Cannabis is still considered a Schedule 1 drug by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). To date, 23 states and The District of Columbia (Washington D.C.) have medical marijuana laws in place. Some states have legalized recreational pot usage. There are opinions on both sides–marijuana is controversial and barely legal.
The DEA is a division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and their drug classification rules state, “No prescriptions may be written for Schedule 1 substances.” Additionally, they may not be”available for clinical use.” Among the list of hard narcotics is Marijuana. The list also contains Heroin, LSD, Peyote, Ecstasy, Quaaludes, etc.
Since almost half of the U.S. has medical marijuana laws in place, is the DOJ ignoring federal law? The answer is, maybe. In a recent article about this topic, the term “doublethink” was used.
George Orwell coined the word and defined it as follows, “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” This word explains the government’s war on drugs and its distribution of legal joints for glaucoma patients.
Robert Randall, a resident of Washington D.C., was granted the right to use the drug for medical purposes by a Federal Judge in 1976. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was ordered to supply Randall with the drug. He was granted this because no other medication offered him relief for his glaucoma.
As a result of this ruling, the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program (Compassionate IND) was established. The Federal Government runs the program, and the plant is grown at the University of Mississippi. From 1976 to 1992, this program ran as the law stated.
During the heightened AIDS epidemic, the reversal was when the public health authorities declared there was no scientific reason to continue. In other words, it was suspended in response to President G.W. Bush’s administrative push to “get tough on drugs.” Fortunately, the patients already on the program did not have to leave; they were “grandfathered in.”
Cannabis was legal and considered a medication in 1850. By the mid-1930s, opposition began to grow, and 48 states passed laws to make it illegal because it was thought to be addictive. Then, the “Hippies” or “Flower Child” generation began to defy the anti-marijuana laws openly.
In response, President Nixon declared war on drugs in 1971. Once President Reagan was in office, First Lady Nancy Reagan launched the “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign. The movement was started in 1984, and two years later, President Reagan signed The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986.
Proponents of medical marijuana, armed with the knowledge that the drug was considered a medication in 1850 and the Compassionate IND, began to fight for the people’s right to use pot for medicinal purposes.
By 1998, four states had passed laws to allow medical marijuana to be used by patients; California passed the law in 1996. By 2014, 23 states and Washington D.C. also followed this path. Still, marijuana is considered controversial and barely legal, at least from a federal standpoint.
There has also been a movement to allow the drug’s recreational use. Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington State currently have laws in place legalizing the recreational use of cannabis.
The recreational use laws vary from state to state. The federal laws are the exception. Federally, it is illegal to transport marijuana across state lines, and it is illegal to mail the drug as well.
While the laws are changing, the U.S. government is still practicing its doublethink, and some question the fact that marijuana is safe. Concerns about addiction are a big argument against the legalization of marijuana.
However, proponents of the drug argue that addiction to alcohol and tobacco does not keep them legal. Even today, with all of the new laws, marijuana is controversial and barely legal.
Opinion By Cathy Milne
Sources:
Governing the States and Localities: State Marijuana Laws Map
ProCon: 23 Legal Medical Marijuana States and D.C. Laws, Fees, and Possession Limits
USA TODAY: 4 Americans Get Pot From U.S. Government
FRONTLINE: Thirty Years of America’s Drug War: A Chronology
Feature and Top Image Courtesy of Coleen Whitfield’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
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9 Responses
To understand WHY CANNABIS IS NOT LAWFULLY ON THE DEA’S CSA SCHEDULE:Read the Coats v. Dish Network amicus brief from the Patient and Caregiver Rights Litigation Project (PCRLP) found at cannabislawsuits.com for complete understanding and to feel cleansed.
You will see how we prove cannabis is not nor was ever lawfully placed on the CSA schedule per the CSA itself and Congresses ‘temporary’ support.
You see the CSA requires the feds PROVE to “we the people” (in a year with a ONE TIME ONLY 6 month extension) that ANY SUBSTANCE they put on the CSA schedule meets ALL the requirements of THAT schedule. They put cannabis as schedule I.
Schedule I substances are those that have the following findings:
1. The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.
2. The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
3. There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision
# 1 was proven wrong by the Shaffer Commission research 1971 (research that was being done to verify (as the CSA itself requires) what schedule cannabis should be if at all since it’s schedule I was “temporary” from congress. The Shaffer Commission found cannabis should NOT BE ON SCHEDULE and Nixon shredded/ignored that and ramped up the war on cannabis, the longest war in the history of the US.
In #2 the word “currently” was in 1970. Currently (1996-2014) and 1/2 the countries population accepts medical uses/benefits of cannabis….
#3 same answer as above for #1 — The Shaffer Commission found the substance to be SAFE enough NOT to be on schedule! And so did DEA judge Frances Young in 1988 where his review of cannabis being schedule I became a famous quote:
“In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating 10 raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death.
Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances
known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within the supervised routine of medical care.
[DEA Administrative Law Judge – 1988]””
“those who question the fact that marijuana is safe?”
Why don’t we ask our Father in Heaven what He thinks about it.
Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; Genesis 1:29
Cannabis is medicine, not an “intoxicant” like alcohol, so it’s illogical to lump them together. Cannabis NEVER should have been illegal, and the only reason it was made illegal was industrial hemp, which is STILL not allowed in states where medicinal/recreational cannabis has been made legal. The first test fields of industrial hemp won’t be allowed in Oregon until 2017 – two more years!! Cannabis hemp can and will replace everything we get from oil, along with coal, natural gas, and uranium. Cannabis is the best source of amino acids and essential fatty acids (ie: the best food), and was the most valuable medicine prescribed by doctors until it was made illegal. Medicinal cannabis is even safe for children and pregnant women, based on studies done in Jamaica and elsewhere. Cannabis is NOT “addicting” physically, although it can be habit forming because it makes you feel so much better. Finally, cannabis can be used as a medicine without activating its psychoactive properties. THCA, non-deoxycarbolated THC, is medicinal too, and it doesn’t get you ‘stoned’. Eating or juicing the leaves and raw buds is a superfood and supermedicine. As Hippocrates said: “Let medicine be thy food, and food be thy medicine”.
There never has been a war on drugs.
There always has been a drug war on the competition.
Given the fact that God created Marijuana,I think He knew what He was doing.Who is man to condemn what God said is good? Genesis 1:29 says it all. Thank you Lord.
controversial and barely legal.who wrote this, a child in elementary school?
27 states and the DOC allow marijuana, that is far from barely legal…..a MAJORITY of America
marijuana is not just dominating, it’s taking over