Jared
Cannabis Enthusiast
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...-study-easing-u-s-marijuana-restrictions.htmlBloomberg said:
I don't expect anything to happen, especially with the DEA being the last stop.
FDA Considers Looser Scheduling For Cannabis
- Thread starter Jared
- Start date
I don't expect anything to happen, especially with the DEA being the last stop.
Tommy Dukes
Live everyday like it's your last
I read this exact same article, and then the very next day I saw a headline about how medical marijuana doctors in Baltimore were being harassed by DEA agents. Although I do tend to lean towards conspiracy theories at times, is it me, or is there a connection between the DEA and corporate bureaucracy? Perhaps even a link between the DEA and Pharmaceutical industries? The DEA's motives are based on money and false information.
Jared
Cannabis Enthusiast
Well seeing as how there's a STRONG link between the DEA and the largest drug cartel in the world.....it sure wouldn't surprise me.
http://world.time.com/2014/01/14/dea-boosted-mexican-drug-cartel/
Jared, I just picked up this thread after looking into the schedule classifications in Google. It really bothers me. This piece I'm clipping:
"Schedule 1 drugs carry the most restrictions of the five DEA classifications and are considered substances with no medical benefit that are highly addictive. Factors the FDA considers in making a recommendation include a drug’s abuse potential, its pharmacological effect and risk to public health, according to Throckmorton’s written testimony."
I have so many problems with this. The first thing is why isn't alcohol classified as schedule 1? It surely deserves at least an honorable mention there. Let's see...."no medical benefit., highly addictive, abuse potential, risk to public health.." I've never been a fan of the FDA, but this glaring omission is truly off the charts. My brother-in-law, a fine heart surgeon, died a couple years ago from acute alcohol poisoning. He literally bled out his internal organs. He was physically addicted to alcohol for years and it killed him. If he would have smoked marijuana instead he'd be alive today. I am so angry about this. In the past, when I was not using much, if any, pot, I didn't bother to look into the legal side of it all. It just didn't concern me as much as other social and political problems. Now, as I become more interested and involved, the total injustice, the nonsense, is staring me in the face. These laws have to be changed.
Papa Woody
"The vapor is strong with this one"-Obi Onda Woody
If you think you are angry now, good friend Ezgoset posted this link to an article recently that will really piss you off...
http://antiquecannabisbook.com/chap17/TheEnd.htm
cybrguy
Putin is a War Criminal
I posted this in another thread, but I see it would go well in here too...
http://www.vox.com/2014/7/7/5877017/how-legalized-pot-could-make-america-healthier
http://www.vox.com/2014/7/7/5877017/how-legalized-pot-could-make-america-healthier
R.John.Blake
Active Member
kimura
Well-Known Member
I think you can pretty surely expect the FDA to recommend that cannabis be rescheduled. They have already publicly said that they support clinical trials exploring medical uses of cannabis to treat various illnesses and conditions.
The problem is DEA isn't in the business of treating sick people. They are in the business of asset forfeiture, intimidation, and drug trafficking.
It's totally inaccurate to think about the federal government as a discreet entity. It's a writhing mass of various agencies and authorities with widely varying goals, motives, and funding mechanisms.
I think eventually big Pharma will realize the potential here and that will trump any of DEAs influence. Pharmaceuticals is the most profitable industry in the world. Even moreso than oil. If they decide that they want to develop and market cannabis based drugs, then cannabis will be rescheduled
The problem is DEA isn't in the business of treating sick people. They are in the business of asset forfeiture, intimidation, and drug trafficking.
It's totally inaccurate to think about the federal government as a discreet entity. It's a writhing mass of various agencies and authorities with widely varying goals, motives, and funding mechanisms.
I think eventually big Pharma will realize the potential here and that will trump any of DEAs influence. Pharmaceuticals is the most profitable industry in the world. Even moreso than oil. If they decide that they want to develop and market cannabis based drugs, then cannabis will be rescheduled
grokit
well-worn member
Eric E. Sterling
President, Criminal Justice Policy Foundation
Obama Promises Massive Drug Policy Reform
Posted: 07/15/2014 3:26 pm EDT Updated: 07/16/2014 7:59 pm EDT
Coauthored by Amos Irwin, Chief of Staff of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation
Released on Wednesday, the Obama administration's 2014 National Drug Control Strategy announces large-scale drug policy reform in response to an urgent crisis: Our 40-year War on Drugs has incarcerated so many people on non-violent drug charges that the U.S. has the highest prison population in the world. The Strategy calls for immediate action: "Our prisons and jails are already overcrowded with people who desperately need compassionate, evidence-based treatment for the disease of addiction--not a jail cell." Even the Strategy's Twitter hashtag promises #DrugPolicyReform. Yet the gap between these words and Obama's actions on drug policy is a mile wide. The Strategy is supposed to explain the administration's funding priorities in the National Drug Control Budget. But in the 2015 budget, Obama calls for more money to be spent on drug law enforcement -- from police to prisons to international drug interdiction -- than any previous president.
The Strategy fails to acknowledge this enormous gap between its words and its budget. It presumes that speaking out against out-of-control mass incarceration aligns perfectly with requesting a federal prison budget that is higher than any previous administration. The Strategy argues that the 2015 budget is "Emphasizing Prevention over Incarceration," because "the portion of the Nation's drug budget spent on drug treatment and prevention efforts--43 percent--has grown to its highest level in over 12 years." It sounds like great news: we are spending a record-high portion of our drug control money on treatment and prevention (T&P) as opposed to law enforcement. But the claim is a blatant misrepresentation. Table 3 in the 2015 Budget itself shows that our emphasis on T&P is not significantly different than it was twelve years ago (see figure).
The administration boasts that it is providing "more funding for prevention and treatment than for domestic law enforcement and incarceration," a catchphrase now trending on #DrugPolicyReform. Once again, they are misrepresenting the Budget. There is no reform here, because T&P was higher than domestic law enforcement and incarceration during the Bush administration as well. It was only lower during Obama's first term in office. If you include border control and international enforcement, we're spending quite a bit more on law enforcement than we are on T&P. (We don't have to choose between them-- since federal health care expenditures are so enormous, the administration has the ability to increase T&P substantially without reducing funds for law enforcement.)
The striking gap between words and actions is not so much political hypocrisy as it is an important victory for the drug policy reform movement. Who would have guessed five years ago that today Obama's anti-drug hashtag would be #DrugPolicyReform? When your opponents copy your rhetoric, they have surrendered to your values.
There should be no mystery why the White House is talking the talk of reform. Over 80 percent of the American people support medical marijuana, including as of June 30 the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Over 80 percent also believe that the War on Drugs has failed. Americans know that high school kids have been using illegal drugs at the same rate for the last 20 years, while cigarette use has dropped by 50 percent (see figure).
If we can reduce teenage drug use more effectively through regulation, taxation and cultural change than through prohibition, why are we shielding the street gangs and Mexican cartels from legal competitors in the $34 billion marijuana market? Why are we locking up world-record numbers of poor people for minor drug crimes to the point where an African-American male child born today has a one in three chance of going to prison? No wonder that the latest Gallup Poll shows that 58 percent of the American people support the legalization of recreational marijuana. Politicians typically shy away from anything that appears "soft on drugs," but they have caught on to what the American people want: #DrugPolicyReform.
The next step for genuine #DrugPolicyReform is to push our government to walk the walk...
(more)
President, Criminal Justice Policy Foundation
Obama Promises Massive Drug Policy Reform
Posted: 07/15/2014 3:26 pm EDT Updated: 07/16/2014 7:59 pm EDT
Coauthored by Amos Irwin, Chief of Staff of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation
Released on Wednesday, the Obama administration's 2014 National Drug Control Strategy announces large-scale drug policy reform in response to an urgent crisis: Our 40-year War on Drugs has incarcerated so many people on non-violent drug charges that the U.S. has the highest prison population in the world. The Strategy calls for immediate action: "Our prisons and jails are already overcrowded with people who desperately need compassionate, evidence-based treatment for the disease of addiction--not a jail cell." Even the Strategy's Twitter hashtag promises #DrugPolicyReform. Yet the gap between these words and Obama's actions on drug policy is a mile wide. The Strategy is supposed to explain the administration's funding priorities in the National Drug Control Budget. But in the 2015 budget, Obama calls for more money to be spent on drug law enforcement -- from police to prisons to international drug interdiction -- than any previous president.
The Strategy fails to acknowledge this enormous gap between its words and its budget. It presumes that speaking out against out-of-control mass incarceration aligns perfectly with requesting a federal prison budget that is higher than any previous administration. The Strategy argues that the 2015 budget is "Emphasizing Prevention over Incarceration," because "the portion of the Nation's drug budget spent on drug treatment and prevention efforts--43 percent--has grown to its highest level in over 12 years." It sounds like great news: we are spending a record-high portion of our drug control money on treatment and prevention (T&P) as opposed to law enforcement. But the claim is a blatant misrepresentation. Table 3 in the 2015 Budget itself shows that our emphasis on T&P is not significantly different than it was twelve years ago (see figure).
The administration boasts that it is providing "more funding for prevention and treatment than for domestic law enforcement and incarceration," a catchphrase now trending on #DrugPolicyReform. Once again, they are misrepresenting the Budget. There is no reform here, because T&P was higher than domestic law enforcement and incarceration during the Bush administration as well. It was only lower during Obama's first term in office. If you include border control and international enforcement, we're spending quite a bit more on law enforcement than we are on T&P. (We don't have to choose between them-- since federal health care expenditures are so enormous, the administration has the ability to increase T&P substantially without reducing funds for law enforcement.)
The striking gap between words and actions is not so much political hypocrisy as it is an important victory for the drug policy reform movement. Who would have guessed five years ago that today Obama's anti-drug hashtag would be #DrugPolicyReform? When your opponents copy your rhetoric, they have surrendered to your values.
There should be no mystery why the White House is talking the talk of reform. Over 80 percent of the American people support medical marijuana, including as of June 30 the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Over 80 percent also believe that the War on Drugs has failed. Americans know that high school kids have been using illegal drugs at the same rate for the last 20 years, while cigarette use has dropped by 50 percent (see figure).
If we can reduce teenage drug use more effectively through regulation, taxation and cultural change than through prohibition, why are we shielding the street gangs and Mexican cartels from legal competitors in the $34 billion marijuana market? Why are we locking up world-record numbers of poor people for minor drug crimes to the point where an African-American male child born today has a one in three chance of going to prison? No wonder that the latest Gallup Poll shows that 58 percent of the American people support the legalization of recreational marijuana. Politicians typically shy away from anything that appears "soft on drugs," but they have caught on to what the American people want: #DrugPolicyReform.
The next step for genuine #DrugPolicyReform is to push our government to walk the walk...
(more)
that herb guy
Well-Known Member
They already (essentially) have. There are synthetically produced scrips based around cbd's. They just worked around the legality issue by producing THC in a lab instead.
I have low hopes for the rescheduling, but in this case I very much hope I'm proven wrong.
http://norml.org/component/zoo/category/marinol-vs-natural-cannabis
kimura
Well-Known Member
I've read about Marinol, and I'm sure that the drug companies are by now well aware of the fact that mother nature cannot be so easily replaced. I'm sure they are aware of the complexity of the active organic compounds found in cannabis, which is part of why I believe it will ultimately be rescheduled (although who knows when). I'm sure they know or suspect that the various desirable effects produced by the incredible diversity of cannabis genetics cannot be linked to a single molecular compound.
which presents a bunch of legal headaches. the FDA reviews new molecular entities individually. so I think it's safe to assume that they have already reviewed and approved whatever synthetic cannabinoids find their way into Marinol. but what about all the other compounds found in the natural plant that contribute to the desired effects such as terpenes, CBD, THCV, etc. anything that is considered an active ingredient will have to be isolated and studied. some strains and varieties contain compounds that others do not, and the levels of cannabinoids found in each plant will very. nicotine is an approved drug for smoking cessation, but tobacco is not considered a "drug," nor should it be. it's a plant. drug regulation is different from criminal law. the FDA and DEA don't even speak the same language.
bleh. I guess I'm not as optimistic about this as I thought I was
grokit
well-worn member
There's too much capital invested into drug enforcement, from monetary to human, and it will not be surrendered without a fight. Over 90% of the budgets that support enforcement are justified by the schedule one prohibition of marijuana, it's way more prevalent than all of the remaining prohibited substances put together. Looking at it through this type of lens is really the only way the war on drugs makes sense, and mj is now getting a rapidly-growing share of the drug rehab bucks as well.
There is a huge motivation to preserve this status quo, which benefits from all the taxpayer money flowing into the drug war. This war is unwinnable and never-ending, so it's the perfect gravy train for the tactical and surveillance economy. All of this from classifying a harmless plant more dangerous than any other substance, when it's the exact opposite. It amounts to a conspiracy at the highest levels of power, that enriches a narrow band of moneyed interests at the expense of humanity and even the planet.
There is a huge motivation to preserve this status quo, which benefits from all the taxpayer money flowing into the drug war. This war is unwinnable and never-ending, so it's the perfect gravy train for the tactical and surveillance economy. All of this from classifying a harmless plant more dangerous than any other substance, when it's the exact opposite. It amounts to a conspiracy at the highest levels of power, that enriches a narrow band of moneyed interests at the expense of humanity and even the planet.
Last edited:
Agreed. It's a depressing truth that the unjust is sustained....by injustice. A few greedy individuals help perpetuate a system that keeps everyone else down while it claims moral superiority. What a cute trick to have marijuana classified as schedule 1 and build up the corrupt edifice that way. I was reminded of a recent parent conference at a private Catholic school that my daughter may be attending in the fall. We got to "ask the bishop" so naturally I raised my hand. "When will women be ordained in the Catholic Church?". Amid the tsk tsks behind me came the sound of the bishop clearing his throat. "That would have to be decided by a committee". I would have asked "Who comprises the committee?". But he had already moved on. I can be forgiven for wanting to ask the rhetorical: of course, it is understood that only men (who believe they are especially chosen by god) will make this decision. And as a result there will be no women in positions of power in the Church. But no one will speak this.
In the same way, most of the people I know here in the Midwest bow to the status quo. We can wish and dream, but ultimately we're cynical about the prospect of full legalization. For just the reasons you so well articulate.
In the same way, most of the people I know here in the Midwest bow to the status quo. We can wish and dream, but ultimately we're cynical about the prospect of full legalization. For just the reasons you so well articulate.
Last edited:
Jared
Cannabis Enthusiast
I'm the whitest kid you could possibly imagine and have been arrested multiple times and spent time in jail for it. It's definitely not just "not white" people sitting in jail. One of my best friends (could be on The Whitest Kids U Know or whatever that show is called) was pulled over and sentenced to either a year in county jail or 6 months in a Christian rehab facility which was arguably worse than jail. (basically a forced labor camp for kids that got caught smoking pot and "messing up" in other ways.) Oh yeah did I mention he had less than a full bowl on him?
CarolKing
Singer of songs and a vapor connoisseur
When going through the court system it's the people that have money get the lightest sentence. The ones that have to depend on an attorney provided to them are the ones that get a heavier sentence.
Sorry for you and your friends troubles. Not trying to generalize but usually that's what happens.
I know, plenty of poor white people too.
It depends on the area of the country where you live. I know some parts throw the book at you for just a small cannabis infraction.
Hopefully everything is OK for you and your friend now.
IMO I would move away from an area where the cannabis laws are so strict. I know easy for me to say.
Sorry for you and your friends troubles. Not trying to generalize but usually that's what happens.
I know, plenty of poor white people too.
It depends on the area of the country where you live. I know some parts throw the book at you for just a small cannabis infraction.
Hopefully everything is OK for you and your friend now.
IMO I would move away from an area where the cannabis laws are so strict. I know easy for me to say.
Last edited:
grokit
well-worn member
This was in colorado?
Jared
Cannabis Enthusiast
No mine was in Texas and my friend's was back in Arkansas where I used to live. Everything basically turned out fine for me, I'm on unsupervised probation just sending a check to good ol Texas every month. Ugh
. My buddy on the other hand is facing another possession charge back in Arkansas unfortunately.Which is why I am now in Colorado
Edit: @CarolKing i completely agree with what you said about moving by the way. Why someone would risk their freedom willingly is beyond me.
Last edited:
This is really funny. But it needs one more caption for the soccer moms like me who stopped doing it when they had kids - and now passionately vape.
Curiousone
Well-Known Member
I think you summed it up nicely. Money buys freedom first, no matter your race. AFter that, minorities tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to the war on drugs. Again, like Carolking, I know plenty of whites who have been screwed, but far more minorities for simple cannabis possession. Just a fact of life that I hope will soon change.
