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Reclassifying marijuana would allow it to be prescribed as medicine (photo: O'Dea)
Gov. Chris Gregoire today announced she filed a petition with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration asking the agency to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule 2 drug, which will allow its use for treatment – prescribed by doctors and filled by pharmacists. Gov. Lincoln Chafee (I-RI) also signed the petition.
The petition will require the Federal Drug Administration to conduct a new scientific review and analysis of recent advances in Cannabis research since the last time the FDA reviewed the matter in 2006.
The only reason medical marijuana isn’t legal at the federal level is that it is listed by the DEA as a schedule I drug, meaning that according to federal law it has no medical use, so it can’t be legally prescribed. There is no reason, though, that the executive agencies under the direct of President Obama can’t listen to the science and the public on this issue by moving cannabis to a different schedule that allows it to be legally prescribed.
Moving a drug from one schedule to another doesn’t require an act of Congress; it’s done relatively often by the executive branch. Moving marijuana to schedule II (the same schedule as Oxycontin and Adderall) would allow doctors to legally prescribe marijuana under federal law while keeping marijuana illegal for recreational use.
If marijuana were declared a schedule II or III substance, that action would mostly eliminate the federal government justification for its ridiculous harassment of state’s medical marijuana systems, medical marijuana patients, and state public employees.
With this move Gov. Gregoire and Gov. Chafee are putting the onus squarely on President Obama where it belongs. The only reason medical marijuana isn’t legal in this country, and the main reason needy patients and care givers continue to be harassed by federal agencies, is because the Obama administration has failed to use its power to move marijuana to a lower scheduling.
It is great to see that very high ranking elected officials are now starting to call for the popular, correct and long overdue move of having the federal government re-schedule marijuana. It is now time, indeed about time, for Obama to act in the public interest.
12 Comments
Yeah, right. Like that’s gonna happen.
All O cares about is protecting his PhRMA and MIC donors. And he doesn’t give a FF about appearances in mj issues.
What you miss in you reporting on surveys, Jon, is strength of feeling. (Rove’s genius, such as it was [heh], was recognizing strength of feeling and how to take advantage of it.) Yes a lot of people think mj laws are ridiculous, but for most of those, like me, it’s not a high priority item. So we don’t pay much attention to what O does in that regard, nor his motives, nor the actual outcomes.
Well, I pay attention to the consequences, but I have the time and think in big picture, not personal, terms. But mj is still a low priority item for me, and for those who are (with good reason) focused closer to home, mj is not a concern one way or another. And O knows that.
For future ref, I recommend you call surveying corps & ask them to include Qs on strength of feeling, or report them if they are already collected. Order of priority Qs are one way to measure it, which are often collected but not necessarily in the same surveys that ask yes-no Qs.
Ain’t going to happen. Obama is a tool of the corps and the corps don’t want this.
Plus, you have to keep those prisons full and one way to help that along is to have all those mj criminals doing time.
President ass hole could have exercised this option any time. The Prohibition of Marijuana is a cash cow for the 1%. Medical marijuana is a bad idea anyway. Making a naturally occurring herb subject to a doctors prescription is insane. Here’s an idea. What if everybody just decided for themselves whether or not to smoke pot?
Thanks for trying anyway Gov. Gregiore.
Before I indulge my pessimism, is either up for re-election in 2012?
Aside from “its a good idea”, why do this now? Why drop the issue into the growing election cycle?
For all the “Obama is not meeting our expectations”, I feel relatively comfortable assuming whomever gets the GOP nod would be a damn sight worse. Why give a demoralized opponent a reason to rally? Save the petition for next year, when there’s no liability (or at least much less liability).
I’m for anything that pushes toward legalization, but after waiting 3 decades I’m willing to wait another year if it might help tip the scales in my favor . . . and doesn’t risk dozens of other subjects that would be endangered by GOP gains.
Would make more sense to petition for Schedule V, states can then decide whether pharmacists can dispense it without a prescription.
Interestingly enough, cannabis wouldn’t require FDA clincal trial because its grandfathered in. The rule is (unless Congress has changed it the last few years) is that no trials are necessary for drugs that were in the pharmacopeia current as of 1938. As it happens, done and done.
http://antiquecannabisbook.com/Appendix/USP1936.htm
“For all the “Obama is not meeting our expectations”, I feel relatively comfortable assuming whomever gets the GOP nod would be a damn sight worse.”
Not sure why you think that whoever gets the GOP nod could be worse than Obama. Obama has successfully presided over the enactment of the GOP’s entire wish list, achieving more for the 1% than any GOP president could have.
With a GOP president, maybe we would have seen Democratic opposition, and maybe we would not be looking at a president who has cancelled habeas corpus, and who claims the right to have anyone, anywhere, killed or imprisoned without charges or trial. And that’s only for starters in the myriad ways Obama has sold out all of us who bought his lying “hope and change” promises.
Actually schedule 1 medications are prescribed, they are also controlled. I worked at a military medical facility which also happened to do studies and clinical trials. Marinol(active ingredient THC) was kept in the narcotics vault. It was a schedule 1(it’s been reclassified as a 3). The biggest complaint about the pill form though was that the release of the medication was erratic.
So Big Pharma is making its first big move. The key fact is that Dispensarys will be done away with so Walgreens, Rite-Aid, Walmart, and the rest will enjoy a monopoly. The Gov. Wash. was just on CNN talking about this move. She described it so it sounded as if the Dr.s could be deciding the strength and type which Marijuana to be given to the patient. I’m willing to bet Medical Marijuana was not taught in their classes at school or on the States test, any takers ?
The only good thing that may come from this move is that the Insurance Industry may have to pay for my prescription sooner or later
An appeal to all Prohibitionists:
Most of us are aware by now that individuals who use illegal drugs are going to get high, ‘no matter what.’ So why do you not prefer they acquire them in stores that check IDs and pay taxes? Gifting the market in narcotics to ruthless criminals, foreign terrorists and corrupt law enforcement officials is seriously compromising our future. If you remotely believe that people will one day quit using any of these ‘at present’ illegal drugs, then you are exhibiting a degree of naivety parallel only with those poor deluded wretches who voluntarily drank the poisoned Kool-Aid in Jonestown.
Even if you cannot stand the thought of people using drugs, there is absolutely nothing you, or any government, can do to stop them. We have spent 40 years and over a trillion dollars on this dangerous farce. Practically everybody is now aware that Prohibition will not suddenly and miraculously start showing different results. So why do you wish to continue with a policy that has proven itself to be a poison in the veins of our once so proud & free nation? Do you actually think you may have something to lose If we were to start basing drug policy on science & logic instead of ignorance, hate and lies?
Maybe you’re a police officer, a prison guard or a local politician. Possibly you’re scared of losing employment, overtime-pay, the many kick-backs and those regular fat bribes. But what good will any of that do you once our society has followed Mexico over the dystopian abyss of dismembered bodies, vats of acid and marauding thugs carrying gold-plated AK-47s with leopard-skinned gunstocks?
Kindly allow us to forgo the next level of your sycophantic prohibition-engendered mayhem.
Prohibition Prevents Regulation : Legalize, Regulate and Tax!