matter, marijuana. The largest growing population in the U.S. for marijuana usage where it can be purchased is among the elderly. They don't want (nor often can afford) opioids, and use marijuana for a host of medical conditions.
In the U.S., of you're doctor writes you a script for oxycontin, you're not vilified. If you buy the non-syntheic version, heroin, you're a criminal. And if you use cannabis you're worse still. We have to rethink how we classify and use drugs in this country.
In the U.S., of you're doctor writes you a script for oxycontin, you're not vilified. If you buy the non-syntheic version, heroin, you're a criminal. And if you use cannabis you're worse still. We have to rethink how we classify and use drugs in this country.
23
Opioids are not synthetic Heroin (diamorphine). Apparently Heroin is an Opioid.
Opioids are synthetic Opiates.
Opiates are Morphine based meds. Morphine is the active part of the Opium Poppy.
I suspect that the synthetic nature of Opioids is the reason for them being so highly addictive. The wikipedia page mentions that diamorphine is more fat soluble and taken up faster than Morphine. This is seen as advantageous from the medical perspective but I think it is also why it and other Opioids are so addictive.
Opioids are synthetic Opiates.
Opiates are Morphine based meds. Morphine is the active part of the Opium Poppy.
I suspect that the synthetic nature of Opioids is the reason for them being so highly addictive. The wikipedia page mentions that diamorphine is more fat soluble and taken up faster than Morphine. This is seen as advantageous from the medical perspective but I think it is also why it and other Opioids are so addictive.
2
Why is it so hard to undo something that should never have been done to begin with? Anyone who objectively examines Harry Anslinger's railroading of marijuana laws in the 1930's, including propaganda movies like "Reefer Madness" and "Hashish Assasins", concludes that marijuana was made illegal and put on this schedule through tactics that are indefensible.
At the time, this was a drug that was mostly used in the black population, so could that have anything to do with it?
As a former user himself, and a supposed progressive, what is Obama's excuse for this outrageous subjugation of "the pursuit of happiness"?
When will we ever be "...the land of the free..." and have "...liberty and justice for all." if we continually lock people in jail cells for simply trying to make their lives a little less miserable?
Please, stop this madness now!!!
At the time, this was a drug that was mostly used in the black population, so could that have anything to do with it?
As a former user himself, and a supposed progressive, what is Obama's excuse for this outrageous subjugation of "the pursuit of happiness"?
When will we ever be "...the land of the free..." and have "...liberty and justice for all." if we continually lock people in jail cells for simply trying to make their lives a little less miserable?
Please, stop this madness now!!!
28
Evidently living politicians revere the legislation of dead ones too much to rethink it.
5
Legal sales of marijuana commenced in my state last fall. I find it helps me achieve a sound, deep sleep, and bedtime is the only time I use it, one hit, with high CBD. I'm 64 years old, and see a dermatologist annually for a history of skin cancers due to sun damage. In February at my annual visit, he commented that my skin was much improved, and asked what I'm doing different. I couldn't think of a thing, until now. Allow more research, with higher quality product NOW. Or, we could just wait, and make marijuana the exclusive domain of Big Pharma. Hmmm.
26
Great points in this article. But I suggest a strategy tweak. This frustration needs to be directly more personally at the leaders of the D.E.A. and F.D.A. Who are the administrators, the chief regulatory decision makers, etc.? They need to be directly criticized just as been done with other issues (e.g. the Plan B morning after pill availability debate). Without this direct accountability, they just seem like faceless bureaucracies being slow to respond … like all bureaucracies … not individuals actively resisting scientific data and public opinion.
40
Marijuana, over the years, has been shown to have devastating effects on the human mind and body. If you were unfortunate enough to get caught in possession. And were poor and unable to afford legal counsel.
As for its devastating effects on intelligence and creativity, I offer as proof the music of the '50's, '60's, '70's, '80's, '90's...
As for its devastating effects on intelligence and creativity, I offer as proof the music of the '50's, '60's, '70's, '80's, '90's...
8
There is no scientifically valid evidence in your comment that could connect marijuana with any devastating effects on the mind or body. However, criminalization resulting from marijuana is based on class; thus, suspects without the funds to pay for good legal defense are much more likely to receive prison terms and criminal records related to marijuana.
3
You didn't get the joke, did you, Workerbee?
7
For the life of me I cannot understand why marijuana is illegal. It's the human equivalent of a cat's catnip for crying out loud. At the same time, my concern with focusing on medical marijuana is that the pharma industry will eventually appropriate it and turn it into yet another set of massively expensive pills that people will have to jump through lots of hoops to get access to.
I think the only way to democratize usage of the plant and make it safe to use is to fully legalize it so that appropriate quality controls and strain standards are put in place to make it easier for people to avoid bad products.
And since we're on the topic, heroine and LSD have significant and well known medical uses. It's baffling to me why scientists are prevented from studying them. I'm not a proponent of their legalization for recreational use since they can be lethal, but I think scientists should be able to freely study them just like pharma companies continuously study existing drugs in new combinations and for different conditions. That's just basic research.
I think the only way to democratize usage of the plant and make it safe to use is to fully legalize it so that appropriate quality controls and strain standards are put in place to make it easier for people to avoid bad products.
And since we're on the topic, heroine and LSD have significant and well known medical uses. It's baffling to me why scientists are prevented from studying them. I'm not a proponent of their legalization for recreational use since they can be lethal, but I think scientists should be able to freely study them just like pharma companies continuously study existing drugs in new combinations and for different conditions. That's just basic research.
6
As a practicing psychiatrist, daily I see patients who are paranoid, agitated, anxious, panicked or depressed smoking or eatng cannabis. Then there are the young adults who are dependent on pot and it is their whole life. True, it does not cause quick death like heroine, but it is very dangerous. Too bad it is such a fad.
2
There is no scientifically valid evidence in your comment that could connect marijuana to any of the psychiatric ailments listed. As you know, those ailments are common among psychiatric patients who've never used illegal drugs, as well as among those who have.
8
Yeah and that Xanax is just wonderful. If not for cocaine your ridiculous profession would not exist. Thanks Freud.
8
How many thousands of years of cannabis use before it ceases being a fad?
5
The persecution of marijuana began with a guy named Harry Anslinger, Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who said in Congressional testimony - way back in 1937 - that “Marihuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death”. A doctor from the American Medical Association testified that he knew of no evidence that marijuana was harmful. One of the Congressmen on the committee said "Doctor, if you haven't got anything to say that will help us, why don't you just go home?" In the early 1960's, when defendants started using the "marijuana insanity" defense in murder cases, Anslinger changed his tune and stated, without a hint of research, that marijuana use leads to the use of Heroin. In short, the entire perception of marijuana as a harmful drug was advanced by a man Americans have never heard of: Harry Anslinger. It's true. (I don't mean, like, Donald Trump true, I mean really true.)
6
Let's be honest here. Despite the gassy comments being written here, I suspect most of the baby-boomers (I am a boomer myself) writing them couldn't care less about decriminalized marijuana as a medical treatment. Most of us are actually privately hoping that allowing medical use is a precursor to full legalization so we can legally buy pot and get stoned again like we used to in our younger days.
1
Maybe one of the reasons there is an opioid epidemic in this country is that the Federal Government thinks that heroin and marijuana should be classified as equally dangerous. And if President Obama thinks that marijuana is as dangerous as alcohol he needs to stop smoking it.
7
Marijuana has ruined many young lives. Not because it is a harmful substance but because of the completely bonkers industry that has grown up around the enforcement of its illegality.
14
It's well past time to disband the DEA. This is an organization that's two biggest priorities are seizing assets - primarily cash - from people that they never even bother to indict, and standing tall for retrogressive marijuana policy.
The legitimate law enforcement tasks they perform can be handled by the FBI and others. We'd be wise to begin culling our alphabet soup of federal law enforcement agencies into something more sensible and cost effective. Dismantling the DEA would be a great place to start.
The legitimate law enforcement tasks they perform can be handled by the FBI and others. We'd be wise to begin culling our alphabet soup of federal law enforcement agencies into something more sensible and cost effective. Dismantling the DEA would be a great place to start.
15
Marijuana is most likely no more dangerous a health risk than alcohol, or sugary drinks, or processed foods, or assault rifles (statistically)--all of which are pretty dangerous. When marijuana finds its way onto our shelves, as all acceptably harmful high-profit items ultimately do, I hope it comes along with the proper regulations. Here's a sample warning label: "Use with caution! Fine for Dead concerts and amorous adventures. But do not use before operating machinery, or studying, or putting something down you plan to find later."
3
I am all in favor of more research, however, the delegalization of marijuana gives the impression to many parents and their children that today's marijuana is as mild and relatively safe as the kind toted decades ago.
This is not the case as scores of youth brains are developing directly related psychotic symptoms including schizophrenia and other psychoses, as supported by numerous peer-reviewed long term studied.
The Lancet, one of the most respected medical journals, recently apologized for having underestimated the devastating long-term dangers of today's marijuana.
Yes, many many more studies are needed to both understand its medicinal value.
But we also urgently need to understand its extreme dangers that is likely responsible for at least some of the mental illness that led to mass shootouts.
By delegalizing marijuana, without adequate research, marijuana will very possibly become the new opiate of the masses.
This is not the case as scores of youth brains are developing directly related psychotic symptoms including schizophrenia and other psychoses, as supported by numerous peer-reviewed long term studied.
The Lancet, one of the most respected medical journals, recently apologized for having underestimated the devastating long-term dangers of today's marijuana.
Yes, many many more studies are needed to both understand its medicinal value.
But we also urgently need to understand its extreme dangers that is likely responsible for at least some of the mental illness that led to mass shootouts.
By delegalizing marijuana, without adequate research, marijuana will very possibly become the new opiate of the masses.
2
I'll say it once and hope it makes sense: if marijuana is bad for the body, why do its "components" stay in the body for extremely extended periods of time? Harmful substances are quickly rid from the body, but this is not. Why can't we use this as a start of research? let the human body dictate which substances are harmful based on cycle time to rid it from the body.
1
The end of prohibition did not lead to the decay of the American society. We are still a country of over-worked, high-achievers. Your beer-guzzling pothead son/daughter wouldn't be a rocket scientist if only there were no marijuana or alcohol. Keeping marijuana illegal keeps people in jail, degrades the family structure and perpetuates the cartel business. Cigarette smoking is legal, is linked to lung cancer, is physiologically addictive, has no health benefits and I don't hear anyone clamoring to make it illegal. Opiates are legal, highly addictive and the cause of rising overdose deaths. Marijuana could be an alternative to opiates in some cases and legalization could boost the economy, create jobs, empty our prisons and reduce crime. There is a way to responsibly legalize marijuana. Make smoking of ALL substances illegal in public, that includes in your car, outdoor cafes, at the pool, BUT, you can smoke at will in your home or in an approved smoking facility (would boost sales of air purifiers and push innovation). A mandatory portion of the tax revenues must be put aside for treatment and education programs. Now let's stop this nonsense and show the rest of the world how it's done.
13
The pharmaceutical industry cannot allow marijuana to be recognized as medicine. They have no way to profit from it and it would cut into their markets.
The DEA cannot afford marijuana to not be illegal. Their budget would take way to much of a hit. Police across the nation would have to think up a new strategy for ensnaring poor people and feeding them into the for profit prison industry.
Where is Obama? Of all of our Presidents, he should be the one taking the moral stand and stopping this madness, yet only crickets.
The DEA cannot afford marijuana to not be illegal. Their budget would take way to much of a hit. Police across the nation would have to think up a new strategy for ensnaring poor people and feeding them into the for profit prison industry.
Where is Obama? Of all of our Presidents, he should be the one taking the moral stand and stopping this madness, yet only crickets.
14
I disagree. Marijuana needs to stay right where is, next to heroin on the controlled substance list. Medical marijuana is just an excuse for stoners to smoke. I wonder how many of those who have commented that they buy weed for sick family members sit around with the family member and toke up themselves? Does only the sick person use it? I think not. My wife has gone through two 6 month sessions of extensive physically debilitating chemotherapy. She had no interest in getting stoned to escape its effects. She has character and she's free of cancer. That's why I say medical marijuana is just an excuse to get stoned. The rest of America can get and stay stoned, but I'm not. I have been stoned and I don't like it. I don't like feeling stupid. Feeling stupid might be cool for kids, but at some point in life, one needs to grow up, and behave like an adult. Thank you.
2
While I admittedly sidestep the legalization debate - there are some big and well ignored problems with marijuana use. Part of the problem is the normalization of it - the Country has a bevy or young people who avoid the normal and good problems that they actually need to engage and solve by getting stone. Marijuana use and culture offer a "place to be" rather than grow.
And none of therm drink I suppose?
4
If we are serious about driving down the cost of prescription drugs through competition then we need to remove the very real barrier to competition which results from marijuana prohibition. Opioid use is down in states where medicinal marijuana is allowed. Medicare costs, likewise. Tell the families who have uprooted their families to move to states where non psycho-active varieties of the plant are proven to vastly reduce seizures in children so as to enable them to lead normal lives that there is no medicinal value. And then explain to the rest of us how these same individuals risk criminal prosecution and the loss of their parental rights at the hands of Government agencies. Please explain to me why a veteran suffering from Post Trauma Stress Disorder must work outside of the VA system to receive an alternative to harsher albeit approved drugs?
Clearly DEA is only interested in maintaining justification for the continual prosecution of The War on Drugs, acknowledged, in fact, as a war on people of color. The first duty of any organization is to survive and without the false narrative of the dangers of marijuana, DEA has become obsolete. I would frankly suggest we defund DEA with any savings going to education.
Clearly DEA is only interested in maintaining justification for the continual prosecution of The War on Drugs, acknowledged, in fact, as a war on people of color. The first duty of any organization is to survive and without the false narrative of the dangers of marijuana, DEA has become obsolete. I would frankly suggest we defund DEA with any savings going to education.
6
Marijuana is not benign--it does have many negative effects which are documented. Anecdotally, there are many positive effects or benefits from use. I am not for complete legalization, but the very minimum change which should occur is to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II so more research can be done. The DEA is not operating on science, but on dogma. The documented negative effects of habitual marijuana use don't warrant a Schedule I classification. Habitual alcohol use has far worse effects and great cost to society. If research shows the benefits outweigh the costs, then we may want to look at legalization.
4
We get one sane article from the New York Times about marijuana, then 200 nonsense laughable scare pieces.
So which is it, NYT? Is it heroin, or isn't it?
So which is it, NYT? Is it heroin, or isn't it?
7
One thing I never hear mentioned in any of these articles about legalizing marijuana is the fact that the world's pot-dealing drug lords and organizations will have a say in this discussion. According to reports I've read marijuana is about 20% of the illegal drug trade internationally and we are talking many billions of dollars. So, does it not make sense that whenever this is discussed by politicians there is an empty, albeit not silent, chair at the table, representing the drug lords? Obviously they don't have an open lobby organization (at least none that I know of) but somewhere, somehow these "businessmen" have the ear of powerful people and are not prepared to give up 20% of their business and profits. To think that they will remain silent and let this slip out of their hands without so much as a peep is ignorant. I am no conspiracy nut and this is no conspiracy, it's business, illegal nonetheless, but business all the same.
19
They will either legitimize their business, find a new business, or it will just disappear. Just like the mob had to change at the end of Prohibition.
The only reason criminal cartels have any power now, is because the industry is still underground. The businesses that operate in "legal" states still have no access to police protection or the banking system because of the DEA's garbage.
My biggest fear of legalization is corporate industrialization. How long will it take for some corporation to come up with the big idea of adding an addictive substance like nicotine to create a dependency that never existed before?
The only reason criminal cartels have any power now, is because the industry is still underground. The businesses that operate in "legal" states still have no access to police protection or the banking system because of the DEA's garbage.
My biggest fear of legalization is corporate industrialization. How long will it take for some corporation to come up with the big idea of adding an addictive substance like nicotine to create a dependency that never existed before?
4
Most folks in the Netherlands already add cigarette tobacco to marijuana to cut it. It's disgusting.
Let's all call it like it is; the DEA kept it illegal because they make so much money off it! They aren't fooling anyone. The sad part is...there's nothing we can do about it!
24
Maybe write your congress person; write the president, write the head of the DEA! I am retiring early due to chronic pain. This is not something I want to do. That's life. Everyone is in it for the money (DEA, drug dealers) and no one is considering the people who actually benefit from this drug. Very sad.
5
Cannabis prohibition is the reason the DEA exists.
Conflicted interest? You betcha.
Conflicted interest? You betcha.
11
In this country's specialty for fighting wars with no strategic war, the 'War on Drugs' is sometimes left out of the discussion. Don't know why. Drugs, by any measure, won.
When the answer doesn't make sense the answer is always the same - Money. Too bad we couldn't fund a war on illiteracy with such endless zeal.
When the answer doesn't make sense the answer is always the same - Money. Too bad we couldn't fund a war on illiteracy with such endless zeal.
14
The drug war is probably the root cause of much of the citizen alienation from government that has taken place since the Nixon Administration.
6
I'm a republican who will vote libertarian in this years election for president, both parties have failed us in my opinion. Marijuana should be legalized, prohibition never ever works and has not stopped anyone from smoking pot. This is not to say it's ok for a minor to smoke pot and it should be discourage like alcohol consumption but yes teenagers are smoking pot and drinking alcohol right now for various reasons this is reality. One is legal one isn't both are being used so education is the key and dealing with the underlying problems a teenager is having. Adults who are responsible should be allowed to smoke pot as they do or don't consume alcohol. This doesn't mean driving while intoxicated or going to work intoxicated by alcohol or marijuana, no one is saying this is ok, but adults are smoking pot right now so the illegality isn't stopping it. We need to acknowledge what we are doing isn't working and it's sending money down a rat hole. Making it legal and regulated is the saner approach, educating about the potential hazards of excess will help with the choice to use or not to use. If you over drink it's bad, if you smoke pot excessively it's bad but what's worse is limiting freedom of choice through prohibition, prohibition in the 1920's didn't work it created crime and never stopped it's use even by our presidents.
13
Alaska, California, Nevada, and Oregon have each voted against legalizing recreational use of marijuana. How many states have voted for legalization? It is clear what most people want. Marijuana should not be legalized. Legitimate medical use is one thing, if there is such a thing.
People I know who have traveled to states where medical use is rampant describe farcical procedures to obtain a prescription. The people administering legalized marijuana are stooges for stoners.
People I know who have traveled to states where medical use is rampant describe farcical procedures to obtain a prescription. The people administering legalized marijuana are stooges for stoners.
Oh, Ptootie, if the government actually did what the citizens wanted, there would be sensible gun laws requiring registration and education for gun owners, as well as background checks, and end of the sale of military grade weapons to the public. Yes, you are right that the procedure in states that allow medical MJ is sometimes farcical, but that would end if this herb was simply no longer illegal. As to your uninformed claim that "Legitimate medical use is one thing, if there is such a thing" there is loads of evidence of cannabis' medical applications, though more study is needed to correctly dose and apply those uses.
4
Massachusetts will probably vote "Yes" to recreational cannabis this November.
5
The majority of Americans understand there is a major difference between marijuana and heroin. Politicians understand it as well, but they opt to kick the can down the road of States Rights. IMO, the only way that marijuana can be rescheduled is through the actions of the Executive Branch. A POTUS has to take the power away from the self-serving DEA which is an institutionalized racist organization, in league with the Privatized Prison Industry and the Pharmaceutical Industry which understands there is no profit to be made from a medicine that anyone can grow in their backyard. The strength of these powerful lobbies are on par with the NRA. The only way to bring sanity to this issue is through Executive Action. A POTUS need to do it. I'm hoping that President Obama is that person...or will he just kick the can down the road?
19
Sure, but only if it's available though prescription and restricted like other narcotics. Unfortunately, this is how the left starts...then it's all downhill.
I grow marijuana at home and make tincture from the buds that helps me sleep more effectively and safely than prescription medications like Ambien. Making the tincture is ridiculously easy and cheap and growing pot is interesting and actually kind of fun. The fact that the DEA wants to maintain the farce that this benign activity is so dangerous that it needs to keep defining marijuana as a substance that must be controlled at great expense to taxpayers exposes just how lost this agency is. These people need to take a giant step back and ask themselves just what exactly is the service they provide society and face the hard fact that the funds that support their misguided mission will be much better spent elsewhere (such as addiction treatment).
22
Oh boy. That's going to put a lot of "law enforcement" thugs, and for-profit prison companies out of business. Better think this one through.
21
We shouldn't beg the DEA to be reasonable. We should simply disband the useless criminal operation that is the DEA. Some much smaller group with a strictly foreign mandate (like the CIA for drugs) could work instead.
9
The Prohibition on Alchohol failed.
People like to achieve altered states of consciousness.
Every Culture/Society that has a natural substance that induces one to achieve a state of altered consciousness- consumes that substance.
For the US Government to spend BILLIONS OF $$$$ to fight a war- that's been lost- and not achieved any positive change other than our profitable Judicial Industry- is a waste of taxpayers money.
The MAFIA ( Organized Crime) was invented and enabled by the D.O.J. during Prohibition.
Equally the US Drug War has created El Chapo, The Taliban, FARC, and other World Wide Crime Syndicates, to gain Billions- while we spend Billions attempting to stifle the distribution of drugs
Stop the madness.
Legalize it- tax it- and take the chance to make money outta the hands of those that undermine our culture.
People like to achieve altered states of consciousness.
Every Culture/Society that has a natural substance that induces one to achieve a state of altered consciousness- consumes that substance.
For the US Government to spend BILLIONS OF $$$$ to fight a war- that's been lost- and not achieved any positive change other than our profitable Judicial Industry- is a waste of taxpayers money.
The MAFIA ( Organized Crime) was invented and enabled by the D.O.J. during Prohibition.
Equally the US Drug War has created El Chapo, The Taliban, FARC, and other World Wide Crime Syndicates, to gain Billions- while we spend Billions attempting to stifle the distribution of drugs
Stop the madness.
Legalize it- tax it- and take the chance to make money outta the hands of those that undermine our culture.
16
Back around 1971 I recall reading a squib at the bottom of a column in the Boston Globe about the University of Mississippi's small research facility. At the end of a couple short paragraphs, the bit concluded by saying "When asked about what has been learned about marijuana, a spokesperson said 'Well, the results aren't in yet, but one thing we know for sure — Americans don't know what good dope is.'"
8
I remember a show (PBS?) where volunteers -- serious potheads -- took part in a federal marijuana study, they show a serious pothead taking a hit of pot, he holds it for a few seconds, exhales it, then says,: "This is by far and away the strongest pot I've ever tasted."
1
What if well constructed research, double blinded, random controlled trials reveal that marijuana is not significantly better than placebo, or even harmful, for all the disorders and diseases listed as legitimate for use of medical marijuana? Will the laws the amended?
It's been proven by those very same standards to reduce the pressure on the optical nerve for helping to delay the onset of blindness in glaucoma patients.
Literally decades of evidence: https://nei.nih.gov/news/statements/marij
Literally decades of evidence: https://nei.nih.gov/news/statements/marij
5
I am not sure about that information as the American Acadamy of Ophthalmology has found no evidence that marijuana is useful for glaucoma, and the one study I am aware of was done in the mid-1970s and has since been shown to be flawed.
http://www.aao.org/complimentary-therapy-assessment/marijuana-in-treatme...
http://www.aao.org/complimentary-therapy-assessment/marijuana-in-treatme...
And while we are at it, let's stop treating heroin like heroin.
We need saner drug policies across the board.
We need saner drug policies across the board.
6
Better late (30 years+) then never NYT.
11
If all the commenters are telling the truth then one would have to believe that marijuana is unique among drugs. It's good for mental disorders, pain, seizure disorders, Parkinsons Disease, and many other conditions that have nothing to do with each other and has absolutely no side-effects. Even water can be toxic if you drink too much.
Perhaps someone can explain to me how any of the laws of chemistry and physiology can explain all of this. Or is all just magic in which case we should also go back to believing disease is caused by demonic possession.
Perhaps someone can explain to me how any of the laws of chemistry and physiology can explain all of this. Or is all just magic in which case we should also go back to believing disease is caused by demonic possession.
9
4
Aspirin is good for numerous ailments. Perhaps cannabis is similar.
4
Keeping pot as a schedule 1 drug means continued enforcement dollars for the DEA, and satisfies big pharmaceutical companies lobbyists who view its medicinal benefits as a threat. The fact it will continue ruining lives through racially biased enforcement and limiting access to cancer patients and others is totally beside the point.
The president should be ashamed of himself.
The president should be ashamed of himself.
16
The President should be the Number One crusader to get pot legalized, and certainly for medical purposes.
1
"Marijuana" a complex mixture of, among other toxins, of neurotropic and psychotropic agents, is, simply put, a relatively long-acting brain poison. Its acute effect is intoxication, and its chronic effect in susceptibles is permanent alteration of brain structure and function, ranging from alterations in cognition and personality to psychosis. Its supposed medical benefits are minimal, if indeed existent at all, and barely proven. It is appropriate that carefully controlled studies of the herb and its derivatives be undertaken by scientists and be judged by scientists.
Mr. Obama's untutored opinions on the matter, as his on "alcohol," are irrelevant, as are the self-serving laws drafted by medically naive, and, shall we not say, some graft-driven, and "revenue" driven, legislatures.
"Legalizing" "marijuana" will not relieve physicians of their responsibility for the adverse outcomes of its "medical" use and/or diversion.
What shall those physicians say, for one example, to the parents of children who have been killed or irreversibly maimed in motor vehicle accidents, whose education has been ruined, or whose mental status has been irrevocably altered by its use or diversion?
There are many socially adverse things that some people would like to do, and in fact do, that laws appropriately contain. Need I list them? Uncontrolled "marijuana" use is one of them.
Arthur Taub MD PhD
Clinical Professor (ret.)
Yale University School of Medicine
Mr. Obama's untutored opinions on the matter, as his on "alcohol," are irrelevant, as are the self-serving laws drafted by medically naive, and, shall we not say, some graft-driven, and "revenue" driven, legislatures.
"Legalizing" "marijuana" will not relieve physicians of their responsibility for the adverse outcomes of its "medical" use and/or diversion.
What shall those physicians say, for one example, to the parents of children who have been killed or irreversibly maimed in motor vehicle accidents, whose education has been ruined, or whose mental status has been irrevocably altered by its use or diversion?
There are many socially adverse things that some people would like to do, and in fact do, that laws appropriately contain. Need I list them? Uncontrolled "marijuana" use is one of them.
Arthur Taub MD PhD
Clinical Professor (ret.)
Yale University School of Medicine
2
Prohibition doesn't work, and as long as cannabis is a schedule 1 drug, the necessary studies that are needed can not be done. It is apparent from your letter that you have certain old fashioned "opinions on the matter." It's a good thing you are retired, so that a new, smarter, less biased group of MD PhDs can begin the task of researching this herb which has been in use as a medicinal since the dawn of man.
6
How do you know so much about a substance that has barely been studied?
4
It sounds like your are describing the failure of your fellow physicians and the epidemic they and the pharmaceutical industry have created with the rampant, negligent and unethical over prescription of opioids.
3
Regardless of intended purpose, the DEA is practically and functionally a criminal organization. It approves its own laws (e.g., why does DEA define the scheduling of drugs?); it uses and controls its own enforcement (i.e., violent projection of force), and it benefits directly from the unconstrained leverage of these capacities (e.g., civil forfeiture) . It is an unmuzzled attack dog borne of a completely flawed 'any means to the end' kind of rationale that has been the real substance our leaders' legacies.
9
The editorial overlooks an important between marijuana and those other "dangerous drugs" like opioids that are on lower schedules.
There is virtually no evidence apart from anecdotal that marijuana is beneficial for most of the medical conditions for which the states have approved its use. In contrast, these other drugs have been shown to be beneficial for the conditions for which they are FDA approved through controlled trials. And it's worth noting there are people who have claimed based on anecdotes that LSD is an effective drug for mental disorders and that heroin is more effective than other opioids. If one accepts your argument, then these drugs should also be placed on lower schedules.
There is virtually no evidence apart from anecdotal that marijuana is beneficial for most of the medical conditions for which the states have approved its use. In contrast, these other drugs have been shown to be beneficial for the conditions for which they are FDA approved through controlled trials. And it's worth noting there are people who have claimed based on anecdotes that LSD is an effective drug for mental disorders and that heroin is more effective than other opioids. If one accepts your argument, then these drugs should also be placed on lower schedules.
So the next question your mind should be asking is, "Why is there no evidence?"...followed by, "Why have no comprehensive studies been allowed?"
4
The very sAd thing about this is the people who still think there is a wide gap between the effects fealt when you drink 2 beers and take 1 toke are living in a vacuum. Unable to listen to people who know, they act as if they are brainwashed. Or on real drugs like oxi. These are the same people who blindly take whatever drug their Dr gives them, again, like they are brainwashed. E al know how that has turned out, raging opiate addiction across the country. Time to STOP letting these people stand up for Corporate America. They do not want people having access to something that can be grown in your backyard, they make zero dollars from that.
7
Not that i care about much about legalizing it why isn't this an issue in the election? I hear about tax returns and investigation. She donated to charities. Her own. The working class billionaire has nothing to hide but does. Those are not issues.
Wouldn't it be so much better off if we were to light up. It would be so easy for the occupying forces to occupy. Say you want a revolution, forget about it. Turn on. Tune in. Drop out. Make it easy.
Wouldn't it be so much better off if we were to light up. It would be so easy for the occupying forces to occupy. Say you want a revolution, forget about it. Turn on. Tune in. Drop out. Make it easy.
1
Stop treating a substance abuse medical health human problem as a criminal justice matter. Marijuana and heroin should both be treated like alcohol and tobacco. They should be legal, regulated for quality, illegal for minors, studied, educated about their medical and health use impact and taxed.
The Honolulu Hawaii private Punahou School "Choom Gang" king- Marijuana Barry Obama- should be very sympathetic and empathetic. Barry dedicated his high school senior year book to his Mary Jane dealer. If Obama were really from the South Side of Chicago he would have been lucky to escape arrest, prosecution and incarceration for doing anything while black. Particularly illegal drugs. Back in the day on my South Side of Chicago our MJ man was dubbed Marijuana Jesus. And he looked, dressed and acted the part.
Black folks go to prison for non-violent illegal drug use. White people go to parties, rehab, the emergency room or the morgue for the same illegal drug use life-styles
See "High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self_-Discovery That Challenges Everything That You Know About Drugs and Society" Dr. Carl Hart
The Honolulu Hawaii private Punahou School "Choom Gang" king- Marijuana Barry Obama- should be very sympathetic and empathetic. Barry dedicated his high school senior year book to his Mary Jane dealer. If Obama were really from the South Side of Chicago he would have been lucky to escape arrest, prosecution and incarceration for doing anything while black. Particularly illegal drugs. Back in the day on my South Side of Chicago our MJ man was dubbed Marijuana Jesus. And he looked, dressed and acted the part.
Black folks go to prison for non-violent illegal drug use. White people go to parties, rehab, the emergency room or the morgue for the same illegal drug use life-styles
See "High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self_-Discovery That Challenges Everything That You Know About Drugs and Society" Dr. Carl Hart
6
Mr. President.
We all know what's up.
Don't make Hillary have to do it.
On your way out, do what you can to further the cause of marijuana legalization.
And thanks for your near perfect presidency. And God bless you and your family.
We all know what's up.
Don't make Hillary have to do it.
On your way out, do what you can to further the cause of marijuana legalization.
And thanks for your near perfect presidency. And God bless you and your family.
14
Imagine being a DEA or another law enforcement agent responsible for enforcing federal laws against marijuana. What a waste of human energy.
7
Alcohol is very dangerous and addictive. Far more toxic than pot. It leads to almost 100,000 deaths every year in the US. Pot is not addictive to people. The prison industrial complex is addicted to pot. Legalize pot to reduce crime, cut prison, court and police costs, and open a new legal revenue source to improve the economy. Also, anyone that wants to can grow a few plants. No need for organized crime or the racist organized police state that the current law supports.
10
Pot is addictive. My brother can't get through the day without it. It may have been years since he went a day without smoking it. He's agitated when he's not high. There may not be pronounced physical withdrawal symptoms, but we can't say it's not addictive based on what's described above.
I'm not certain it's harmful, but for the greater good lets figure that out, even if we leave a few pothead patients by the wayside.
I'm not certain it's harmful, but for the greater good lets figure that out, even if we leave a few pothead patients by the wayside.
IMHO, yes and no. Marijuana has a quality control problem.
Even if it is not laced with chemical additives, there are many compounds in marijuana that could affect a person. THC and CBD are the chief compounds that hold both the potentials and dangers.
Serious pharmaceutical companies like GW Pharma (in the UK) has been exploring the medicinal properties of CBD while the many entrepreneurs in the legalized states have exploited THC based edibles etc to augment the regular marijuana.
The way to demystified - and thus declassified - marijuana is treat it as a drug, not necessarily on the same level as LSD but requires supervision. Incidentally, the same should be applied to nutritional supplements and synthetic whatever.
That is to say, while agreeing with this editorial that marijuana is like on the same level as Heroin and LSD, a comprehensive update of substance control and research are necessary holistically.
Even if it is not laced with chemical additives, there are many compounds in marijuana that could affect a person. THC and CBD are the chief compounds that hold both the potentials and dangers.
Serious pharmaceutical companies like GW Pharma (in the UK) has been exploring the medicinal properties of CBD while the many entrepreneurs in the legalized states have exploited THC based edibles etc to augment the regular marijuana.
The way to demystified - and thus declassified - marijuana is treat it as a drug, not necessarily on the same level as LSD but requires supervision. Incidentally, the same should be applied to nutritional supplements and synthetic whatever.
That is to say, while agreeing with this editorial that marijuana is like on the same level as Heroin and LSD, a comprehensive update of substance control and research are necessary holistically.
1
Back in the 70's, my mother's circle of best friends (they met every other month for dinner since graduating high school in 1929) included a wonderful woman and her husband - a superior court judge. Dorothy got cancer, suffered terribly and died. Years later, her husband told the group, which also included a high ranking police officer, that if he had known about the medical qualities of marijuana, he would have risked everything to get it for her. Everyone (except the cop) agreed with him.
5
The only thing that stinks more then pot is the DEA
5
"...many scientists and President Obama have said that it is no more dangerous than alcohol."
Huh? According to the government's own statistics -- on average, how many Americans die from marijuana each year? ZERO.
Marijiuana is "no more dangerous" than fast food, which clearly causes waaaaay more death.
Let's do research on gun deaths....no, wait. Government can't do THAT.
Huh? According to the government's own statistics -- on average, how many Americans die from marijuana each year? ZERO.
Marijiuana is "no more dangerous" than fast food, which clearly causes waaaaay more death.
Let's do research on gun deaths....no, wait. Government can't do THAT.
10
DEA budget for 2017 will be over two billion buckaroos.
7
We really should question whether the DEA is motivated by corruption and is bought by the alcohol industry much like the NRA has bought so much of our congress.
As baby boomers age do you think they want to be standing on street corners waiting for their connection just in order to obtain a harmless recreational substance that does far less harm to the body than alcohol?
I will not spend my golden years in a state that views me as a criminal and no one should have to.
As baby boomers age do you think they want to be standing on street corners waiting for their connection just in order to obtain a harmless recreational substance that does far less harm to the body than alcohol?
I will not spend my golden years in a state that views me as a criminal and no one should have to.
4
Marijuana has already been researched to death. Let's admit it, people like the effect. It's not the cure-all that people are making it out to be. Compared to alcohol, which is the most pernicious drug out there, it's positively benign.
That said it's hard from a moral standpoint to justify legalizing something that gets people high. Booze has been around forever so it gets a pass.
Maybe just leave it the way it is. People like the allure of doing something with questionable legality except that the government is bypassing tons of tax money by allowing this to remain underground.
That said it's hard from a moral standpoint to justify legalizing something that gets people high. Booze has been around forever so it gets a pass.
Maybe just leave it the way it is. People like the allure of doing something with questionable legality except that the government is bypassing tons of tax money by allowing this to remain underground.
1
One ounce of alcohol isn't going to make me high enough to not be effective.
A joint does.
A joint does.
Mike said, "Marijuana has already been researched to death," uh, no Mike, it hasn't. Because it is a schedule 1 drug, independent medical facilities in America can not study it. If we "Maybe just leave it the way it is" we will fall behind the rest of the modern world in tapping into cannabis' medical applications. Keeping MJ illegal forces fools to buy synthetic MJ that is proven to be harmful. So sticking our heads up our butts and making believe everything is fine the way it is will only lead to more harmful outcomes than making this herb legal.
4
The DEA is not about doing the right thing, this is about money nothing more. The DEA risk losing funding most likely if Marijuana if removed from the list but more important they risk losing all the money they take and split with local police from asset forfeiture program. Just look at the USA Today story the other it not about making arrest it about take money to feed there budget.
The DEA is the biggest failure of any govt agency and should be disbanded, how many hundreds of billions have we giving this agency to make little or ZERO headway on their war on Drugs, it time to the FDA control the drugs and let the local police make the arrest by the DEA needs to go away, this agency is more about their budget and survival and nothing more.
The DEA is the biggest failure of any govt agency and should be disbanded, how many hundreds of billions have we giving this agency to make little or ZERO headway on their war on Drugs, it time to the FDA control the drugs and let the local police make the arrest by the DEA needs to go away, this agency is more about their budget and survival and nothing more.
5
Being ignored is a virtual mountain of empirical evidence on the effects of long term marijuana use that has been collecting for the past 50 odd years with the baby-boomers who were the "hippie pot-smokers" of the 1960's and who kept the vice throughout their lives and careers - successful lives and careers to the utter disbelief, disappointment and denial of marijuana's opponents.
75
Editorial Board,
Your premise is wrong: Marijuana is a dangerous drug. Not as dangerous as LSD or heroin, but more dangerous than alcohol, In moderate doses, it can trigger psychotic episodes; in larger doses, cell mutations and brain damage.
The DEA and the government are not "treating marijuana like heroin." The penalties for heroin marketers and users are more severe.
And as for the case that marijuana lessens pain for cancer patients, there are other safer pain relievers and analgesics. Banning marijuana may stimulate research on even better pain killers, which is an underfunded area of research.
Your premise is wrong: Marijuana is a dangerous drug. Not as dangerous as LSD or heroin, but more dangerous than alcohol, In moderate doses, it can trigger psychotic episodes; in larger doses, cell mutations and brain damage.
The DEA and the government are not "treating marijuana like heroin." The penalties for heroin marketers and users are more severe.
And as for the case that marijuana lessens pain for cancer patients, there are other safer pain relievers and analgesics. Banning marijuana may stimulate research on even better pain killers, which is an underfunded area of research.
4
The NYT obsession with legalizing pot causes me to conclude that NYT employees are either potheads yourselves or speculating in marijuana futures. or both. Can you imagine life with marijuana? It does exist. And I have seen, up close and personal, as a psychotherapist, a college professor, and former spouse, the destructive effects of this brain-addling drug. Shame on you, NYT.
1
correction to my first post: "Can you imagine life withOUT marijuana?" And I add, marijuana prescribed by a licensed physician and dispensed via a licensed pharmacy for a specific medical condition certainly should be legal, if it alleviates intractable pain and nausea. I am speaking of "recreational pot" sold for profit for faux "medical use."
1
The DEA, as a government agency should work for us citizens. Removing cannabis from schedule 1 would demonstrate the DEA works for citizens at large and not special interests focussing on keeping prisons overcrowded.
5
76% of alcohol poisoning deaths are amoung adults ages 35-64. An average of 6 people die of alcohol poisoning each day in the US. Alcohol poisoning deaths are most common among middle aged adults.Jan 6, 2015
No one has ever died due to cannabis poisoning.
No one has ever died due to cannabis poisoning.
25
Once again purantanical policy blocks our constitutional right to pursue happiness.
10
Marijuana is no more a drug than carrots or chrysanthemums. It is a plant that grows out of the ground and is not altered by any chemical process for consumption. It makes as much sense to outlaw poppies or coffee beans. But as with so many other social policies, the U.S. lags behind, a timid, elderly auntie who gets her world view from Reader's Digest. This is know for sure: no one is not smoking weed because it's illegal.
6
This is one issue where Liberals, Libertarians and even a lot of Tea Party conservatives can come together and enact legislation to change this law. the DEA should not be able to have this kind of control.
This is also another reason to get rid of Citizens United. I have no doubt Big Pharma (pots biggest competition) and Private Prison lobbies are convincing legislators and members of Congress to continue with Nixon's racist War on Drugs. How shameful.
This is also another reason to get rid of Citizens United. I have no doubt Big Pharma (pots biggest competition) and Private Prison lobbies are convincing legislators and members of Congress to continue with Nixon's racist War on Drugs. How shameful.
9
And a great reason to vote fro Gary Johnson, who is on record to end schedule 1 status
1
"Safety" and "medical use" are deliberate diversions by marijuana legalization opponents, designed to divert the debate into murky areas where there is little or no scientific evidence. By focusing on "safety", opponents set a false standard for marijuana, demanding it be "proved" to be safer and more benign than bottled water before engaging in whether it should be legalized.
The absolute safety of marijuana or its remote, existential risks shouldn't really be the deciding factors in legalization. The debate really needs to be framed around whether criminalization policies have accomplished anything of practical value relative to their many financial, social, criminal justice and civil rights costs.
This is the debate that continued criminalization advocates don't want to have, because it becomes obvious to even a casual observer that billions spent annually by law enforcement to enforce marijuana laws have been nearly totally ineffective at preventing anyone who wanted to acquire it from doing so. The entire criminalization argument is like peeling an onion -- you keep removing layers and you're left with nothing.
The absolute safety of marijuana or its remote, existential risks shouldn't really be the deciding factors in legalization. The debate really needs to be framed around whether criminalization policies have accomplished anything of practical value relative to their many financial, social, criminal justice and civil rights costs.
This is the debate that continued criminalization advocates don't want to have, because it becomes obvious to even a casual observer that billions spent annually by law enforcement to enforce marijuana laws have been nearly totally ineffective at preventing anyone who wanted to acquire it from doing so. The entire criminalization argument is like peeling an onion -- you keep removing layers and you're left with nothing.
7
When you try to decimalize cannabis government agency like the DEA will always resist. The main reason is you are taking their rice bowl away. There funding, their paychecks, pensions are all on the line. In other words they make a lot of money locking people up. And yes it is always about the money.
11
The DEA is acting like the climate change deniers. Evidence of comparable harm between Heroin and Marijuana? The only real danger is that legalizing pot will have the same effect that ending prohibition had on bootleggers. When the crime disappears so do the law enforcement/judicial/corrections jobs. The DEA has a vested interest in keeping pot illegal. So does the drug cartels, the pharmaceutical industry, the alcohol industry, and the politicians who feed at their troughs. Government should be advised by professionals who have no skin in the game who will evaluate the benefits and the harm done to the population by alcohol, tobacco, heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and sugar and also the harm done by arresting and incarcerating citizens, minorities for the crime of using a non-lethal, non-addictive substance.
7
Everyone in power, Obama included, acts as though the DEA is accountable to no one. How convenient for them. The reality is that everyone in power, Obama especially, bears responsibility for the DEA's decisions.
5
Is the D.E.A. in the pocket of "Big Pharma"?
It sure appears that way to me as once again the D.E.A. once again turns it's back on common sense and will not even allow research into the medicinal properties of T.H.C. which I know for a fact do have pain relieving properties.
The simple fact that these narrow minded people would rather put people in jail that let the heal themselves is obvious.
It is also obvious the "Big Pharma" wants to keep a strangle hold on pain relievers that are addictive and harmful or do not work at all. I know for a fact that used properly Mary Jane can and does do wonders for joint pain relief. But he big pharmaceutical companies see legalization as a threat to their bottom line and no doubt lobby the D.E.A. of keep pot as a schedule 1 drug.
Shame on the D.E.A.
It sure appears that way to me as once again the D.E.A. once again turns it's back on common sense and will not even allow research into the medicinal properties of T.H.C. which I know for a fact do have pain relieving properties.
The simple fact that these narrow minded people would rather put people in jail that let the heal themselves is obvious.
It is also obvious the "Big Pharma" wants to keep a strangle hold on pain relievers that are addictive and harmful or do not work at all. I know for a fact that used properly Mary Jane can and does do wonders for joint pain relief. But he big pharmaceutical companies see legalization as a threat to their bottom line and no doubt lobby the D.E.A. of keep pot as a schedule 1 drug.
Shame on the D.E.A.
9
Can you imagine how much $$$ Big Pharma would lose re: anti-depression medicines if more shrinks (drug dealers) said: go blow a joint? Instead, they recommend drugs, and if you notice, check out these mass killings/killers; if I'm not mistaken, most are on some kind of anti-depression drugs.
6
Stop treating heroin like heroin.
3
The obvious reason the DEA wants marijuana listed as a schedule 1 drug is to preserve the power and size of the DEA itself. Self-preservation is their goal. Period.
6
Morons, morons, morons. I have epilepsy caused by a brain tumor and the two operations that it took to remove the cancer. I used to seizure on an average of 12 times a month. I'm on three medications to try to keep them at that rate. YET, when I moved to NC and had a safer access to pot it reduced them to five. Treating pot as an equa to HEROIN and LSD shows how many idiots we have in Washington.
12
Easy to grow, impossible to tax. Ain't that right Andrew.
9
I'm a fan. And I don't drink. Judging by what I've seen, I may be the only person in Florida who doesn't drink.
The Federal Govt. treats marijuana like the Zika Virus. Yet in Amsterdam, and more and more states in the U.S., you can belly up to the coffeehouse bar and grab yourself a hefty cup of Morning Zika. That's insane. Remove the Schedule 1 label. Allow the research to happen. Stop stifling it.
Want to make a serious dent in the opiate epidemic in this country? Legalize pot.
Want to reduce the amount of domestic violence in this country due to drunk tirades? Legalize pot.
Want to reduce the black market that traffics pot, and instead focus on the hard drugs that really do destroy lives? Legalize pot.
Want to see some tax revenue go back into the local community, as opposed to disappearing into the black hole of Crime? Legalize pot.
Want to erase some of the racial inequality that occurs in disproportionate arrests for possession? Legalize pot.
The Federal Govt. treats marijuana like the Zika Virus. Yet in Amsterdam, and more and more states in the U.S., you can belly up to the coffeehouse bar and grab yourself a hefty cup of Morning Zika. That's insane. Remove the Schedule 1 label. Allow the research to happen. Stop stifling it.
Want to make a serious dent in the opiate epidemic in this country? Legalize pot.
Want to reduce the amount of domestic violence in this country due to drunk tirades? Legalize pot.
Want to reduce the black market that traffics pot, and instead focus on the hard drugs that really do destroy lives? Legalize pot.
Want to see some tax revenue go back into the local community, as opposed to disappearing into the black hole of Crime? Legalize pot.
Want to erase some of the racial inequality that occurs in disproportionate arrests for possession? Legalize pot.
13
I noticed in the coffee shops in Amsterdam, those drinking beer weren't smoking pot, those smoking pot weren't drinking beer. And some, far as I could tell, were doing neither.
1
Job security motivates this decision. Can't think of a single reason why the DEA would drop marijuana when it's not in THEIR interest to do so.
11
What may just happen is this: In November 9 more states are voting on some form of legal cannabis, either medically or fully. California is voting on full legalization, and the polls so far indicate it will pass, with a number of prominent Camifornia politicians endorsing the proposal (none did on Prop 19).
It is looking increasingly likely that HRC will win in Nov, and that the Senate and House GOPers will suffer devastating losses.
If/when those things come to pass, it is highly conceivable that President Obama will move or deschedule cannabis on his way out. And with HRC in power, and Congress less obstructionist, we could finally see the scourge of freedom, the DEA, relegated to the corner of disgrace where they belong.
It is looking increasingly likely that HRC will win in Nov, and that the Senate and House GOPers will suffer devastating losses.
If/when those things come to pass, it is highly conceivable that President Obama will move or deschedule cannabis on his way out. And with HRC in power, and Congress less obstructionist, we could finally see the scourge of freedom, the DEA, relegated to the corner of disgrace where they belong.
5
Clinton will not decriminalize it, but Gary Johnson will.
Alcohol is far more dangerous than marijuana. Stop this reefer madness.
7
We should legalize small scale growing of marijuana plants. Let people make it for themselves. I see no reason to involve corporate America in this. Corporations will seek annual growth, market it, as seen in Colorado where hipsters have it as a little bite of chocolate. We will choose to spawn an industry similar to the tobacco companies of our past.
5
What about those of us who don't like second hand smoke?
Venti, there are so many different ways to consume cannabis: edibles, vaporizers, tinctures, so there is no need to worry about second hand smoke. Like cigarettes, use of smoking anything will have restrictions on it so that those who are not interested in consuming won't have to. Don't worry so much about something that really doesn't affect you.
7
We will be very considerate of your right to a smoke free environment.
Rest assured.
Rest assured.
5
The DEA has a substance abuse problem : it Is addicted to its power and large budget. It's high time for an interdiction.
9
Don't expect the DEA or DOJ to take action on this. The DEA especially is jealous of it's turf and will resist any attempt to limit it's power and influence; let alone it's budget.
It will take Presidential action to make this change. Don't expect results soon. From any Presidents perspective this is a small issue compared to others more pressing and the new Presidents personal objectives. Easier to let the 'Laboratory of the States' continue to explore the consequences of the issue as in Washington and Colorado plus others.
And keep in mind that any attempt to decriminalize pot at the national level will cause an uproar from the Neanderthals on the right. Those who support sentencing reform and legalization will be gun shy about this for that reason. So expect little from Congress.
In the mean time support legalization at your local state level.
It will take Presidential action to make this change. Don't expect results soon. From any Presidents perspective this is a small issue compared to others more pressing and the new Presidents personal objectives. Easier to let the 'Laboratory of the States' continue to explore the consequences of the issue as in Washington and Colorado plus others.
And keep in mind that any attempt to decriminalize pot at the national level will cause an uproar from the Neanderthals on the right. Those who support sentencing reform and legalization will be gun shy about this for that reason. So expect little from Congress.
In the mean time support legalization at your local state level.
3
stoner nation awesome dude
this makes the DEA look like dumb fools, "reefer madness" and all that garbage. I am recovering from breast cancer and pot not opioids helped me deal with the pain. the DEA allows doctors to dish out harmful addictive drugs like candy. Pot never hurt anyone.
7
As a physician, I am in favor of legalization of recreational marijuana but remain opposed to the entire concept of "medical marijuana". The lack of any high quality research on marijuana's medical benefits makes it the same as any other "alternative" medicine: unproven. Despite marijuana's vociferous supporters, anecdotes and individual case studies do not prove anything. This is not surprising since, like many natural substances, the exact dosage and chemical composition of the compounds actually ingested are extremely variable. How much is placebo effect? How much is physiologic and how much is psychological? The answer is, we don't know. So until there is a satisfactory body of knowledge as well as a standardized pharmacopoeia, it will be extremely difficult to separate fact from hype.
The other problem that physicians face is that, despite legalization at the state level, it is still illegal under federal law to prescribe a Schedule I drug. Since all physicians are subject to DEA oversight, this creates a legal trap that could come back to haunt any physician who prescribes marijuana, no matter how benevolent the intention. So until the scientific and legal morass is cleared, smoke all you want - just don't expect me to prescribe it for you.
The other problem that physicians face is that, despite legalization at the state level, it is still illegal under federal law to prescribe a Schedule I drug. Since all physicians are subject to DEA oversight, this creates a legal trap that could come back to haunt any physician who prescribes marijuana, no matter how benevolent the intention. So until the scientific and legal morass is cleared, smoke all you want - just don't expect me to prescribe it for you.
17
baldo, my family has many physicians, and all are in agreement that cannabis is no where near the danger that opioids and alcohol are. To keep it as a schedule 1 substance makes it impossible for American scientists to properly study its medical applications and dosages. However, there are many other countries that have been studying MJ's medical use with tons of evidence that it is indeed a wonder drug that can be used for many medical uses, from pain management to seizure reduction. Do some deeper research of studies conducted in Isreal and the Netherlands, and educate yourself.
5
My husband of 31 years was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer in June. His pain escalated quickly and he went from Percocet to Morphine in a matter of weeks. That finally managed the pain, but left him light headed, constipated, and 'out of it'. After a couple of scary falls, he stopped getting out of bed without help. After starting Chemo, he developed Morphine induced hallucinations and went back to Percocet.
Meanwhile, he was wasting away; had no appetite, was nauseous, and his throat hurt too much to eat solid food. Anti-nausea meds worked sometimes. On the days he got sick, he took in almost no calories. On good days, he could only force himself to drink a couple of Ensure Plus.
When our home scale showed his weight to be 115 pounds, I had enough.
I took the risk asking around to find marijuana and began treatment. Almost immediately, he was hungry again, he ate solid food again, and there is hope again. It was miraculous.
How many thousands of others have gone through this because we live in states where medical marijuana is illegal. I have little doubt that if someone at D.E.A. had a family member starving to death from Chemo, they would find some illegal marijuana. That's probably what they expect the rest of us to do.
I don't drink or smoke. I don't break the rules. I don't enjoy sneaking around and taking a risk to get a substance that my husband needs to live. It is shameful that I, or anyone else, should have to.
Meanwhile, he was wasting away; had no appetite, was nauseous, and his throat hurt too much to eat solid food. Anti-nausea meds worked sometimes. On the days he got sick, he took in almost no calories. On good days, he could only force himself to drink a couple of Ensure Plus.
When our home scale showed his weight to be 115 pounds, I had enough.
I took the risk asking around to find marijuana and began treatment. Almost immediately, he was hungry again, he ate solid food again, and there is hope again. It was miraculous.
How many thousands of others have gone through this because we live in states where medical marijuana is illegal. I have little doubt that if someone at D.E.A. had a family member starving to death from Chemo, they would find some illegal marijuana. That's probably what they expect the rest of us to do.
I don't drink or smoke. I don't break the rules. I don't enjoy sneaking around and taking a risk to get a substance that my husband needs to live. It is shameful that I, or anyone else, should have to.
111
Willa, I am so sorry about your husband, and the position you find yourself in. And I agree with you 100%: it IS shameful! My husband's first wife passed away from breast cancer, and toward the end of her life, found relief with marijuana -- and some nuns helped her contact a source! (They were involved in inner city work, where his wife volunteered.) This situation is wrong. It must be changed, the sooner, the better for us all.
3
So let me see if I'm getting this straight... The number of editorials I have seen in the pages of the NY Times railing against the dangers of smoking and how it should be more regulated, laws should be more stringent, etc., have been countless.
Now, the NY Times editorial board is railing against stringent laws about something else that is smoked and does as much damage lungs and health overall.
Can I assume then that if/when cigarettes become an illegal controlled substance that this paper will begin to write editorials promoting the benefits of tobacco and how much more research needs to be done on it?
Now, the NY Times editorial board is railing against stringent laws about something else that is smoked and does as much damage lungs and health overall.
Can I assume then that if/when cigarettes become an illegal controlled substance that this paper will begin to write editorials promoting the benefits of tobacco and how much more research needs to be done on it?
Paulo, there is no evidence that cannabis causes any type of cancer, including lung cancer, even if smoked. However, there are many ways to consume MJ: edibles, vaporizers, tinctures. No smoking necessary!
6
LDK, there's no direct evidence that smoking causes cancer either, but there it is.
Big Pharma has captured the DEA and Congress.
Marijuana is an effective pain reducer. The human body has built in THC receptors. Many people have moved to Colorado to seek relief from pain and to escape the side effects of opiates. I see them here all the time.
Unfortunately, because marijuana is a natural substance no patents are available to protect profits for big Pharma.
The DEA needs to protect its funding. No need to review the facts.
It's always about the money. This country is truly corrupt.
Marijuana is an effective pain reducer. The human body has built in THC receptors. Many people have moved to Colorado to seek relief from pain and to escape the side effects of opiates. I see them here all the time.
Unfortunately, because marijuana is a natural substance no patents are available to protect profits for big Pharma.
The DEA needs to protect its funding. No need to review the facts.
It's always about the money. This country is truly corrupt.
7
The entire federal bureaucratic apparatus is due foe a major overhaul and shake-up.
We have the voting technology to nullify the decisions of unelected bureaucrats who function like feudal dictators, as well as axe their careers.
We need to start using that power.
We have the voting technology to nullify the decisions of unelected bureaucrats who function like feudal dictators, as well as axe their careers.
We need to start using that power.
3
Your editorial position fails to distinguish between the THC euphoria and CHC mellowing marijuana varieties. Your editorial represents a veiled endorsement of the wide spread recreational use of the THC concentrated variety of marijuana. This federal reclassification will unleash the tobacco companies serious preproduction plans that will once again targeted toward the adolescent consumer. Elected officals, public authorities and adult role models who condone and even praise the use of intoxicants and euphric substance abuse present very bad role models and set terrible examples to teenagers who are developmentally prone to experimentation.
All throughout the teen age years the adolescent brain is still developing its cognitive capacity,
Delaying the onset of experimentation with marijuana and other intoxicants until the adult brain has been fully developed is "brain health mission critical"
While marijuana may not harm the fully developed adult brain, marijuana and similar euphoric agents and intoxicants will distort and damage the adolescent brain's cognitaive development.
on YouTube watch short video produced by the United States Government Drug Enforcement Administration CHASING THE DRAGON; THE LIFE OF AN OPIATE ADDICT
and notice the young age at which each case study began using marijuana
All throughout the teen age years the adolescent brain is still developing its cognitive capacity,
Delaying the onset of experimentation with marijuana and other intoxicants until the adult brain has been fully developed is "brain health mission critical"
While marijuana may not harm the fully developed adult brain, marijuana and similar euphoric agents and intoxicants will distort and damage the adolescent brain's cognitaive development.
on YouTube watch short video produced by the United States Government Drug Enforcement Administration CHASING THE DRAGON; THE LIFE OF AN OPIATE ADDICT
and notice the young age at which each case study began using marijuana
Sencha, you are correct that a developing brain should be drug free, and alcohol free for that matter. This isn't about encouraging cannabis use, it's about ending the draconian regulation of keeping it a schedule 1 drug, considered as addictive and destructive as heroin, which is ridiculous and politically motivated.
4
The new, NEW excuse:
"This decision isn't based on danger," DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg told NPR. "This decision is based on whether marijuana, as determined by the FDA, is a safe and effective medicine, and it's not."
"As determined by the FDA." - Of course, given their required parameters (consistently measured dosage, traditional delivery (NOT smoking), etc,. the FDA will never approve the whole plant as a medicine. So the DEA thinks that takes them off the hook.
No. - Because marijuana is primarily a RECREATIONAL drug, like more harmful alcohol and tobacco. They want to have their cake and eat it, too. The reason for the DEA's existence is mostly because of the massive, recreational consumption of marijuana. - But when forced to address the validity of it's prohibition, they ignore it's primarily recreational nature and pretend it's only for medical purposes.
What can you expect from the DEA? The agency was born corrupt out of paranoid, criminal President Nixon's war on his "enemies" - Blacks and the Peace Movement!
The DEA is a massive part of the problem and should be dismantled immediately!
End the federal marijuana prohibition with two clicks!
http://pac.petitions.moveon.org/sign/marijuana-freedom-now-1
"This decision isn't based on danger," DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg told NPR. "This decision is based on whether marijuana, as determined by the FDA, is a safe and effective medicine, and it's not."
"As determined by the FDA." - Of course, given their required parameters (consistently measured dosage, traditional delivery (NOT smoking), etc,. the FDA will never approve the whole plant as a medicine. So the DEA thinks that takes them off the hook.
No. - Because marijuana is primarily a RECREATIONAL drug, like more harmful alcohol and tobacco. They want to have their cake and eat it, too. The reason for the DEA's existence is mostly because of the massive, recreational consumption of marijuana. - But when forced to address the validity of it's prohibition, they ignore it's primarily recreational nature and pretend it's only for medical purposes.
What can you expect from the DEA? The agency was born corrupt out of paranoid, criminal President Nixon's war on his "enemies" - Blacks and the Peace Movement!
The DEA is a massive part of the problem and should be dismantled immediately!
End the federal marijuana prohibition with two clicks!
http://pac.petitions.moveon.org/sign/marijuana-freedom-now-1
4
Stop treating marijuana like soft drinks! The rise in marijuana use has corresponded with the rise in mental illness and other problems. Remember, every single mass shooter in the US has a history of drug abuse.
I applaud the Obama administration to allow researchers to determine if marijuana has medical benefits. And if the studies do not prove that it does, then it should not be dispensed for medical purposes.
And there is already evidence that marijuana use that impair brain development and function:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J069v19n01_01
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4827335/
It is time for science to investigate this issue, and for the Editors to stop their advocacy until the evidence comes in.
After all, the medical profession has an obligation to "do no harm," and that means obtaining real scientific evidence before making a major change that could hurt people.
I applaud the Obama administration to allow researchers to determine if marijuana has medical benefits. And if the studies do not prove that it does, then it should not be dispensed for medical purposes.
And there is already evidence that marijuana use that impair brain development and function:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J069v19n01_01
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4827335/
It is time for science to investigate this issue, and for the Editors to stop their advocacy until the evidence comes in.
After all, the medical profession has an obligation to "do no harm," and that means obtaining real scientific evidence before making a major change that could hurt people.
The Times and I normally differ on just about everything. However, this time we are on the same page. Nixon started this 'war on drugs' to draw attention away from his inability to make good on his campaign promise to get this country out of Viet Nam. The result of that 'war' has been just that. Millions dead and millions incarcerated. As far back as written record exists, drugs/alcohol have existed. Telling a person what they can put into their own body indicates the rule makers believe they own our bodies. A hundred years from now, people will look back on our 'war on drugs' the same way we look back on prohibition. It is stupid, immoral, ineffective and it causes literally millions of more deaths across the planet than drugs ever could hope to do.
12
Imagine what would happen to the US if there were a drug that makes thinking feel like fun...
11
>>>>>
Drug use is a tacit admission of a forbidden truth. For most people happiness is beyond reach. Fulfilment is found not in daily life but in escaping from it. Since happiness is unavailable, the mass of mankind seeks pleasure. Societies founded on a faith in progress cannot admit the normal unhappiness of human life. As result, they are bound to wage war on those who seek an artificial happiness in drugs’”
John N. Gray
Drug use is a tacit admission of a forbidden truth. For most people happiness is beyond reach. Fulfilment is found not in daily life but in escaping from it. Since happiness is unavailable, the mass of mankind seeks pleasure. Societies founded on a faith in progress cannot admit the normal unhappiness of human life. As result, they are bound to wage war on those who seek an artificial happiness in drugs’”
John N. Gray
5
I'm all for medical use of marijuana, but let's not be coy. It's a very pleasant drug, and in many ways a preferable alternative to alcohol. If we as a society are going to tolerate alcohol and tobacco, then there is no scientific or moral reason why we should not also tolerate marijuana. I respect and welcome the arguments centered around medical marijuana, but I wish we as a country could cast off our puritan heritage, and proudly and plainly say, "I enjoy getting stoned, please treat me like an adult and legalize it now."
25
There is a conflict of interest in any government agency deciding for itself the scope of its authority. Where is it in the mandate for the DEA that the agency alone will classify drugs? Where are the independent studies supporting the DEA position? In light of recent state election mandates decriminalizing marijuana, the DEA should be asking the White House and Congress for guidance on the issue.
The five decade US "War on Drugs" has failed at its stated goal of stemming the tide of drugs entering the country, but it has been quite successful in creating an intrenched police/courts/prison industrial complex of which the DEA is a pillar. The agency should be on the top of the right-wing list of failed, redundant, wasteful government agencies.
The five decade US "War on Drugs" has failed at its stated goal of stemming the tide of drugs entering the country, but it has been quite successful in creating an intrenched police/courts/prison industrial complex of which the DEA is a pillar. The agency should be on the top of the right-wing list of failed, redundant, wasteful government agencies.
9
Marijuana, or dope, impairs memory and critical thinking, even years after not smoking it. This effect is particularly acute in the developing brain of children, teenagers, and those in their twenties. Scientific research has confirmed this fact and the New York Times is irresponsible in the lack of objective reporting not to refer to this research. Different plants even within the same variety have different amounts of THC which makes the effects unpredictable and has been an obstacle to scientists in their research. This unpredictability can lead to a hallucinogenic experience, unlike alcohol. Even one puff can lead some individuals to severe convulsions and vomiting that can impair their breathing and be fatal. Recently, an article stated emergencies in hospitals with children that had accidentally ingested marijuana in states where it is legal. As marijuana becomes more accepted, emergency cases in adults as well will be documented. Marijuana should remain a controlled substance. But that seems impossible now that so many want to be stoned. Therefore, every drug should just be legalized and we should just let anyone ruin their lives, and ours, as they please. The increase in heroin use is evidence that marijuana is not enough. Marijuana smoking can cause lung cancer as well. All drugs have negative side effects, even those over the counter.
9
I don't know where you get your "facts" that MJ causes all of the diseases you mentioned, but my family, full of physicians who have actually studied the effects of cannabis, found there is no evidence that it causes cancer, even lung cancer. If you actually read the studies, those patients who were MJ smokers that developed lung cancer, were also cigarette smokers: it was the nicotine that caused the lung cancer. I do agree with you that more medical research needs to be done to properly formulate dosage for medical applications. And yes, unfortunately, there will be fools who consume too much and wind up in the ER. But guess what? You can actually die from drinking too much water. Should we make water an illegal substance?
5
OMG!!! You have got to be kidding right?
4
Well documented studies have so far shown no link between marijuana use and lung cancer.
4
Well, that was 50 years well spent. Now let's drag the chain for another few generations, in case that money gets spent on something useful. This law achieves nothing but making criminals rich and ridiculous use of law enforcement resources. It'll be legal in half the states soon enough, and is anyone at all claiming there's a compelling reason for it not to be? Game over. End this farce, now.
3
Marijuana is not some benign substance with no side effects. It alters brain chemistry and is obvious to anyone who knows chronic users, permanently. It has a dependency rate of of 1 in 11. It can cause extreme psychiatric responses and material impact in learning, especially for the young. Rather than displace some modicum of responsibility, the press, media, actors, sports stars, music stars, and too manny government officials promote it as if it is a free high without consequences. The right policies are worthy of debate, but instead the country is headlong in a process of promoting (not decriminalizing) the drug to young people everywhere. Everytime, I see a movie, an assinine press report essentially making fun of those that oppose limitation on a drug, I think about my friend whose sone went in and out of rehab for pot use and eventually died from a fall while high.
1
Sorry about your friend's son and his demise, but it wasn't cannabis that killed him, it was his inability to control himself and live a productive life. Many people unfortunately fall into this category and drink themselves to death, or use other drugs and eventually kill themselves. This is a mental health issue that needs to be addressed. For those of us who live responsible, productive lives, and still enjoy using cannabis, the prohibition of this herb is ridiculous and over blown.
2
How do you measure the "danger" of a drug? How can somebody say that marijuana is more or less "dangerous" than alcohol. Maybe one day people will realise - in the US as well as over here in Germany - that this is not the issue anyway. Leagalising marijuana is not a question of "danger" but a question of liberty i.e. in a free country it is nobodys business what an other person is smoking, for what reason. The often heard idea that a state has to protect it's citizens from "danger" does not really fly, since the state allows it's citizens a lot of dangerous things e.g. drinking alcohol (be it more or less dangerous than marijuana - it is dangerous), being obese, participating in motor traffic etc. This is how it has to be in a free country.
The main difference between alcohol and marijuana is however: There is a tremendously big industry - and hence lobby power - behind alcohol. There are brewer, and winemaker, and booze producer association. There is no cannabis farmer association (yet).
Of course it is possible to get a health problem from marijuana, but the term "health" tells you already to which field of politics this issue belongs: To public health and not to criminal law - same as with alcohol.
The main difference between alcohol and marijuana is however: There is a tremendously big industry - and hence lobby power - behind alcohol. There are brewer, and winemaker, and booze producer association. There is no cannabis farmer association (yet).
Of course it is possible to get a health problem from marijuana, but the term "health" tells you already to which field of politics this issue belongs: To public health and not to criminal law - same as with alcohol.
5
"in a free country it is nobodys business what an other person is smoking, for what reason"..... Unless of course it impairs their function in things like driving a car, operating heavy equipment, or any other task that endangers others. Or if it impairs there cognitive skills or ambition such that it requires others to fulfill their obligations which are required of someone living in a social society. Whenever what someone does affects the lives of others....it is the business of others by definition.
Well It Is About Time! Even now the powers that be have not gone far enough. I am very old and have been suffering severe back pain for a long while. I have had injections in my back to no avail. The back pain specialists I have been seeing all tell me the same thing - I am too old for any surgery. and surgery has a low success rate. But they are all willing to give me narcotic painkillers, which I have avoided so far for fear of becoming addicted. Legal medical marijuana would help me get through my remaining years, and I would not have to worry about addiction. A strange contradiction: I can take narcotic pain pills in unlimited number, but I cannot have access to pot.
4
It is nearly impossible to get a person to understand something, if their paycheck depends on their not understanding. Thus we see the intractable thinking of the DEA.
DEA stands for Dismiss Every Argument!
DEA stands for Dismiss Every Argument!
12
Keeping marijuana listed as a Schedule I drug shows that the DEA has no credibility at all. To argue that marijuana has no legitimate medical use is something I'd expect out of Donald Trump, a man incapable of recognizing the truth.
Congress needs to act. But, wait, both houses are controlled by Republicans, the party that brought us Trump.
Despite the current Republican nominee's unfamiliarity with the truth and the Republican Party's constant denial of science, the truth does matter. Clearly, the only way to get marijuana rescheduled is to elect Democratic majorities to both houses in November and Hillary Clinton to the presidency. Then, there will be no excuse to continue to list marijuana as a Schedule I drug.
Congress needs to act. But, wait, both houses are controlled by Republicans, the party that brought us Trump.
Despite the current Republican nominee's unfamiliarity with the truth and the Republican Party's constant denial of science, the truth does matter. Clearly, the only way to get marijuana rescheduled is to elect Democratic majorities to both houses in November and Hillary Clinton to the presidency. Then, there will be no excuse to continue to list marijuana as a Schedule I drug.
3
"To argue that marijuana has no legitimate medical use"......Then treat it exactly the same way you treat all other medication - same proof of effacacy, same standard of purity, same regulation. You do know that morphime is a derrivative of heroin? Ridilin is related to methamphetamine? Pergolide, used to treat Parkinson's, is deriveded fro LSD? Nabalone for relieving the effects of chemo in treating cancer patients comes from a THC component? Of course marijuana has medically useful components, but medical maijuana itself is a fraud, designed as a back door entry to a recreational drug. If you think marijuana should be legalized, then be honest and use the front door.
Remember, this is the same DEA that refused to admit to congress that pot isn't as bad as Crack and Meth.
It's hard to reconcile the stringent limitations on research with estimates that more than 30 million Americans smoke pot occasionally or regularly. That's twice as many vs. 2000.
If Pot is so toxic that it can't be tested under medical supervision, where are the hospital reports of people dying from pot addiction? I must have missed them between the articles on prescription opioids overdoses.
It's hard to reconcile the stringent limitations on research with estimates that more than 30 million Americans smoke pot occasionally or regularly. That's twice as many vs. 2000.
If Pot is so toxic that it can't be tested under medical supervision, where are the hospital reports of people dying from pot addiction? I must have missed them between the articles on prescription opioids overdoses.
4
Never thought I would see the day that NYT, "All the news that is fit to print," the "Gray Lady," still, despite editorials that I find often to be jejune and puerile, schilling for the marijuana industry, or "mary jane" as it was called back in the day,There is a reason that "marijuana" is called a "stupefiant:"Being a user makes you stupid. If one has ever taught h.s., and tried teaching Voltaire or the significance of the Munich Pact, or difference between, the indicative and the subjunctive in a foreign language class, you know that inculcating anything of scholarly importance into students, already deficient in terms of basic skills, but high on drugs to boot, is an impossible task. Do I want to think that while driving I am faced with motorists high on drugs? Negative. Does using marijuana lead to taking stronger drugs like hashish and crack cocaine?Of course it does.If u lack the will power to resist becoming a low level drug user, why would u resist the urge to try stronger stuff? The old saw, bromide that it is not as destructive as alcohol is irrelevant.Both r harmful.How will we ever achieve the beau ideal, the Jeffersonian exemplar of an educated, politically aware electorate if citizenry is high on drugs? No wonder we allow ourselves to be taken advantage of by unethical politicians, whether their surnames be Bush, Trump or Clinton.What did we give Barry Mccaffrey all that money for if not to curb drug trade?"Say No to Dope!"
Legalize all, regulate, and tax to provide care for those that abuse. Problem solved. Talk big pharma/DEA into that. Yea right!
3
Where is the scientific proof that would justify having marijuana as a schedule 1 drug? It was purely a political move on the feds part. Ideally the states will continue to lead and legalize it outright. Then if the feds want to have the FBI run around and make arrests we'll at least know who to point a finger at. The control of marijuana is over 40 years old. It is time to end this destructive practice of intrusion and incarceration of peoples lives
4
hi, my name is pat . I am a recovered alcoholic never cured a day at a time . There are people who have addictive personalities and those that don't there are people who go out and drink alcohol safely and equally there are people who grow marijuana privately for personal consumption and use it like alcohol The thing is the individual the addictive person knows that total abstinence is nessery in order to live life peacefully on its terms . I am a recovered alcoholic when I use alcohol I am in dis-ease when I don't use alcohol and adhere to the 12 step recommended the program of recovery I am and become at ease . To sum up I have used marijuana as a substitute for my primary drug of choice alcohol and the results were the same madness so like alcohol marijuana does not suit me . thanks pat r
1
I came of age in California in the 70's and yes unlike a certain politician I inhaled... often and deeply...
I stopped smoking weed shortly after leaving college in the mid 80's and haven't looked back.
I stopped doing all drugs by the mid 80's I didn't have a "problem."
I just didn't want to get to a point where I did so I just stopped.
I've had friends who could not put the brakes on.
I've seen alcohol kill two friends of mine and send a classmate of mine to prison.
One died quickly in a car accident - he was drunk - the guy who killed him was a classmate of mine - he too was over the limit - way over...
The other choose a slower an ultimately more painful long term route.
The first time he left rehab he drove straight to a liquor store.
We knew then that it was unlikely he could be saved from himself.
I've never seen marijuana kill someone like alcohol has.
I've never seen marijuana be anywhere near as destructive as the "harder" drugs like cocaine, meth, heroin have been to many.
I read a story this week that the DEA had "shaken down" people traveling in this country to the tune of $200+ Million dollars in the past decade.*
You think for one second that a government agency making that kind of money off of the drug business is going to do anything other than everything it can to keep the cash cow producing then you're just not living in reality.
Congress needs to act on this!
*http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/10/dea-travel-record-airport-...
I stopped smoking weed shortly after leaving college in the mid 80's and haven't looked back.
I stopped doing all drugs by the mid 80's I didn't have a "problem."
I just didn't want to get to a point where I did so I just stopped.
I've had friends who could not put the brakes on.
I've seen alcohol kill two friends of mine and send a classmate of mine to prison.
One died quickly in a car accident - he was drunk - the guy who killed him was a classmate of mine - he too was over the limit - way over...
The other choose a slower an ultimately more painful long term route.
The first time he left rehab he drove straight to a liquor store.
We knew then that it was unlikely he could be saved from himself.
I've never seen marijuana kill someone like alcohol has.
I've never seen marijuana be anywhere near as destructive as the "harder" drugs like cocaine, meth, heroin have been to many.
I read a story this week that the DEA had "shaken down" people traveling in this country to the tune of $200+ Million dollars in the past decade.*
You think for one second that a government agency making that kind of money off of the drug business is going to do anything other than everything it can to keep the cash cow producing then you're just not living in reality.
Congress needs to act on this!
*http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/10/dea-travel-record-airport-...
4
Marijuana was legalized here in Oregon about a year ago. Or so I heard. I honestly can't tell of a single difference in the state or my city between now and before then. The Sun still rises. Birds still sing. People are still caught DUI of alcohol.
Claims about any pot problems look more and more absurd.
Claims about any pot problems look more and more absurd.
16
The DEA has been involved in a lot of bad decisions by our government. Afghanistan began to go bad around the same time the DEA was created by Nixon. Nixon's war on weed was waged not just in America, but also in Central Asia, one of the places where cannabis first evolved, where people have used hashish for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. The origin story for hashish in Afghanistan invokes a Sufi saint Baba Ku who taught people how to use it to treat the plague.
Hippies loved Afghanistan in the 60s and early 70s for the hashish. It was peaceful back then, they say.
Nixon hated hippies, he hated hashish and he hated homosexuals. Meanwhile the King of Afghanistan Zaher Shah was rumored to be a hashish smoker in a long term relationship with his male personal assistant.
Soon after the DEA was created and set up shop in Kabul, the King was overthrown and Afghanistan became a republic ruled by a Soviet-leaning Pashtun nationalist dictator Mohamed Daoud, related to Karzai BTW.
According to hippies there at the time, cannabis prohibition was effectively instituted by Daoud, who sent the Army out to burn down cannabis crops and beat and arrest farmers.
The overthrow of the King by Daoud was the first in series of coups by different left wing players that led to the Soviet intervention in 1979.
And marijuana prohibition and the DEA were right there on the scene until the Red Army arrived. That agency has done more harm than it has done good.
Hippies loved Afghanistan in the 60s and early 70s for the hashish. It was peaceful back then, they say.
Nixon hated hippies, he hated hashish and he hated homosexuals. Meanwhile the King of Afghanistan Zaher Shah was rumored to be a hashish smoker in a long term relationship with his male personal assistant.
Soon after the DEA was created and set up shop in Kabul, the King was overthrown and Afghanistan became a republic ruled by a Soviet-leaning Pashtun nationalist dictator Mohamed Daoud, related to Karzai BTW.
According to hippies there at the time, cannabis prohibition was effectively instituted by Daoud, who sent the Army out to burn down cannabis crops and beat and arrest farmers.
The overthrow of the King by Daoud was the first in series of coups by different left wing players that led to the Soviet intervention in 1979.
And marijuana prohibition and the DEA were right there on the scene until the Red Army arrived. That agency has done more harm than it has done good.
4
I am most disappointed in President Obama for not removiing marijuana from the schedule 1 status. After all, just recently his oldest daughter was seen smoking it.
1
This is Obama's modus operandi, he always chooses the worst government expanding program to accomplish nothing.
Drug use may be a cry by people who are lost in our social wilderness but our drug laws, a punishing waste of time, energy, money, and worst of all human life do nothing to help those in need.
Beyond personal beliefs there is no actual justification in any laws against the use of any drugs by those who have reached a level of education where they can and do reason about such matters. Although some drugs are especially dangerous and bring lasting damage to those who choose to use them, if we value freedom and have respect for others, there is nothing beyond truthful education society can do to prevent their use
Drug use may in itself court death, but life has no guarantee except death and no one avoids that fate.
Harsh, ignorant, stupid? Yes, yes and yes, but, so long as a person brings no physical or mental harm to another what he or she does with his or her life is their business and theirs alone.
Beyond personal beliefs there is no actual justification in any laws against the use of any drugs by those who have reached a level of education where they can and do reason about such matters. Although some drugs are especially dangerous and bring lasting damage to those who choose to use them, if we value freedom and have respect for others, there is nothing beyond truthful education society can do to prevent their use
Drug use may in itself court death, but life has no guarantee except death and no one avoids that fate.
Harsh, ignorant, stupid? Yes, yes and yes, but, so long as a person brings no physical or mental harm to another what he or she does with his or her life is their business and theirs alone.
2
And Governor Christie, a likely candidate for Attorney General should Trump win, has plainly stated that all involved in the cannabis industry should be behind bars.
2
I wonder how much impact Big Pharma has on cannabis being a Schedule 1 drug. And, furthermore, are you telling me no one from the DEA has ever smoked pot, and knows reality from fiction. Marijuana is NOT the same thing as Heroin. Just ask the millions of people around the world who smoke it every day and have wonderful family lives, fruitful friendships and successful careers. What a load of phooey.
4
Marijuana does not just need to be removed from schedule 1, it should not be a controlled substance at all. The DEA argues that it has no approved medical use and that it has a risk of abuse. One can argue that use isn't abuse, but the point is there is no justification to put it on schedule 1 in the first place. Cigarettes are addictive and certainly have no medical use. By their logic then any substance that has abuse potential and has no medical use should be on schedule 1. So why aren't cigarettes on schedule 1?
Many people want to use marijuana for either medical reasons or recreationally. Most people want it legalized. We are supposed to be a democracy and to have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The burden should be on those who want to outlaw it to justify making it illegal. So many lives have been ruined by these ridiculous laws. Should it be regulated? Of course. But let the states do that. Oregon and Washington seem to be doing a good job of this and the sky hasn't fallen. And I have seen studies showing that opiate prescriptions and overdoses have gone down in states where it is legal. I think lobbying by Big Pharma has been a factor in keeping it on schedule 1.
Many people want to use marijuana for either medical reasons or recreationally. Most people want it legalized. We are supposed to be a democracy and to have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The burden should be on those who want to outlaw it to justify making it illegal. So many lives have been ruined by these ridiculous laws. Should it be regulated? Of course. But let the states do that. Oregon and Washington seem to be doing a good job of this and the sky hasn't fallen. And I have seen studies showing that opiate prescriptions and overdoses have gone down in states where it is legal. I think lobbying by Big Pharma has been a factor in keeping it on schedule 1.
4
I live 7 miles north of the Mexican border, where the Mexican mafia, financed by the drug trade, is has captured territory and turned it into a war zone. Most of their trade--I've heard a figure of 80%--is just plain old marijuana. Legalizing it would seriously undermine their business.
I used to think that legalization was a trivial business, not worth bothering with. But people are getting killed because of this idiotic prohibition.
I used to think that legalization was a trivial business, not worth bothering with. But people are getting killed because of this idiotic prohibition.
67
There was no science used to determine which drugs would be restricted. It was racially and politically motivated.
People have always used drugs; some are self medicating and some looking for a high or escape. We need to take a scientific and medical look at these drugs and make decisions that way. If we have lots of people on drugs maybe there is something inherently wrong with our society.
People have always used drugs; some are self medicating and some looking for a high or escape. We need to take a scientific and medical look at these drugs and make decisions that way. If we have lots of people on drugs maybe there is something inherently wrong with our society.
3
The war on drugs is a war against the freedom of the American people and a jobs program for those unfit for private sector employment. An unmitigated failure. Where are all the 'evangelical Christians" on this issue? The Bible says that all seed bearing plants were created for the benefit of mankind, but most are too busy judging pot smokers to read it. God bless America.
4
We fundementally reject the FDA-DEA-HSS triad of conspiracy against the health and security of our well being; we have seen with faith and science the way Shona Banda treated her Chrone's disease with safe and effective treatment from marijuana only to have her boy taken away for crying out against the lies from anti-marijuana propaganda infecting our schools, then we watch horrified as the state sponsored terror tries to extort the boy to testify against his mother?
#supportShonaBanda
Meanwhile pharmaceutical industries try and push a drug for Chrone's disease whose side effect is a rare brain disease? While marijuana kills no one?
Everyone please visit the NORML website and check out the Congressional scorecard and please, if we wish to end this Terrorizing Marijuana Tragedy, vote and support Congressman who support marijuana legalization, and support ending the greatest crime against humanity we know today which is marijuana prohibition.
#supportShonaBanda
Meanwhile pharmaceutical industries try and push a drug for Chrone's disease whose side effect is a rare brain disease? While marijuana kills no one?
Everyone please visit the NORML website and check out the Congressional scorecard and please, if we wish to end this Terrorizing Marijuana Tragedy, vote and support Congressman who support marijuana legalization, and support ending the greatest crime against humanity we know today which is marijuana prohibition.
2
Now I know for sure that my government is corrupt. The DEA obviously needs to assure its own continued existence by keeping marijuana as an imagined threat. And everyone sees the pharmaceutical industry behind this; those corporations completely fund the FDA, who advises the DEA. I feel angry, and also terribly sad; I wanted to love my country. Now I need to learn the difference between a plutocracy, and an oligarchy.
1
"it is no more dangerous than alcohol"
Marijuana is _less_ dangerous than alcohol. How many people die of, for example, cannabis-poisoning, every year, as compared to the number of people who die from alcohol-poisoning?
Marijuana is _less_ dangerous than alcohol. How many people die of, for example, cannabis-poisoning, every year, as compared to the number of people who die from alcohol-poisoning?
5
Who who will ever argue against research--wait a minute, the GOP prevents the NIH from researching gun violence-100,000 gun events a year which become hospital-trauma events which become expense events and then 32,000 deaths gun deaths out of that 100,000 a year, and 21,000 suicides a year out of that 32,000 but no research. How many trauma events a year do you think weed research is going to turn up? 500,000? 250,000? How many weed induced deaths a year? For pity's sake, count these things! Then compare weed tauma to alcohol trauma, to gunshot trauma, to auto accident trauma. Anybody can see where I am going with this. However, once you legalize weed, you have the who profits problem. When prohibition ended some states managed the alcohol profit by keeping the profits for the states (A.B.C. Stores). This had mixed results. Face this. If you think research into weed leads to legalization, leads to no problems, well no. No problem was ever solved without creating new problems which require new research and then you die. Sometimes in democracy you get to chose your problems. Then your democracy comes up with the DEA and there goes your problem choice for generations. This year us voters have multi generation choice. Chose wisely, live long, and prosper.
3
it's a conflict of interest for DEA to be setting drug policy. it has the perverse incentive to maintain its illegal status in order to seize more funds (without due process) from people and receive more funding to further it's "cause." government agencies will never do anything that diminishes their importance.
6
funny how some people, especially politicians and lobbyists, come up with reasons why something is not harmful. why? money? oh! maybe politicians(governors, senators, reps, et al )do not want to go to jail for conspiring to violate federal laws by passing state laws in violation of federal law.
also, maybe they have not heard victims of pot use describe how they became addicted, went nuts, etc. just because pot is "no worse then booze" does not mean that we have to go out of our way to make it legal. actually, after seeing addicted people for many years, i have come to the conclusion that we probably reduce government corruption and make all the drugs(all hard drugs) legal. however, use of the drugs will not be an excuse for whatever other crime they commit such as driving, stealing, murder, etc.
remember, guns do not kill. some people with guns do kill. same with cars. cars do not kill. some drivers kill people.
i pay taxes. do not ask me to pay for some addict to get treatment. they have been warned not to use, not to drink, not to smoke, lose weight, exercise, etc. i am an old guy and those warnings have been out there for over 70 years..
also, maybe they have not heard victims of pot use describe how they became addicted, went nuts, etc. just because pot is "no worse then booze" does not mean that we have to go out of our way to make it legal. actually, after seeing addicted people for many years, i have come to the conclusion that we probably reduce government corruption and make all the drugs(all hard drugs) legal. however, use of the drugs will not be an excuse for whatever other crime they commit such as driving, stealing, murder, etc.
remember, guns do not kill. some people with guns do kill. same with cars. cars do not kill. some drivers kill people.
i pay taxes. do not ask me to pay for some addict to get treatment. they have been warned not to use, not to drink, not to smoke, lose weight, exercise, etc. i am an old guy and those warnings have been out there for over 70 years..
Alcohol has done far more damage to people than heroin or all opioids and addictive substances combined. Just ask just about anybody as its abuses are so widespread. So why is it not on Schedule 1?
Equating mj with heroin is something that we might expect from mental giants like Donald Trump. What is wrong with the people at DEA?
Equating mj with heroin is something that we might expect from mental giants like Donald Trump. What is wrong with the people at DEA?
3
There's plenty of evidence, scientific and otherwise, that marijuana is an excellent medicine and that it is much less harmful than alcohol or tobacco (in fact *smoking* pot actually reduces one's risk of lung cancer).
2
It would, however, be foolish to let corporations advertise marijuana the way they advertised cigarettes for decades. All drugs should be decriminalized, but those who sell them should not be allowed to advertise their products.
1
More and better research would be very useful. My gastroenterologist recently claimed that my bouts with nausea are linked to my occasional marijuana consumption. I gathered from other things that he said about college life that he was clearly anti-drugs, period, and I challenged his opinion. "Go look it up," he said. So I went to look it up and found the most ridiculous mish-mash of supposedly scientific research that I've ever read. Contradictory information leaking out of every corner of the Internet. Government and university papers contradicting each other, and nearly no truly independent studies. How is this state of affairs supposed to help anyone who really wants accurate information?
The DEA is actually harming people's health with its refusal to open up to new or different approaches toward studying marijuana.
The DEA is actually harming people's health with its refusal to open up to new or different approaches toward studying marijuana.
5
Actually, while we're at it, it's time to discuss legalizing many other drugs on a case by case basis. Some are perhaps too destructive to legalize, but the question might be: is more harm caused by keeping a drug illegal than legalizing it?
Were marijuana legal in the US, even better, the world, any crime related to it would drastically shrink.
Were marijuana legal in the US, even better, the world, any crime related to it would drastically shrink.
2
I'm tired of hearing the Obama administration is responsible for this. Obama himself needs to address the issue and take personal responsibility for the decision of his administration.
2
When will we stop wasting public resources criminalizing marijuana and focus on public health and collecting tax revenues? Makes you think some of our public officials must be high ;-)
2
In an agency like the DEA this policy must come from the top, from one or a few individuals. Who are those individuals? Are they active scientists or political appointees?
1
As an advocate for legalization, I think all the stoners need to realize that the free market will hybridize the most habit-forming strain, and without proper identifiers of what compounds cause what effects, the consumer will be less able to prevent addiction.
Current level of science in the average budtender's brain: "Indicas are a body-buzz whereas Sativas are more cerebral."
The marketers of legal weed can't be more specific than that, and they're licensed to sell concentrates!
As a forty year veteran of the drug war, my prediction is that this "new research" will be a bunch of window dressing, and the empire will continue to sell marijuana through the black market.
Current level of science in the average budtender's brain: "Indicas are a body-buzz whereas Sativas are more cerebral."
The marketers of legal weed can't be more specific than that, and they're licensed to sell concentrates!
As a forty year veteran of the drug war, my prediction is that this "new research" will be a bunch of window dressing, and the empire will continue to sell marijuana through the black market.
I am certain the drug cartels are overjoyed that they can continue
their business. They must have a powerful lobby in the Obama
administration. And the DEA can continue spending our tax
money raiding and busting innocent users who live in states
where marijuana is still an illegal substance. And didn't the
administration earlier say that our jails were filled with too many people of
color jailed on charges where marijuana is treated like a felony?
their business. They must have a powerful lobby in the Obama
administration. And the DEA can continue spending our tax
money raiding and busting innocent users who live in states
where marijuana is still an illegal substance. And didn't the
administration earlier say that our jails were filled with too many people of
color jailed on charges where marijuana is treated like a felony?
2
This might be TMI but i am 66 have smoked pot for 48 years, retired after 35 years with the same company in increasingly responsible positions. I have never let pot be the driving force of my life, it is like alcohol, just something to relax me after work. I cannot believe that people think it is still the stuff that the 1930's movie short 'Reefer Madness' is how we feel after having a smoke, we do not go crazy and kill people. For most people, it is a relaxing moment after a hard days work that will give us some happiness and a little relief from reality. Now that I am old, I find the medicinal properties help me with the arthritis pain and all the other things that make me feel my age. I have been so disappointed that with all the presidents that smoked pot that they have not decriminalized it yet. It is a natural fix, too bad the pharma and alcohol lobbies have kept it illegal.
7
I can suggest the best book I've read on the genesis of America's War on Drugs: Chasing the Scream, by Johann Hari. It's an extraordinary and riveting account of how we created the current mess.
Buy it, read it, then give it to your friends. It will change some of them.
Buy it, read it, then give it to your friends. It will change some of them.
2
I hate to say but we are going to have to wait until all the people in our government who were brainwashed with government propaganda pass before we have sensible drug laws.
2
I have been thinking about this all wrong. If heroin is as innocuous as marijuana, I need to reconsider my negative assumptions about opiate use.
I will be asking my physician for a prescription for Percocet or something like that forthwith.
I will be asking my physician for a prescription for Percocet or something like that forthwith.
3
The DEA has little credibility in this matter. Why isn't tobacco a Schedule I substance? After all, it certainly meets the definition- high potential for abuse or addiction, and no medical application whatsoever.
8
It's difficult to understand. Alcohol has cause thousands of times more violence and death than marijuana could ever achieve yet it's OK. A lot of the stupidity of criminalizing marijuana probably has to do with the Republicans' trembling fear of their religious extremist constituents. Republicans are, after all is said, gutless cowards. Look how easily Trump has cowed them into submission.
4
It is Congress that got us into this mess with the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 and it is Congress that must get us out of it. Visit the NORML website and type "Congressional Scorecard" into the custom search engine. Support and donate to candidates that have more than a passing grade who best support marijuana reform.
The evil collusion of beurocracy from NIDA, the DEA, HHS and the FDA has trapped itself against popular American opinion by trying to turn a plant into a profitable patentable compound. The hypocrisy is exposed before elections. On one hand the DEA claims marijuana has "no medicinal value." On the other, children are being treated for epilepsy by whole plant cannabis while the HHS holds the patent to cannabinoid compounds #6630507.
On one hand Republican politicians claim to support our veterans. On the other Republicans in the House Appropriations Committee killed the bipartisan bill to provide veterans with PTS access to whole plant marijuana to stop the 20-50 suicides of veterans per DAY.
It is time for us to end the lies and participate in the election of our Congress who are supposed to make the laws. The most unconstitutional part of the CSAct was allowing the executive branch to write drug policy.
The evil collusion of beurocracy from NIDA, the DEA, HHS and the FDA has trapped itself against popular American opinion by trying to turn a plant into a profitable patentable compound. The hypocrisy is exposed before elections. On one hand the DEA claims marijuana has "no medicinal value." On the other, children are being treated for epilepsy by whole plant cannabis while the HHS holds the patent to cannabinoid compounds #6630507.
On one hand Republican politicians claim to support our veterans. On the other Republicans in the House Appropriations Committee killed the bipartisan bill to provide veterans with PTS access to whole plant marijuana to stop the 20-50 suicides of veterans per DAY.
It is time for us to end the lies and participate in the election of our Congress who are supposed to make the laws. The most unconstitutional part of the CSAct was allowing the executive branch to write drug policy.
6
DEA got it right, and here's why. Take out that this is dealing with marijuana, and you have a substance X that has never been proven, with reliable scientific evidence, to be effective towards a medical use. And the Controlled Substance Act doesn't allow DEA to simply downgrade substance, on policy or want alone; it's a law only authorizing changes with evidence. The stance they took, does that: we now have an avenue to study marijuana; to apply it to medical use. Don't worry, it'll be dropped soon enough. To demand otherwise, is to find, under the Law, a presumption that a drug is safe without evidence. That position is untenable.
8
The research doesn't exist because the feds do not allow research. Classic Catch 22. Where's the evidence of harm? We've had decades of widespread use with no ill effects.
3
The DEA is just protecting their empire. What scientific evidence is there for making it a controlled substance in the first place?
What do the DEA and organized crime have in common? Illegal drugs provide funding for both.
What do the DEA and organized crime have in common? Illegal drugs provide funding for both.
3
Of course the DEA is against rescheduling marijuana.
Think they want to give up the guns, badges, handcuffs and confiscated cars and have to get real jobs?
Catching stoned teenagers is like shooting drunk fish in a barrel.
It is also a bald faced lie to say that heroin has no medical use. Until the synthetic fentanyl came along, heroin was the strongest analgesic known to science.
Not for nothing, when the Germans were cut off from the Turkish poppy crop during WW II, they ingeniously derived, from coal tar, Dolophine. Named after Adolf Hitler.
We know it as methadone, a long acting pain reliever and a substitute for opioid dependence.
Think they want to give up the guns, badges, handcuffs and confiscated cars and have to get real jobs?
Catching stoned teenagers is like shooting drunk fish in a barrel.
It is also a bald faced lie to say that heroin has no medical use. Until the synthetic fentanyl came along, heroin was the strongest analgesic known to science.
Not for nothing, when the Germans were cut off from the Turkish poppy crop during WW II, they ingeniously derived, from coal tar, Dolophine. Named after Adolf Hitler.
We know it as methadone, a long acting pain reliever and a substitute for opioid dependence.
4
Marijuana holds such destructive powers that the mere thought of people using it causes irrational thoughts by so-called experts that leads to persecution and cruel and unusual punishment by authorities.
4
Are the people at the DEA really that stupid? And just how many drugs are on Schedule 2? I think there are several on Sch 2 which are more potent and more dangerous than Cannabis.
1
how about we flip the assumptions and DEA has to show (with peer reviewed evidence) that X drug is harmful and has no medical benefit. Oh wait too much $ is wrapped up in the war on drugs ...
6
The prohibition of marijuana is setting a bad moral precedent in this country. When people are asked why they think marijuana should be legal, most (that I know) say, "Everyone is doing it; therefore, it should be legal."
In reality, I think the sane response would be, "I think it should be legal because it doesn't harm anyone," or, "I don't know. If it's not harmful, I think it should be legal. Then again, I haven't heard any official word on the benefits or risks."
We want Americans (in my opinion) to think that way about laws. "Everyone is doing it so just legalize it" demonstrates that the citizenry has been alienated from the state. Something needs to be done, and I agree with the author that researchers should be free to determine whether or not prohibition is justified - if for no other reason than to protect the many who are and will continue to use it!
In reality, I think the sane response would be, "I think it should be legal because it doesn't harm anyone," or, "I don't know. If it's not harmful, I think it should be legal. Then again, I haven't heard any official word on the benefits or risks."
We want Americans (in my opinion) to think that way about laws. "Everyone is doing it so just legalize it" demonstrates that the citizenry has been alienated from the state. Something needs to be done, and I agree with the author that researchers should be free to determine whether or not prohibition is justified - if for no other reason than to protect the many who are and will continue to use it!
16
"why should it be legal?" Because neither medicine nor government can demonstratively show why it should not.
...that is without sounding like a raving hypocrite when there's - proven physically debilitating w/long-term abuse - Booze not even listed, when there's - proven addictive and are "epically being abused" - Opioids on sched 2's, or lower, list...et al, et al...
...that is without sounding like a raving hypocrite when there's - proven physically debilitating w/long-term abuse - Booze not even listed, when there's - proven addictive and are "epically being abused" - Opioids on sched 2's, or lower, list...et al, et al...
What has been more destructive than drugs is our misguided drug war. It has contributed to the militarization of the police and mass incarceration. In the process, we have destroyed the lives of so many of our citizens, and to what end? All drugs should be studied and better understood. Marijuana has been helpful to those with cancer pain. LSD has been used effectively to relieve symptoms of PTSD, and to treat patients at end of life. Heroin, too, should be studied so we can have a better understanding of addiction and how to more effectively treat those with substance abuse disorders. We are woefully inadequate in this area. We should not incarcerate our way around the problem. Instead, we need to treat those who seek treatment. We don't jail alcoholics, and we shouldn't jail drug users. However, putting the DEA in charge of such decisions is a bit like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. They benefit from our continued and pointless drug war.
1
Just about a mile from here is a marijuana shop. It is in unincorporated Boulder County, surrounded by the City of Longmont. Marijuana cannot be bought or sold in Longmont, but can in Boulder County. Why? For the same mentality that keeps it a Schedule 1 drug.
Even though marijuana is legal in Colorado, the 1/3 of the population, which voted not to legalize it, are a strong force. Any crime, DUI, etc. some how gets blamed on marijuana use. Though, the state population has not turned into zombies or are on a constant Rocky Mountain high.
Colorado made it very tough to deal in marijuana. Between the state laws, the federal law making it illegal, you really must love what you are doing, selling it. Especially, having to deal in a cash only business, because no bank can work with you; though, armed robberies, at these shops, are rare. Sales taxes approach 30%. Every plant needs to be accounted for.
As a resident, you want to smoke, vape or consume? Well, your employer can fire you if you fail a drug test' even for medicinal use. Why? It is a Schedule 1 drug according to the Colorado Supreme Court.
Thanks to the DEA,, and the anti-marijuana folks, marijuana seems as illegal as it ever was. Though, if i want to, and I don't, can go less than a mile to buy it, or even grow 5 plants in my house. The black market is virtually gone here.
The DEA needs more "research" to change the drug status? I invite them to visit a laboratory of 5 million people called Colorado.
Even though marijuana is legal in Colorado, the 1/3 of the population, which voted not to legalize it, are a strong force. Any crime, DUI, etc. some how gets blamed on marijuana use. Though, the state population has not turned into zombies or are on a constant Rocky Mountain high.
Colorado made it very tough to deal in marijuana. Between the state laws, the federal law making it illegal, you really must love what you are doing, selling it. Especially, having to deal in a cash only business, because no bank can work with you; though, armed robberies, at these shops, are rare. Sales taxes approach 30%. Every plant needs to be accounted for.
As a resident, you want to smoke, vape or consume? Well, your employer can fire you if you fail a drug test' even for medicinal use. Why? It is a Schedule 1 drug according to the Colorado Supreme Court.
Thanks to the DEA,, and the anti-marijuana folks, marijuana seems as illegal as it ever was. Though, if i want to, and I don't, can go less than a mile to buy it, or even grow 5 plants in my house. The black market is virtually gone here.
The DEA needs more "research" to change the drug status? I invite them to visit a laboratory of 5 million people called Colorado.
6
I guess you don't have young children anymore. I see the teens around mine falling into the trap of drinking and smoking pot, their performance and motivation being sapped. But that's okay, this is the great liberal NYT and they know best.
11
Then surely you must be for prohibition of alcohol as well
4
Paul has fallen in to a common trap set by reefer madness advocates. Conflating medicinal use with recreational use. Marijuana is often a safer and more effective treatment for many debilitating conditions. Confusing this fact with the very separate issue of of recreational use and abuse is unhelpful. Just ask the kids who's epileptic seizure rate drops from 250 + a week to less the 5 due to an oil refined from high CBC content plants.
2
Paul, your sarcasm doesn't help make your point, but instead actually invalidates your opinion. No child should be consuming drugs like tobacco or alcohol or cannabis, but that is not what this is about. It's about allowing research into the medical applications of an herb that has been in use since the earliest days of human civilization. And it is about allowing adults to use and enjoy a God given plant without fear of loosing their freedom!
2
We live in a country where I can peruse marijuana at my leisure in one state without any consequences, where in another I'd be put into jail and have my life destroyed. This is ridiculous and hypocritical. Our presidents, both past and present, have smoked marijuana.
As always, follow the money.
As always, follow the money.
3
I actually got off a whole range of psych meds after I started to use marijuana medicinally. Instead of just getting high, I made a dosing schedule such that cannabis would have the best chance to impact my health.
The results were amazing. I used to be on, at various times, ambien, Adderall, prozac, lithium, Xanax, Zofram, amytriptaline, oxycontin, tramadol. Today, four years later, I take no medication of any kind for my mental health. I'm happier than I ever have been. I sleep better than ever. My ulcers are almost healed. I was able to quit drinking alcohol completely. I quit oxycontin and heroin.
I went to MIT, and today I am a marijuana consultant in the state of Colorado. I am so grateful that my state legalized cannabis. I am so grateful that I have an amazing job helping other people get the medicine they need. I have seen it so many times in people that I have introduced to cannabis. It's a life changer for many people.
Cannabis should be schedule III just because of ability to lessen seizure frequency in children with Davets Syndrome (GW Pharmacy study of CBD). Cannabis should be a major medicine. It deserves to be.
The results were amazing. I used to be on, at various times, ambien, Adderall, prozac, lithium, Xanax, Zofram, amytriptaline, oxycontin, tramadol. Today, four years later, I take no medication of any kind for my mental health. I'm happier than I ever have been. I sleep better than ever. My ulcers are almost healed. I was able to quit drinking alcohol completely. I quit oxycontin and heroin.
I went to MIT, and today I am a marijuana consultant in the state of Colorado. I am so grateful that my state legalized cannabis. I am so grateful that I have an amazing job helping other people get the medicine they need. I have seen it so many times in people that I have introduced to cannabis. It's a life changer for many people.
Cannabis should be schedule III just because of ability to lessen seizure frequency in children with Davets Syndrome (GW Pharmacy study of CBD). Cannabis should be a major medicine. It deserves to be.
102
As I get older it seems I'm always surrounded by idiots and morons.
1
This is the DEA exhibiting its own version of "reefer madness." The research done in the US and the ample research from other countries overwhelming supports marijuana as a pain reliever for multiple diseases and conditions and offers ample proof that it is far safer than OTC pain relievers. Thousands of people die each year from OTC use of NSAID and acetaminophen overdoses and tens of thousands have permanent kidney or liver damage due to use of drugs everyone can access.
For people who loathe the high, further research and development of strains that minimize what they think makes one stoned (THC) and what they think causes pain relief (cannibinoids) is essential.
It's also a crying shame that in many states where it is legal for medical purposes that doctors be able to prescribe it and insurance will at least pay for the doc visit to get the prescription. I live in Massachusetts. There is one dispensary in my county. There is only one doctor in this county who writes RXs for mj and there is a several month waiting list and a cash-only policy to see this doc.
Research on and access for medical marijuana should be universally available. The irony is something I could grow in my backyard will end up being a billion dollar industry even before the drug companies get involved, and will be a trillion dollar industry when they do. So then insurance will cover it and our health care payments will skyrocket even more -- for a weed.
For people who loathe the high, further research and development of strains that minimize what they think makes one stoned (THC) and what they think causes pain relief (cannibinoids) is essential.
It's also a crying shame that in many states where it is legal for medical purposes that doctors be able to prescribe it and insurance will at least pay for the doc visit to get the prescription. I live in Massachusetts. There is one dispensary in my county. There is only one doctor in this county who writes RXs for mj and there is a several month waiting list and a cash-only policy to see this doc.
Research on and access for medical marijuana should be universally available. The irony is something I could grow in my backyard will end up being a billion dollar industry even before the drug companies get involved, and will be a trillion dollar industry when they do. So then insurance will cover it and our health care payments will skyrocket even more -- for a weed.
38
As always, follow the money. Between the failed War on rugs initiative and the prison system, 60 billion/yr.
When a handful of bureaucrats at a government agency set in place and continue regulations based on false knowledge that in effect are laws governing an entire population then we do not have Democracy. Here we have an ongoing instance of relying on ideas that come from a time when we knew less. That these ideas continue to be enforced is a show of how supposedly rational people have failed in their position as being adults. You can find business and career interests in these dead ideas, but not democratic freedom. And not rational, reasonable adults.
1
I watched friends and myself fall into the marijuana trap in the 1970s. Supposedly, it was a great good; would bring peace to the world, and anyone who did not agree was irrational and a war monger. But if you want to do anything with your life, you can't be stoned, not ever. If you want to the respect of your children, you can't be stoned (or drunk), ever. One friend never gave it up for 30 years, stoned every day. Although he held a job, he never had a wife, a family, owned a house, and he has suffered the health costs for years since he quit. Every I talk to him, another surgery. Being stoned on pot is a disgusting way of life, the smell, the drag on your health and energy, the lack of productivity. I won't believe it has any health benefits. I don't want it legalized... everyone's health insurance and car insurance will rise, and the smell of it will permeate everywhere. People will be more unreliable than ever. Get people hooked on pot and it will cut down on your competition, but all the other consequences will denigrate the quality of life of the nation.
19
Funny, the same things could be said about alcohol and smoking cigarettes.
By the way, marijuana is sold in Colorado in its raw form and in edible varieties.
By the way, marijuana is sold in Colorado in its raw form and in edible varieties.
4
Best to not blanket the entire world with narrow anecdotal evidence. I've smoked since my teens and own two properties, my own business and a doctoral degree.
5
You could just as easily be talking about processed sugar. Good grief.
2
Disband the corrupt DEA. Who do they serve, anyway?
Drug companies, wine and beer, prisons and police all have reasons to keep Cannabis illegal.
I am so sick and tired of government types denying my rights.
For me fifty years of the enjoyment and healing properties of Marijuana have been a blessing.
Drug companies, wine and beer, prisons and police all have reasons to keep Cannabis illegal.
I am so sick and tired of government types denying my rights.
For me fifty years of the enjoyment and healing properties of Marijuana have been a blessing.
7
How many senior DEA officials retire into jobs in Big Pharma or affiliates of big Pharma. Their latest decision suggests manky do. Legalize medical marijuana and drug companies lose a fortune. Legalize marijuana and the DEA loses a fortune in overtime, and other side payments, and promotion possibilities.
4
None that I know of after 25 years in regulatory.
For too many years this sub-rosa organization has been able to run roughshod over the private lives of Americans. Enough! Dismantle this gestapo. Do it now. Let them get real jobs!
4
Treating drug use as a criminal matter, rather than a public health matter, has worked no better during my lifetime than the prohibition did during my great-grandparents' lifetimes. We knew this history and we repeated it anyway.
4
Marijuana does not need to be re-scheduled to somewhere between 2 through 5. It needs to be DE-scheduled, as is alcohol and tobacco.
9
The pharmacology of cannibas is known - the research has been completed on this - its active ingredient is a type 1 cannibinoid receptor agonist. The pharmacodynamic effect is primarily mediated through a reduction in GABA. Pharmaceutical companies have evaluated CB1 agonists and antagonists and neither appears to provide sufficient efficacy to warrant approval. So marijuana can be decriminalized for recreational use - but not as a medicine. The law has to change for this because the DEA is simply enforcing the law.
The real purpose of the War on Drugs is to give the government an excuse to lock up black and brown men who are not hurting anybody. That's what the DEA has always been about, all the way back to Harry Anslinger. Every escalation of the War on Drugs has been about that as well, from Richard Nixon's to Ronald Reagan's to Bill Clinton's. And because it's a crime of possession, that makes it extremely easy for cops to plant evidence in order to arrest innocent people. And after they get out of jail, they are now saddled with a drug conviction that legalizes discrimination against them for the rest of their life, particularly in employment and housing.
I find it particularly interesting that after dope was legalized in several states, there were cops that complained that they were no longer able to search vehicles arbitrarily by claiming they smelled dope. They were all but admitting that they were abusing their authority and violating the Fourth Amendment. This is also the state reason for "no-knock" raids that have caused police to barge in and kill Americans in their own homes and be "justified".
This is a war that should never have been fought.
I find it particularly interesting that after dope was legalized in several states, there were cops that complained that they were no longer able to search vehicles arbitrarily by claiming they smelled dope. They were all but admitting that they were abusing their authority and violating the Fourth Amendment. This is also the state reason for "no-knock" raids that have caused police to barge in and kill Americans in their own homes and be "justified".
This is a war that should never have been fought.
3
"... a war that should never have been fought"
Like so many other wars. Like the song said:
"War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing"
Like so many other wars. Like the song said:
"War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing"
1
Once again the Dems chicken out. Spineless bureaucratic nonsense wholly disconnected from the will of the people. Thankfully the horse is out of the barn.
1
I assume there must be selfish interest groups lobbying to oppose legalization - looking to conserve their profits from privatized prisons, lawyers, law enforcement gear, weapons and jobs, etc.
Irony is the fact that drugs, by being illegal, make them more costly and lucrative to the drug pushers and cartels. But now that legal drugs, pushed by doctors and pharmaceutical companies, are so expensive and profitable, you would think they are illegal!!!
Many drugs with pretty scary side-effects, make marijuana look pretty tame. Just look at the "crazy" side-effects of Ambien - used simply to aid sleep - are worse than the effects of marijuana - so shouldn't it be a Schedule 1 drug? Ditto for many "legal" drugs from "A" to "Z" I see marketed dozens of times a day on TV.
I don't smoke, so marijuana has never appealed to me. So back to my drug of choice with "no medical use" - Caffeine in the form of a delicious cup of coffee.
Irony is the fact that drugs, by being illegal, make them more costly and lucrative to the drug pushers and cartels. But now that legal drugs, pushed by doctors and pharmaceutical companies, are so expensive and profitable, you would think they are illegal!!!
Many drugs with pretty scary side-effects, make marijuana look pretty tame. Just look at the "crazy" side-effects of Ambien - used simply to aid sleep - are worse than the effects of marijuana - so shouldn't it be a Schedule 1 drug? Ditto for many "legal" drugs from "A" to "Z" I see marketed dozens of times a day on TV.
I don't smoke, so marijuana has never appealed to me. So back to my drug of choice with "no medical use" - Caffeine in the form of a delicious cup of coffee.
56
Perhaps coumadin should be illegal.
So this is still a political decision. So naturally it went this way. When polled, 61% of Americans want it legalized, the prohibition ended. But that majority is not representive of voters. Pols are still beholden to those who vote for them. Get organized and vote. Congress is where this will be won. Not the courts, not the DEA or FDA. Congress. That is where the people's business gets done.
4
Let the FDA show the efficacy of alcohol and nicotine.
5
Having marijuana on that list is deeply misguided since many scientists and President Obama have said that it is no more dangerous than alcohol.
------------------------------------------
Really, you are putting Obama and Scientists in the same sentence? Obama can speak from personal experience but he is no researcher. Also that weed is NO MORE DANGEROUS THAN ALCOHOL does not mean that weed is medically beneficial.
Sheesh.
------------------------------------------
Really, you are putting Obama and Scientists in the same sentence? Obama can speak from personal experience but he is no researcher. Also that weed is NO MORE DANGEROUS THAN ALCOHOL does not mean that weed is medically beneficial.
Sheesh.
1
So you think it should be illegal just because Obama dared state his opinion?
2
The last time California tried to legalize marijuana, the effort lost in a statewide election. The leading anti-marijuana group was the prison guards union. They want to keep marijuana illegal so there will be more jobs as prison guards.
The prison guards do not care if they ruin the lives of millions in their quest for higher pay. This is also the motivation of the DEA. Everyone who has studied the issue has found that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol. It is immoral to put millions in jail for doing something which causes so little harm, and to profit from jailing them while supporting thousands of murders due to the drug cartels which supply the weed while it is illegal.
Several countries have legalized marijuana, and in several American states it is for all intents and purposes available. None of these places have experienced negative social effects that are even one tenth of the negative effects of alcohol. Legalize now! For major religious organizations to oppose legalization is a fundamental rejection of the spirits of Moses, Jesus and Buddha. Stop contributing to your religion and contribute to the legalize movement instead! It is the right thing to do.
To see what else we should do go to YouTube watch Comedy Party Platform (2 min 9 sec). Thanks. [email protected]
The prison guards do not care if they ruin the lives of millions in their quest for higher pay. This is also the motivation of the DEA. Everyone who has studied the issue has found that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol. It is immoral to put millions in jail for doing something which causes so little harm, and to profit from jailing them while supporting thousands of murders due to the drug cartels which supply the weed while it is illegal.
Several countries have legalized marijuana, and in several American states it is for all intents and purposes available. None of these places have experienced negative social effects that are even one tenth of the negative effects of alcohol. Legalize now! For major religious organizations to oppose legalization is a fundamental rejection of the spirits of Moses, Jesus and Buddha. Stop contributing to your religion and contribute to the legalize movement instead! It is the right thing to do.
To see what else we should do go to YouTube watch Comedy Party Platform (2 min 9 sec). Thanks. [email protected]
8
The DEA should have no say in this. As the saying goes, to a hammer, everything's a nail. And to the DEA, marijuana must be a dangerous drug, inasmuch as its very existence is owed to its need to bury this nail.
The entire war on drugs has been a colossal failure, destabilizing neighboring states, incarcerating largely harmless individuals, and criminalizing Americans' recreational choices. As we approach the 2016 election, I put it to you. What's worse for the American mind: smoking a reefer or watching Fox News?
Even LSD is again being used in clinical settings (as a NY Times story highlighted a few years back) to gently alter terminal patients frame of reference on the life-death continuum, thus leading to a meaningful reduction in the fear that so often accompanies our final exit from this realm.
There are drugs like cocaine that appear to have no redeeming social value - and which I argue that society is right to encourage every American to avoid like the plague - but even with these our current interdiction model appears both largely ineffective and extraordinarily harmful in its own right.
I've often thought of our epidemic of drugs and alcohol abuse as the curse of Jefferson - of a people constitutionally unable to come to grips with the simple fact that life must be about more than a pursuit of happiness; and that our national obsession with a entitlement to happiness has too many Americans doing everything in their power to avoid living life on life's terms.
The entire war on drugs has been a colossal failure, destabilizing neighboring states, incarcerating largely harmless individuals, and criminalizing Americans' recreational choices. As we approach the 2016 election, I put it to you. What's worse for the American mind: smoking a reefer or watching Fox News?
Even LSD is again being used in clinical settings (as a NY Times story highlighted a few years back) to gently alter terminal patients frame of reference on the life-death continuum, thus leading to a meaningful reduction in the fear that so often accompanies our final exit from this realm.
There are drugs like cocaine that appear to have no redeeming social value - and which I argue that society is right to encourage every American to avoid like the plague - but even with these our current interdiction model appears both largely ineffective and extraordinarily harmful in its own right.
I've often thought of our epidemic of drugs and alcohol abuse as the curse of Jefferson - of a people constitutionally unable to come to grips with the simple fact that life must be about more than a pursuit of happiness; and that our national obsession with a entitlement to happiness has too many Americans doing everything in their power to avoid living life on life's terms.
36
From the experiences of the states, marijuana is a tremendous source of tax revenue that can provide the same relief to local districts for schools and roads as it does for the mental anxieties, pain, and nausea of its medicinal users. Legalizing it means regulating it. The consumer/buyer gets an accurate description and visual inspection of the purchase, properly weighed, labeled and packaged; consultation is available regarding the subtlies and effects of indica vs, sativa (and the strains within the two groupings) is possible, and the purchase is safe and convenient. New jobs are created and growing is monitored.
Marijuana's touted dangers are more like differences; every substance, be it trans-fat, raw sugar, caffenine, a moscato, or seafood with traces of mercury has an effect on the body and mind. But the rejection of the social and personal benefits of marijuana are linked to claims that are exaggerated with the same extremes as have met every step of change in America.
Marijuana has a wide consensus of support and a global record of observed use (Amsterdam). Marijuana and society can benefit from more research into its elements. The government should sanction the study of its properties and bio-chemistry. The more that is known about it will improve our decision making. Its medical use supports greater investigation. Its recreational use has not resulted in the horrors predicted. The government should cease yielding to what so far has been unfounded fears.
Marijuana's touted dangers are more like differences; every substance, be it trans-fat, raw sugar, caffenine, a moscato, or seafood with traces of mercury has an effect on the body and mind. But the rejection of the social and personal benefits of marijuana are linked to claims that are exaggerated with the same extremes as have met every step of change in America.
Marijuana has a wide consensus of support and a global record of observed use (Amsterdam). Marijuana and society can benefit from more research into its elements. The government should sanction the study of its properties and bio-chemistry. The more that is known about it will improve our decision making. Its medical use supports greater investigation. Its recreational use has not resulted in the horrors predicted. The government should cease yielding to what so far has been unfounded fears.
49
I think we need far more research. You don't move the drug down on the schedule THEN conduct more research. Why? Because we simply don't know enough yet. The schizophrenia link? Small but real. And really real when it hits close to home (as it has). And with all the opioid issues bedeviling the country, with addiction treatment a booming business, we need answers. We know the brain changes. We know learning suffers. We need to know more, not for the casual smokers so much as the chronic. Clearly, marijuana isn't heroin. Let's find out exactly what it is.
2
And some people are allergic to peanuts, so no one should get peanut butter cookies?
Addiction and "brain changes" are normal human conditions, and the majority of people negotiate the challenges happy and successful.
Even alcohol (with its potential destructive effects) has given humanity what is our very society of today.
Humans enjoy a buzz...
fwa
Addiction and "brain changes" are normal human conditions, and the majority of people negotiate the challenges happy and successful.
Even alcohol (with its potential destructive effects) has given humanity what is our very society of today.
Humans enjoy a buzz...
fwa
1
Does this research you speak of do anything to diminish use, or merely continue the criminalization? We know alcohol and its dangers yet it is legal for adult purchase and abuse.
Opioid pain meds are much more dangerous and they get pushed by degree holding docs like candy, but no legalization issue there.
Opioid pain meds are much more dangerous and they get pushed by degree holding docs like candy, but no legalization issue there.
4
Just ask Willie Nelson. He's an expert.
3
Cannabis Sativa, also known as hemp, is one of mankind’s oldest crops. Without hemp rope, the Egyptian pyramids and medieval cathedrals might not have been built, and Magellan wouldn’t have had durable canvas sails and rigging to sail around the world. Its use include food, building material, paper and car body parts. It also has the potential to significantly reduce word wide deforestation. This maybe the most useful and sustainable plants on the planet. It is time to stop stigmatizing it and immediately decriminalize it.
32
if we made toilet paper from hemp we might save a forest or two - and that matters a lot these days
2
How many are employed by the D.E.A. that depend on paychecks?
Need I say more?
Need I say more?
8
There's a reason depressing things are illegal while stimulants like coffee are still legal. It's all about controlling the public.
2
Since you get punished if you're caught driving drunk and there is currently no metric for determining the impairment due to marijuana, I'm nervous about people driving high.
Anon *** They are working on it. ( a metric ) There's nothing 100% reliable yet. In fact it's probably a good investment opportunity. ... it won't make you feel better, but people are already driving high, not that they should. There is nothing that is a panacea. There will be problems with any route you take. But in this case legalization far outweighs keeping it illegal.
1
I've got disturbing news for you -- making marijuana illegal hasn't stopped anyone from driving under the influence of marijuana.
I'd even wager that criminalizing it has actually increased the number of people who have driven under the influence of it, as people use their cars as a mobile private space to use it or drive around trying to buy it.
If it was just in the cupboard along with the liquor and wine, pretty much nobody would think "Hey, I should get off the couch and go for a drive."
I'd even wager that criminalizing it has actually increased the number of people who have driven under the influence of it, as people use their cars as a mobile private space to use it or drive around trying to buy it.
If it was just in the cupboard along with the liquor and wine, pretty much nobody would think "Hey, I should get off the couch and go for a drive."
1
Not to worry. If the posted speed limit is 55mph they will be driving at 50mph.
1
Thank you, President Obama and Hillary Clinton, for seeking sanity, justice and science instead of the superstitions and moralizing surrounding marijuana. Our nation will be better off without throwing away lives to imprisonment, without stigmatizing people, and without wasting legal resources, for pot.
13
NM *** President Obama has done nothing at all to help with the legalization of pot. In fact his administration as hindered progress with federal banking laws that hurt in the states where it is legal. Maybe Hillary Clinton will be different. She has said she will leave it up to the states.
Orange, NJ
Orange, NJ
2
Congress made marijuana a Schedule 1 drug in 1970; and Congress can vote to remove it as a scheduled drug. Contact your Congressional Representatives and Senators if you want change in the Federal laws and status regarding marijuana. If you don't, please stop your complaining!
12
While it *may* be true that there is inadequate scientific evidence to justify removing marijuana from Schedule 1, isn't it then also true that there is insufficient scientific evidence for retaining its presence on Schedule 1? And shouldn't inclusion require leaping a higher bar than omission, considering that its inclusion on the list results in a limitation on personal freedoms?
Also, doesn't the absence of dire consequences in the states and countries where access to marijuana has been liberalized constitute evidence that it does not merit criminalization?
Also, doesn't the absence of dire consequences in the states and countries where access to marijuana has been liberalized constitute evidence that it does not merit criminalization?
162
But where is your indisputable evidence that there have been no dire consequences in states and countries where today's ultra high potency marijuana?
Schizophrenic related diseases are on the rise among those very populations and it's dire longer term effects may not have been realized yet.
Here's just one of many worrisome studies, this one published by Harvard entitled: "Teens who smoke pot at risk for later schizophrenia,psychosis".
Assuming todays pot is safer than alchohol 's a dangerous assumption!
Schizophrenic related diseases are on the rise among those very populations and it's dire longer term effects may not have been realized yet.
Here's just one of many worrisome studies, this one published by Harvard entitled: "Teens who smoke pot at risk for later schizophrenia,psychosis".
Assuming todays pot is safer than alchohol 's a dangerous assumption!
I'm all in favor of legalizing the use of marijuana - for both medical and recreational purposes. But does anyone doubt that if it had been legal for as long as tobacco has been legal, both the government and the NYT would be warning us of the dangers of marijuana and taxing/regulating it just like tobacco?
2
I certainly hope the NYT and the government would be warning us of the dangers. It's not like there aren't any.
No because marijuana isn't nearly as dangerous as tobacco use. And keep in mind the tobacco industry introduced addictive chemicals in cigarettes long ago to boost sales and kill millions of people.
1
I live in Virginia and I have chronic pain but medical marijuana is not legal for chronic pain use in my state. 10 minutes away, in Washington D.C., marijuana is legal for recreational use.
It's time for marijuana to be legalized. The stupidity and ignorance of conservative state legislatures like the one in Virginia, who keep marijuana illegal for political reasons while people who need it for medical reasons can't get it, is a punishing mess. Everyone I know living in Washington D.C. now smokes marijuana in their home with no legal risk - while in Virginia, my doctor can't prescribe it for me.
It's time to stop fighting the 60s drug and culture wars and punishing marijuana users.
Legalize it. We currently have a president who has used marijuana recreationally in the past and are likely to elect a new president whose husband admitted to having used it recreationally. There are hundreds of thousands of people in prison for marijuana sales and personal use. While in D.C., Colorado and a few other places, anyone can use it. There is no justice here.
Enough is enough.
It's time for marijuana to be legalized. The stupidity and ignorance of conservative state legislatures like the one in Virginia, who keep marijuana illegal for political reasons while people who need it for medical reasons can't get it, is a punishing mess. Everyone I know living in Washington D.C. now smokes marijuana in their home with no legal risk - while in Virginia, my doctor can't prescribe it for me.
It's time to stop fighting the 60s drug and culture wars and punishing marijuana users.
Legalize it. We currently have a president who has used marijuana recreationally in the past and are likely to elect a new president whose husband admitted to having used it recreationally. There are hundreds of thousands of people in prison for marijuana sales and personal use. While in D.C., Colorado and a few other places, anyone can use it. There is no justice here.
Enough is enough.
248
Bravo - enough. Treat Marijuana like alcohol.
30
While People are making Money selling and smoking Marijuana in Oregon, Washington State, Thousands of young Black Males in the South are been jailed for Marijuana possession.
If President Obama was serious about reducing Incarceration rates for Young Black Males and Latinos as he says, legalizing Marijuana at the Federal Level should be on top of his list.
If President Obama was serious about reducing Incarceration rates for Young Black Males and Latinos as he says, legalizing Marijuana at the Federal Level should be on top of his list.
51
He should also move to abolish the Private Prison Industry.
3
The damage to our society is obviously tragic, not the possession or use of this herb but arcane laws and punishment which follow a person, because it is a Scheduled 1 drug.
Stop playing politics and do whats right, legalize and treat it like alcohol, and please release from prison the non violent past offenders, clear their names and let them be the good productive citizens, we owe this to right these wrongs.
Stop playing politics and do whats right, legalize and treat it like alcohol, and please release from prison the non violent past offenders, clear their names and let them be the good productive citizens, we owe this to right these wrongs.
162
Vote for Gary Johnson; he is the only candidate who will end this stupid madness.
No surprise here. Think of all the millions (Billions?) forfeited to this agency (DEA) which uses, distributes and enables them to grease the palms (off budget) of local police departments for all kinds of new toys and RV's. And cooperation of course.
Follow the money.
Follow the money.
58
Too many unproven assumptions here. It's far more complicated than you suggest.
Fox News is ahead of President Obama on this issue.
He could lead on this. That would contribute to a positive Obama legacy.
He could lead on this. That would contribute to a positive Obama legacy.
49
Of course if Obama did move toward legalization Fox & Friends would wink and then say, "of course a black man wants to make pot legal."
1
Obama prefers tobacco, an insidious drug.
Call me crazy, but I think Obama, and the country as a whole, have major issues to worry about that are more important than people's right to get high.
2
There is not enough evidence to Keep marijuana a Schedule 1 substance; their reasoning is backwards, which is hardly a surprise. It is impossible to prove that there is NO harm from marijuana - in fact there is a potential for harm. WHO is it that has so much control that they can essentially thumb their nose at the President, and so many others, who desire to pursue research? Is it because it will make a number of officials look foolishly rigid? This agency has been stuck in a 1955 mode for far too long, wasting incredible amounts of funds chasing the wrong tigers
99
You have a strange view of science so let me give you an example where your view runs aground on the rocks of reality.
Over a half century ago there was a magic drug that stopped morning sickness in pregnant women. European countries approved its use and its manufacturer pushed for approval in the U.S.
One FDA employee, Frances Kelsey, refused to pass it for approval because of the lack of safety studies. The company said no women had reported problems with it and through members of Congress put tremendous pressure on Kelsey and started a public relations campaign to force her to give American women who couldn't travel to places it was legal access to it.
The name of the drug was Thalidomide and its side-effects weren't revealed until those women started giving birth to deformed babies.
Over a half century ago there was a magic drug that stopped morning sickness in pregnant women. European countries approved its use and its manufacturer pushed for approval in the U.S.
One FDA employee, Frances Kelsey, refused to pass it for approval because of the lack of safety studies. The company said no women had reported problems with it and through members of Congress put tremendous pressure on Kelsey and started a public relations campaign to force her to give American women who couldn't travel to places it was legal access to it.
The name of the drug was Thalidomide and its side-effects weren't revealed until those women started giving birth to deformed babies.
Let's get this straight. So there is not enough scientific evidence for removing marijuana from schedule 1 because the government has refused to allow any real research and only allowed "research" showing how toxic it is. If there's no valid research on marijuana to show it's efficacy or toxicity, just what is the scientific basis for classifying it as a schedule 1 substance? You can't have it both ways!
3
Finding out how marijuana came to be classified the way it is might shed some light on the validity of the classification. The continued deeming of marijuana as having no medical use is ridiculous, and the logic is straight out of Kafka or Catch-22. The deeming is apparently incapable of being challenged by any evidence to the contrary because the classification makes it virtually illegal to gather such evidence, and the medicine practiced in other countries is irrelevant. Deemings are subject to being overturned by evidence to the contrary.
From its behavior, it is obvious that the DEA is not deeming but rather positing, making it an axiom that marijuana has no medical use, and dishonestly pretending to deem for propaganda purposes.
From its behavior, it is obvious that the DEA is not deeming but rather positing, making it an axiom that marijuana has no medical use, and dishonestly pretending to deem for propaganda purposes.
40
....or you could just blame it all on Richard Nixon, who once told Raymond Shafer it was a Schedule 1 because that's what "my people" wanted.
1
We should be asking what justifies having a DEA. A special agency devoted to policing illegal drugs -- do we need that? If we do need it, I think it's essential to totally separate the power to decide which drugs get which kind of legal treatment from the power to enforce anti-drug laws and regulations. It is simply not in the interest of the enforcers to reduce the range of their duties. Our DEA is a built-in contradiction.
73
The whole concept of controlled substances is misguided. It has failed, and it has done a lot of damage in its failing.
I don't use drugs, my kids don't, and drugs nearly killed people I care about. I do not favor their use. That isn't the question. The question is what to do about it.
Prohibition does not work. It creates crime, big money that corrupts government and law enforcement and destroys whole countries. Along the way, it gives the glamour of money, rebellion, and power. It seduces those dealers can manipulate. Worst of all, it makes it harder to help the victims using, making them pariahs all the more vulnerable.
So sure, reform marijuana. But don't stop there. Take the money out of it, the glamour, the power, the motive for much of the seduction of new users.
Also put an end to the pressure on users to commit other crimes just to pay for their drugs. That is another huge part of our "crime problem" self inflicted.
Think of it as putting the dealers out of business by making them redundant. Think of it as ending the crime that swirls around drugs. Think of it as rescuing victims, kids who need help.
It isn't just legalization, as if allowing or promoting drugs. That is not the issue at all. Left starkly seen on its own, without the money and all the rest, it has no more appeal than an alcoholic's life, going from bar stool to drinking alone to homeless drunk. It would not sell itself like that, and we could help.
I don't use drugs, my kids don't, and drugs nearly killed people I care about. I do not favor their use. That isn't the question. The question is what to do about it.
Prohibition does not work. It creates crime, big money that corrupts government and law enforcement and destroys whole countries. Along the way, it gives the glamour of money, rebellion, and power. It seduces those dealers can manipulate. Worst of all, it makes it harder to help the victims using, making them pariahs all the more vulnerable.
So sure, reform marijuana. But don't stop there. Take the money out of it, the glamour, the power, the motive for much of the seduction of new users.
Also put an end to the pressure on users to commit other crimes just to pay for their drugs. That is another huge part of our "crime problem" self inflicted.
Think of it as putting the dealers out of business by making them redundant. Think of it as ending the crime that swirls around drugs. Think of it as rescuing victims, kids who need help.
It isn't just legalization, as if allowing or promoting drugs. That is not the issue at all. Left starkly seen on its own, without the money and all the rest, it has no more appeal than an alcoholic's life, going from bar stool to drinking alone to homeless drunk. It would not sell itself like that, and we could help.
105
Just remember this when Hillary finally gets enough robots on the Supreme Court to outlaw guns.
How about stop treating heron like heron. Treating addiction like a crime has been an unmitigated disaster. Time to give addicts safe pure doses and start treating addiction like the medical problem it is. Time also to empty the prisons and find other jobs for all those with a vested interest in the criminal justice system.
69
"The D.E.A. and the F.D.A. insist that there is not enough scientific evidence to justify removing marijuana from Schedule 1."
What scientifically valid evidence do they have that marijuana is dangerous? In fact, they don't have any scientifically valid proof that it's dangerous, and they didn't have any when marijuana was made illegal in the 1930s. What they do have is claims by various authority figures, often with impressive titles and/or influential positions in government, that marijuana is a dangerous drug. For the D.E.A. and F.D.A., scientifically valid proof is usually not seen to be needed if an endorsement can be obtained from someone with an authoritative title, such as M.D. or Ph.D.
What scientifically valid evidence do they have that marijuana is dangerous? In fact, they don't have any scientifically valid proof that it's dangerous, and they didn't have any when marijuana was made illegal in the 1930s. What they do have is claims by various authority figures, often with impressive titles and/or influential positions in government, that marijuana is a dangerous drug. For the D.E.A. and F.D.A., scientifically valid proof is usually not seen to be needed if an endorsement can be obtained from someone with an authoritative title, such as M.D. or Ph.D.
93
They'll never "see" enough evidence to put themselves out of business, to end the industries built around prohibition. They are the problem, as much as drug dealers or drugs themselves.
146
As it has been put, elsewhere,
"Americans will buy anything, if the right white man is selling it."
"Americans will buy anything, if the right white man is selling it."
3
WORKERBEE---you are messing with the money made by people in the law enforcement business, jails, etc. also the politicians want the money to keep flowing and give government more power. of course, i do not blame the police for enforcement of the laws on the books. they are just doing their jobs. it is sometimes dangerous work.. stop it. make it all legal. prohibition of booze and drugs does not work. it corrupts which hurts more people than all the drugging.
3
Marijuana was outlawed in the first place as an element of Jim Crow.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-dru...
http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-dru...
53
Nope to get rid of the Mexicans who came to USA during WWII to work and brought dope with them. After American men came home it was time to get rid of the Mexicans.
1
And at the request of William Randolph Hearst
1
People need to understand the power of the President of the USA.
The DEA does not have the power to make the final call. The President has the power to make the final call. If the DEA makes the wrong call, the prez can fix that by making heads roll at the top of the agencies. Obviously, the prez is okay with the call because he's done nothing about it for 8 years. Just so you know. Nothing liberal about the man, whatsoever...
The DEA does not have the power to make the final call. The President has the power to make the final call. If the DEA makes the wrong call, the prez can fix that by making heads roll at the top of the agencies. Obviously, the prez is okay with the call because he's done nothing about it for 8 years. Just so you know. Nothing liberal about the man, whatsoever...
92
So what are you asking the President to do?
2
This is a fight that the Democrats and the left don't need. Let the States do their own thing till it becomes a burden to keep it on the schedule 1 list. As Johnson said to MLK make me do it. It's politics. It will be off the list soon enough.
3
I may be wrong but I disagree, he still has time, his 8 years are not up yet.
Unfortunately he has to measure the effect on the POTUS election, he will do what is necessary to not interfere, even if it means being patient.
Unfortunately he has to measure the effect on the POTUS election, he will do what is necessary to not interfere, even if it means being patient.
5
Medical marijuana does a great job of clearing up my sinus allergies and asthma. For me, it works about as well as the steroids my doctor prescribes, but with far fewer side effects. Unfortunately, keeping it listed as a schedule 1 drug has been a road block to additional research.
https://www.hellomd.com/health-wellness/marijuana-asthma-can-it-help
I am glad I live in CA, as medical marijuana is legal here. If you are tired of plugged up sinuses, give it a try.
https://www.hellomd.com/health-wellness/marijuana-asthma-can-it-help
I am glad I live in CA, as medical marijuana is legal here. If you are tired of plugged up sinuses, give it a try.
79
The entire concept of Schedule I is erroneous. Any and all drugs may have a medical use, even heroin and LSD. I, for one, have every intention of stocking up on heroin if diagnosed with an incurable disease leading to a painful demise. I don't trust my doctors to independently manage my pain adequately. Sorry, my MD readers. LSD? I found it to be a useful way to get a handle on a good direction in life leading to a successful and adjusted way of being.
Certainly marijuana has been shown to work for many medical conditions and clearly it poses very little risk of causing harm. I wouldn't expect much less than outright opposition from the DEA. Their very existence is dependent on keeping all drugs illegal.
Certainly marijuana has been shown to work for many medical conditions and clearly it poses very little risk of causing harm. I wouldn't expect much less than outright opposition from the DEA. Their very existence is dependent on keeping all drugs illegal.
187
Keep in mind that we don't have the hospital space for that first wave of heroin users who get too much in their ''freedom'' and the news media go nuts. It seems inevitable that there will be an initial wave of deaths.
Storing dope? Remember what happens when fools forget to store guns.
Storing dope? Remember what happens when fools forget to store guns.
The entire issue of "medical marijuana" is a joke. Sure, it has some medicinal potential, especially in a nation awash with opiates. But the bigger issue is a human rights issue. Why does the government treat cannabis so harshly while we actively push alcohol? Skip the "medical marijuana" and legalize it based on the conservative concept of getting the government off our backs and allowing adults to decide which psycho-active substance we wish to use. What if there is no great medical value? Would that fact justify persecuting millions of people for doing something no worse than having a drink?
254
It seems to me that, based on the DEAs definition of a schedule one substance, alcohol should be added to that list.
12
There is not any doubt that pot alleviates the nausea associated with chemotherapy. I experienced this myself. All of the other claims? I don't have an answer for those. One item that is usually overlooked is the fact that the pot doesn't need to be mind altering to remedy the nausea.
13
I agree with this comment except that the author is confusing "conservative" with "libertarian." It was the conservative Nixon administration & subsequent conservative & liberal administrations that gave us the disastrous "war on drugs."
1
It's all about...money. The DEA is a racket, they get loads of tax dollars to conduct their (completely and utterly) misguided and wasteful "war on drugs". There is evidence the only reason marijuana was ever put on the list in the first place was racist in origin targeting African Americans and Latinos and that continues in the way drug use if prosecuted. This ruling is a disgrace and shows just how corrupt our government really is; a rigged system indeed.
322
....yes and also the fact that the ultra wealthy & powerful W.R. Hurst wanted to sell his timber for paper production rather then the traditional hemp that had been used up until then. Hemp is better quality paper, less acidic, easier to grow w/ higher yields then timber.....in the end WRH got his way and we have continued to live w/ this absurd situation....just follow the money, the DEA is a racket and highly ineffective. We should return to using hemp paper and stop cutting down valuable trees. Hemp grows like a weed w/ less water....when will America use common sense again?
2
I read that as shipping trade was caught up in the pre-WWII situation, the opium trade was effectively put on indefinite hold. Harry Anslinger knew the DEA was out of a job (thousands of agents) unless they could think of something else to fight, so he decided on Marijuana and had a grand propaganda campagn which, obviously, worked well. There was never any proof of it being a harmful substance. Let's move on. My Dad had cancer, but really he died from chemo, cause he couldn't eat. We all wish he'd been able to consider medical marijuana, which could have restored his appetite. It 's time to find those agents another substance to prohibit.
4
Indeed, the preliminary reports on cannabis going native are that: (1) it is not causing havoc in legal states...no reefer madness, (2) it is stemming major crime in legal states, (3) it is providing a rich source of new tax revenue, especially needed in the rust belt states with large pension overhangs, (4) it is highly effective fighting against PTSD, epilepsy, depression, and non-opioid pain relief, and (5) it is not carcinogenic nor addictive like tobacco.
If this weed did't exist, I think someone would invent it for the list of reasons above.
It should be classified along with alcohol and treated very much the same way by law enforcement and others.
Currently, we are creating a legal apartheid where residents in legal states can indulge with abandon, while their neighbors in non-legal states can do the same, followed by a stint in the hoosegow for 5-10 years.
Let's stop this farce, win over the thugs controlling it, tax it to the benefit of many local governments, and study it like crazy to uncover its myriad medicinal benefits.
If this weed did't exist, I think someone would invent it for the list of reasons above.
It should be classified along with alcohol and treated very much the same way by law enforcement and others.
Currently, we are creating a legal apartheid where residents in legal states can indulge with abandon, while their neighbors in non-legal states can do the same, followed by a stint in the hoosegow for 5-10 years.
Let's stop this farce, win over the thugs controlling it, tax it to the benefit of many local governments, and study it like crazy to uncover its myriad medicinal benefits.
295
The only thing causing havoc in my county is the increasingly frantic efforts of local law enforcement and county government to regulate it out of the area!
1
Once again the NY Times ignores neurobiological evidence. And it shows in how they write. Glad I don't pay for this.
4
Can you please elaborate?
4
3 short sentences and a strong opinion that provides no support/evidence as to why we should pay attention to your point of view.
Could you elaborate on what this neurobiological evidence is?
Please provide references.
Could you elaborate on what this neurobiological evidence is?
Please provide references.
5
Evidence of what? Please link us!
4
When my father was suffering from cancer, one of the best remedies for his pain was marijuana. We called it a vacation from his illness. In fact at the dispensaries that I go to, a large number of customers like me are buying it for sick family member who unfortunately live in states that refuse to decriminalize it. The fact that marijuana is still illegal is a crime.
466
Back in the 70's I had a friend who was a psychiatrist. He had terminal cancer and all the medications known to man. During one conversation he stated to me none of them alleviated his discomfort. He then went on to explain another friend had introduced him to pot. It gave him more comfort than any other drug and restored his appetite. He believed it should be explored for medical use. And this was when the War on Drugs was in full swing.
3
Our Gov. own report in '72 The Shafer Commission:
“[T]he criminal law is too harsh a tool to apply to personal possession even in the effort to discourage use.” “It implies an overwhelming indictment of the behavior which we believe is not appropriate. The actual and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private behavior, a step which our society takes only with the greatest reluctance."
“… Therefore, the Commission recommends ... [that the] possession of marijuana for personal use no longer be an offense, [and that the] casual distribution of small amounts of marihuana for no remuneration, or insignificant remuneration, no longer be an offense.”
But Nixon needed a tool to Hippie punch and keep POC down...
Erlichman confessed the true purpose of federal drug prohibition: "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar Left, and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black. But by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
Legalize Cannabis NOW!
Get out and VOTE!
As if HRC will be any different.
“[T]he criminal law is too harsh a tool to apply to personal possession even in the effort to discourage use.” “It implies an overwhelming indictment of the behavior which we believe is not appropriate. The actual and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private behavior, a step which our society takes only with the greatest reluctance."
“… Therefore, the Commission recommends ... [that the] possession of marijuana for personal use no longer be an offense, [and that the] casual distribution of small amounts of marihuana for no remuneration, or insignificant remuneration, no longer be an offense.”
But Nixon needed a tool to Hippie punch and keep POC down...
Erlichman confessed the true purpose of federal drug prohibition: "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar Left, and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black. But by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
Legalize Cannabis NOW!
Get out and VOTE!
As if HRC will be any different.
91
Legalization at the state level has been successful - more so in Colorado than my home state, Washington, because of how the market was structured. When legalization spreads at the state level, the feds will eventually fall in line.
1
Libertarian Gary Johnson can be trusted on this issue
1
Marijuana and heroin should be treated alike--both legalized. Editorials such as this one, that assume that the government should have anything to do with drugs, beyond regulating their safety and providing free medical treatment for addicts, have played a role in keeping the immoral, destructive, and racist drug laws in place for decades. How many more decades of it will we tolerate?
164
Have to disagree. Smoking a blunt rarely kills people. Shooting smack kills them all the time. Not to mention the other social costs. Heroin should not be legal. Treatment for heroin addiction, including beds in rehab and methadone, should be available to anyone who needs it.
I couldn't have said it better myself. However, it is impossible to get a man to understand something if his paycheck depends on not understanding.
I lost a friend to heroin last week. let's stay focused on pot, which doesn't kill
1
Considering that marijuana has been reported to obviate the need for some prescription medications, and, at the very least, competes with the alcohol industry for getting high, the influence of our corporate overlords is probably lurking somewhere in the resistance to decriminalization.
517
Add to that the law enforcement agencies that get funding to bust minorities for possessing pot, and the for profit prisons.
15
As always follow the money. You can drink alcohol until you're a knee-walking commode-hugging drunk, and smoke tobacco until you can't breathe, but cannabis is the great Satan. Also, there are far, far more drunks in Congress than potheads.
7
Let's also not forget the private prison industry, they would be shutting down their major consumer acquisition strategy. the average cost per prisoner is around $31,000 with over 1.4 Million people.
With those numbers, there are a lot of people interested in maintaining the status quo.
With those numbers, there are a lot of people interested in maintaining the status quo.
5
You are right. It was a small victory...very small, hardly enough to make the DEA ad it's minions squirm even a little bit.
But thanks, NYT for finally giving out a positive reason to vote for Clinton, That is, if she will do what she said she will.
But thanks, NYT for finally giving out a positive reason to vote for Clinton, That is, if she will do what she said she will.
56
how many pols of any stripe do what they say they will do ?
i cant think of any
1
Study medical marijuana. Study guns. Study everything.
[Anecdotally, when helping medical marijuana folks produce a local TV series, I did find that some users' paranoia was quite stunning. Is this frequent, say?]
We're supposed to be sentient beings, tho the 'sapiens' is obviously a stretch.
[Anecdotally, when helping medical marijuana folks produce a local TV series, I did find that some users' paranoia was quite stunning. Is this frequent, say?]
We're supposed to be sentient beings, tho the 'sapiens' is obviously a stretch.
6
"I did find that some users' paranoia was quite stunning."
In my experience, people who are made paranoid by marijuana avoid it like the plague.
Your anecdotal evidence is void of scientific content.
In my experience, people who are made paranoid by marijuana avoid it like the plague.
Your anecdotal evidence is void of scientific content.
7
Chuck Rosenberg at the DEA is stuck in his institutionalized opinion that marijuana has no medical benefits whatsoever. He is the mouthpiece of an agency that draws its pay from criminalizing substances, their users and purveyors. The editorial is spot on, but there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that LSD may also deserve clinical trials in the treatment of some disorders, and could be removed from the schedule 1 category as well. In hindsight, the fact that it was put there dates to an era when it was politically expedient in some quarters to do so, and classed along with marijuana as dangerous by proponents of a singularly narrow perception of what people should perceive and think.
42
What part of DOPE don't you understand?! Jail all drug users and pot users as well as so called medical marijuana users permanently. The ONLY ones who want this legalized, are the ones using it so that they don't get busted, which they correctly should be. The DEA is correct! Plain and simple. Keep it illegal. It is addictive, kills brain cells, stays in your system longer than alcohol and so what are you going to do for a drug test for work or a DUI DWI, makes people stupid and we all know how many stupid people there are in this country and on this earth. Just look at all those who vote and support Republican'ts and their ilk. Enough said. We don't need or want any more stupid people as there are far too many already. What part of DOPE don't you understand?!
3
"What part of DOPE don't you understand?" asks jkj as he curiously recommends life-sentences for ALL users of marijuana.
In all actuality, it is a fascinating word (used as a verb, an adjective, and a noun), and its etymology and usage is complicated. Traceable back to the Dutch "doopen," meaning thick sauce or liquid, it first entered American slang in the 1850`s, referring to a "thick headed person." Its association with drugs started in the the late 1800`s when it was connected with the the thick syrup used by smokers of opium. It is also used in reference to inside information and is connected with "doping" animals and athletes to improve performance. "Dope" became associated with "good" in hip-hop as a result the linguistic inversion so common to slang. It only came to refer to marijuana in the 1950's, and with more than a tinge of racism that (in part) led to the criminalization of the drug in the 30's.
So, do I want my airline pilot taking bong hits in the cockpit? No. Would some sort of test to determine whether or not a person "stoned" to the level of impairment? Sure. However, limited studies have shown that stoned driving is dangerous only because stoned drivers tend to be TOO careful.
Would I prefer that my kid NOT smoke pot. Yes. But I would also prefer that he not drink alcohol or spend too much time on the internet.
Finally, lkj's final point is a non-sequiter. Dope smokers are stupid and therefore more likely to support Trump?
In all actuality, it is a fascinating word (used as a verb, an adjective, and a noun), and its etymology and usage is complicated. Traceable back to the Dutch "doopen," meaning thick sauce or liquid, it first entered American slang in the 1850`s, referring to a "thick headed person." Its association with drugs started in the the late 1800`s when it was connected with the the thick syrup used by smokers of opium. It is also used in reference to inside information and is connected with "doping" animals and athletes to improve performance. "Dope" became associated with "good" in hip-hop as a result the linguistic inversion so common to slang. It only came to refer to marijuana in the 1950's, and with more than a tinge of racism that (in part) led to the criminalization of the drug in the 30's.
So, do I want my airline pilot taking bong hits in the cockpit? No. Would some sort of test to determine whether or not a person "stoned" to the level of impairment? Sure. However, limited studies have shown that stoned driving is dangerous only because stoned drivers tend to be TOO careful.
Would I prefer that my kid NOT smoke pot. Yes. But I would also prefer that he not drink alcohol or spend too much time on the internet.
Finally, lkj's final point is a non-sequiter. Dope smokers are stupid and therefore more likely to support Trump?
6
You are hopelessly misinformed.
6
"It is addictive, kills brain cells, stays in your system longer than alcohol."
You can't prove that.
You can't prove that.
4
two weeks ago DEA/Mass state police did helicopter raids of marijuana
plants on Martha's Vinyard: plain cloths, with no ID, busting out of bushes
cutting garden hoses etc to conficate plants. your tax $$$ at work!!!!
plants on Martha's Vinyard: plain cloths, with no ID, busting out of bushes
cutting garden hoses etc to conficate plants. your tax $$$ at work!!!!
50
They did the same on Block Island 20 years ago. They wanted the land. What is now Bean Point wildlife refuge had been private property that was confiscated for the owner growing something like 11 plants.
Land of the free.
Land of the free.
2
way back in the reefer madness of the mythical 'sixties' we all knew stoner/ doper lawyers, future pols, maybe a future POTUS, and just KNEW that weed would be legal when we grew up and got to be Big
FIFTY years ago
Maybe not not even for tax revenues; and legalizing serious chemicals? to slow down the gang wars
NEXT millennium
FIFTY years ago
Maybe not not even for tax revenues; and legalizing serious chemicals? to slow down the gang wars
NEXT millennium
20
"The Drug Enforcement Administration on Thursday turned down two petitions..."
Of course they did. These people are in the anti-drug business. Turkeys don't vote for Thanksgiving. To borrow a thought from Thomas Szasz - no bleeding heart liberal - DEA people are like Crusaders, or perhaps Jihadis: they have a sacred mission, and they can do no wrong, no matter what they do; their "very efforts are synonymous with virtue."
If we are ever to have a sane drug policy, a brave Congress, or an even braver President, will have to neuter the overmighty DEA.
Of course they did. These people are in the anti-drug business. Turkeys don't vote for Thanksgiving. To borrow a thought from Thomas Szasz - no bleeding heart liberal - DEA people are like Crusaders, or perhaps Jihadis: they have a sacred mission, and they can do no wrong, no matter what they do; their "very efforts are synonymous with virtue."
If we are ever to have a sane drug policy, a brave Congress, or an even braver President, will have to neuter the overmighty DEA.
60
I agree 100% percent with the notion that more research is needed. It would help if the article had specified that an area in which research is most needed is the development of meaningful methods to determine impairment. And the difference in long term heavy use and recreational (weekend-type) use on performance and memory. BTW, can anyone tell me whether any other countries have done such research? I'm surprised other nations haven't done such.
6
Lms, it is illegal to do research on Sch.1 drugs because by law, they have no redeeming social or medical value, unlike alcohol, a potent germicide, and nicotine, a potent insecticide.
Uhm yes I understand that and my point is that I agree that it should not be a sch 1 drug. I think it should be decriminalized or legalized. My point is that there is some impairment with use, temporary in most cases. I would like to see research on that topic so that people aren't prosecuted based upon use that might have occurred days or weeks before testing. My question concerned whether other countries like Netherlands where pot has been used legally for years have done unbiased research based on scientific methods using pot rather than based on anecdotal research.
1
Skin rashes, headaches, glaucoma, nausea, brain tumors; if a cure-all like marijuana were just recently discovered there would be no government restrictions and plenty of money for research. What's odd though is that it seems like for all of history mankind has always hoped for this type of cure-all. We're finding, after only a few years of research, that cannabis does provide a wide variety of remedies for a wide variety of diseases. So what's the hesitation?
47
I am all for the legalization, regulation and taxation of Marijuana, and all drugs for that matter. But, this is the talk that shuts down people that are on the other side of the fence. Can Marijuana help alleviate some conditions? Yes, there is research into some conditions regarding its efficacy and it does show positive benefits: Multiple Sclerosis, etc. But, this same argument could be made with Heroin: it provides analgesic effects, is useful in hospice care. Marijuana clearly has a recreational following and as a supporter of legalization you and I both have to recognize marijuana has deleterious effects: impairment, hormonal changes with long term use, dependency (yes, marijuana users can get into a bundle that it is not physiologically addicting, but any substance is consumed habitually has an addictive component to it) . The question is not in regards to Marijuana's supposed health benefits, the question is does the Drug War make the world a better place to live in? Clearly the Drug War does not.
5
"Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act. Drugs on that list, which include heroin and LSD, are deemed to have no medical use"
Odd that many other countries, including all of Europe, disagree. Heroin is an excellent palliative drug, and LSD looks as if it may have unexpected benefits in helping people with post-traumatic stress and addictions.
The current DEA stance on drugs looks a lot like the Untouchables in the 1920s.
Odd that many other countries, including all of Europe, disagree. Heroin is an excellent palliative drug, and LSD looks as if it may have unexpected benefits in helping people with post-traumatic stress and addictions.
The current DEA stance on drugs looks a lot like the Untouchables in the 1920s.
226
This is the DEA's business... All the agents, upper level management teams, associated personnel, and federal contractors have a vested interest in keeping their jobs. It is no surprise they would recommend not to legalize marijuana or any drug from that matter. It is frankly shameful, especially when legalization and regulation has been shown to demonstrate better health outcomes (e.g. Switzerland's Heroin Harm Reduction program).
8
Has the DEA even provided any evidence for keeping marijuana on the list? You would think an agency with that kind of power would have to justify their decisions, not just parrot an opinion from the 1950s that is rooted more in moral authoritarianism than fact.
126
"That kind of power" is useless to them if they don't exercise it. Ergo, MJ stays on Schedule 1.
6
The vast majority of Americans support legalizing medical marijuana. In the early days of this movement, opponents used to cite the federal Schedule I status as part of their talking points of opposition. Nowadays nobody bothers to make that argument. The federal status of marijuana is considered so out of touch with reality, it has lost its power to sway state legislators or voters in a state election. At this point, the federal government only loses credibility by upholding this position. The DEA is undermining the credibility of our federal government. Someone has to rein this agency in.
140
Republicans still seem swept up by the idea of reefer madness. These regulations suggest that people who partake of marijuana are no different than a strung-out junkie. Tell that to the many people who partake in Washington State, where it's legal. At the recreational pot shop in my Seattle neighborhood, that includes everyone from affluent young techies to retirees looking for relaxation, not to mention doctors, lawyers, and so on, all of whom make it to work in the morning with nary a problem. Yet we are no different than abusers of heroin and LSD? How absurd. Fortunately, it seems clear that we are headed in a less stone-age era, where stoners can toke in peace and scientists can unlock cannabis' true potential.
72
“the scarcity of research-grade marijuana” is ridiculous. My doctor in Rhode Island prescribed marijuana. I went to the marijuana store. What business potential! Artisinal marijuana! The doctor could have prescribed oxycodone. Less risk with marijuana. Surely medical research is warranted.
But what if research finds it is not harmful? The DEA is invested in illegal marijuana.
But what if research finds it is not harmful? The DEA is invested in illegal marijuana.
84
Who is the DEA? Obama's administration.
Put the blame where it belongs.
Put the blame where it belongs.
22
After all, before Obama was elected in 2008, there was no DEA. Right, Tommy? High five!
4
I'm not surprised that the DEA hasn't yielded to sensible arguments for the removal of marijuana from Schedule 1 but I am amazed that Big Tobacco, who has preparing for legalization, for decades, hasn't prevailed to have the classification changed. I guess their paid flunkies in Congress must be locked in a battle to the death with the Prison Industrial System and their paid flunkies in Congress.
40
Marijuana might even be really bad for some folks and abused or lead to addiction or terrible driving for others, etc. and still not belong on Schedule 1. This is obvious. What isn't is the motivation of the Obama Administration joining all the retrograde thinkers before them. Dumb, and doomed policy.
32
Is there a missing link or did I hallucinate this law sponsored by Bernie Sanders about removing 'marihuana' from schedule 1:
Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2015
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2237/text
Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2015
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2237/text
36
If the federal government wishes to not be perceived as corrupt and stupid then maybe it should end practices of obvious corruption and stupidity.
Legalizing (and taxing) marijuana would be a good place to start.
Legalizing (and taxing) marijuana would be a good place to start.
237
Removing marijuana from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act should be a no-brainer.
Considering that the DEA is involved in making that decision, one should be less than hopeful.
Considering that the DEA is involved in making that decision, one should be less than hopeful.
108
If Mr.Obama really wanted to have an impact on the criminal justice system, he could have overruled the DEA decision along with reclassifying crack cocaine the same as "white cocaine" (pun intended).
This editorial is very deceptive and intentionally provocative. Possession of marijuana gets a slap on the wrist. Possession of heroin is a considerably more serious offense. The two drugs are not equated criminally, not even close. The headline proclaims otherwise and the editorial makes no effort to set the record straight. I've got no problem with medical marijuana, which is the real issue. But I do have a problem with editorials that don't tell the truth.
2
President Obama said marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol? Is he an expert in pharmaceutical science? Seems like more of an opinion than a fact...sloppy editorial.
5
An editorial is an expression of its writer's _opinion_. What a random reader considers to be "fact" is of no consequence, with respect to the truth-value of an editorial.
By the way, does the President not have the right to freedom of speech, just as you do?
By the way, does the President not have the right to freedom of speech, just as you do?
3
No he isn't but there are scores of scientists who are experts who have said it is not as dangerous. If you really think marijuana is even as dangerous as alcohol you are willfully letting your own personal misperceptions influence you. Drunk driving, domestic abuse, bar fights, rape, and more all from alcohol.
9
How about replacing the head of the DEA with someone who hasn't called medical marijuana a "joke" and recognizes the negative effect civil forfeiture laws have had on a sensible drug policy?
129
"... Obama administration said it would authorize more institutions to grow marijuana for medical research."
Federal prohibition was done with a constitutional amendments. Considering the 10th Amendment, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people", which part of the constitution would allow the Federal government to ban marijuana, that.did not allow it to ban alcohol?
Said another way, what is the difference between pot, a plant leaf, and alcohol a processed product,that would give the Federal government authority over it without a Marijuana prohibition amendment.
Federal prohibition was done with a constitutional amendments. Considering the 10th Amendment, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people", which part of the constitution would allow the Federal government to ban marijuana, that.did not allow it to ban alcohol?
Said another way, what is the difference between pot, a plant leaf, and alcohol a processed product,that would give the Federal government authority over it without a Marijuana prohibition amendment.
19
To continue to lump marijuana with heroin and state it has no medical value defies evidence and logic. It makes me wonder if there is some hidden agenda. Can the people making these decisions really be so misinformed?
51
Could it be that the DEA is worried about losing a big part of its budget?
59
Or the very reason for its worthless existence?
6
Even heroin and LSD have been found to have medical uses. Heroin for pain and LSD, under the guidance of a professional, for psychiatric benefit. It is time to stop prosecuting drugs as a criminal matter and treat it as a health issue.
4
The logical positivists of the neoliberal persuasion mock old-fashioned conservatives for being unhinged from reality, claiming to be data-driven, evidence based, scientifically astute, academically informed, guided by 'experts', and so on, then, what happens?
Their pose is outed as nothing more than a fatuous phantasm.
Not that the conservatives are better...
Their pose is outed as nothing more than a fatuous phantasm.
Not that the conservatives are better...
2
Obviously the DEA decision isn't affecting your drug consumption levels.
11
@Randy: I'm 64 years old and have not taken so much as an aspirin in over five years.
Obama is prosecuting the drug war, not me.
Why is that happening in this enlightened scientific age?
Obama is prosecuting the drug war, not me.
Why is that happening in this enlightened scientific age?
18
Has there been some overreach by the intelligentsia? Yes from time to time, but not to the extent of achieving "fatuous phantasm", and not nearly with the frequency you imply. For the most part, the country and the planet have derived great benefit from the scientific advances, statistical analyses and evidence based conclusions that have propelled us out of caves and into the solar system. The only benefits derived from the deniers, fabulists and witch doctors have been to their own pockets or those of their political persuasion, and usually to the detriment of many others. But let's talk about the DEA.
Originally they were a bunch of crusaders during prohibition and when that ended they needed a new target to justify their existence and allow for their expansion. They have, over the years, morphed into a bloated, decidedly unscientific militia of zealots who trample common sense and interfere with doctor/patient relationships without portfolio, much the less empirical justification. They are out of control, and the president, who has the power to rein them in, is letting the spoiled child have it's way. Thier original mission didn't include enforcement yet they are one of the many and largest swat teams we have. Slightly more sophisticated that the TSA, they prohibit legitimate research, way outside their charter and above their pay grade. There's plenty for them to do without a religious war on a common weed that does no harm compared to booze or nicotine, Embarrassing.
Originally they were a bunch of crusaders during prohibition and when that ended they needed a new target to justify their existence and allow for their expansion. They have, over the years, morphed into a bloated, decidedly unscientific militia of zealots who trample common sense and interfere with doctor/patient relationships without portfolio, much the less empirical justification. They are out of control, and the president, who has the power to rein them in, is letting the spoiled child have it's way. Thier original mission didn't include enforcement yet they are one of the many and largest swat teams we have. Slightly more sophisticated that the TSA, they prohibit legitimate research, way outside their charter and above their pay grade. There's plenty for them to do without a religious war on a common weed that does no harm compared to booze or nicotine, Embarrassing.
6
It is hard to understand the DEA's continuing obstinance over continuing to label marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, supposedly in the same company as heroin.
As for medical usage, I recall a video of a family with a young boy who was continually tormented with seizures each day, often having dozens of such attacks. A firm which grows many various strains of cannabis developed one which had none of the effects of being high, and reduced the boys seizures to only 2 or 3 per day. It profoundly changed his life and that of his family.
Many who are on chemotherapy or found pharmaceutical drugs ineffective for pain find marijuana to be almost a miracle for them, in its ability to restore appetite in those undergoing chemo, and to sharply reduce pain for some sufferers of chronic pain.
Certainly the government has some in its ranks who are willing to depart from fears of 'Reefer Madness', as portrayed in the absurd, inaccurate movie dramatization from the 1930s, and embrace marijuana's great potential to help those who are truly suffering.
As for medical usage, I recall a video of a family with a young boy who was continually tormented with seizures each day, often having dozens of such attacks. A firm which grows many various strains of cannabis developed one which had none of the effects of being high, and reduced the boys seizures to only 2 or 3 per day. It profoundly changed his life and that of his family.
Many who are on chemotherapy or found pharmaceutical drugs ineffective for pain find marijuana to be almost a miracle for them, in its ability to restore appetite in those undergoing chemo, and to sharply reduce pain for some sufferers of chronic pain.
Certainly the government has some in its ranks who are willing to depart from fears of 'Reefer Madness', as portrayed in the absurd, inaccurate movie dramatization from the 1930s, and embrace marijuana's great potential to help those who are truly suffering.
145
The science has been clear on marijuana for decades: It is relatively harmless. The problem is a) it not addictive and b) it would be dirt cheap if legal.
Racketeers rule...
Racketeers rule...
100
I've read all the comments about this article so far. There is a lot of good information to be gleaned here. The positions of the majority of the writers overwhelmingly support the removal of MJ from it's Schedule 1 classification. One could infer that their positions not only reflect the majority of Americans but also the majority of American politician's real opinions on the subject as well, i.e. POTUS. So why is the DEA allowed to make these absurd proclamations and why do our politicians fall in lock step behind an agency that has no real purpose
other than to enforce institutionalized racism and a war on poverty. The obvious answer is to just "follow the money". The DEA exists to justify it'seems own budget and they're in league with the privatized prison industry as well as the pharmaceutical industry that realizes they can't profit from a medicine that anyone can grow in their backyard. As long as politicians kick the can down the road of State's Rights the federal classification will never change. The change has to come from the Executive branch. A POTUS has to make the change. IMO, Obama should do it, hopefully he won't kick the can down the road.
other than to enforce institutionalized racism and a war on poverty. The obvious answer is to just "follow the money". The DEA exists to justify it'seems own budget and they're in league with the privatized prison industry as well as the pharmaceutical industry that realizes they can't profit from a medicine that anyone can grow in their backyard. As long as politicians kick the can down the road of State's Rights the federal classification will never change. The change has to come from the Executive branch. A POTUS has to make the change. IMO, Obama should do it, hopefully he won't kick the can down the road.
10
Actually it's not hard at all to understand the DEA's obstinance. The people who populate that agency have a vested interest in perpetuating the war on drugs. If they finally admit, en masse and institutionally, that the whole reefer madness thing was a fabricated crock devised by soon-to-be-unemployed Prohibition law enforcers for racist reasons, how will that make them look?
And, taking away marijuana would vastly reduce the numbers of Americans who are potential targets in the war, which would naturally reduce the footprint, impact, and relevance to this agency.
LIke generals who want war to bolster their résumés, the drug cops want to keep their career-builders.
And, taking away marijuana would vastly reduce the numbers of Americans who are potential targets in the war, which would naturally reduce the footprint, impact, and relevance to this agency.
LIke generals who want war to bolster their résumés, the drug cops want to keep their career-builders.
7
This is simple system dynamics, the more people smoking pot, the more people there will be driving impaired, having accidents, and doing stupid things----just like with alcohol.
The bigger thing to consider is that we should not be building prisons, we should be building treatment centers to handle addicts convicted of state and federal drug crimes. Using the taxes from marijuana sales would be one source of revenue.