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DEA Still Insists Marijuana Has No ‘Accepted Medical Use'

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Re: DEA Still Insists Marijuana Has No ‘Accepted Medical Use'

#41
post #8

Why would any organization fighting for funding be inclined to undermine their reason for existing? And why would any rational person be interested in what they have to say about a topic that is well outside their area of expertise (medicine)?

This. We should by default oppose all expansions of bureaucracy. Only when it is impossible to not expand should it happen.

Re: DEA Still Insists Marijuana Has No ‘Accepted Medical Use'

#45

Marijuana as schedule 1 is one of the dumbest things we have ever done. The fact that it remains in the modern era speaks to how incompetent the US has become.

The term is regulatory capture. There are a number of financial motives behind blocking legalization: drug and booze makers protecting their turf, religious wingnuts seeking moral relevance, law enforcement and DEA contractors. At some point the weed industry will grow large enough to have its own lobbyist army.

Re: DEA Still Insists Marijuana Has No ‘Accepted Medical Use'

#47

Marijuana as schedule 1 is one of the dumbest things we have ever done. The fact that it remains in the modern era speaks to how incompetent the US has become.

The exoteric explanation seems incompetent because it's veiled in racism and xenophobia to protect and promote corporate and national interests. You can see this just in the terminology used in the laws, like using the term "Marihuana" to invoke anti-Mexican sentiment for heavily taxing the use of hemp fibers in 1937 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marihuana_Tax_Act_of_1937

Luckily for us DuPont introduced a wonderful petroleum-based "man-made organic textile fiber" (Nylon) in 1938, featuring it heavily in the 1939 New York World's Fair and 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon#Early_marketing_strategi...

Re: DEA Still Insists Marijuana Has No ‘Accepted Medical Use'

#48

I knew a guy who assumed that if marijuana would be legalized, the streets would be consumed by masses constantly walking and driving around stoned. Props to him though, for at least having some level of consistency. The same person also admitted to me he was strongly against alcohol and wish prohibition had succeeded.

As someone who rides a bike in a state where Pot is legal, there are a fair number of people who are smoking and driving, many more than before legalization. And the homeless population seems to have embraced pot as well.

The sky hasn't fallen, but when riding I give a wide berth.

There is a lot of inconsistency, but the lines between "drug" and "Recreational substance" are certainly blurred, be it for Opiates or Pot. On one hand our food and drug administration couldn't figure out why in some places they're distributing more opioids than there are people, and voters went from "pot is a medicine" to "pot is recreational". Regulation of anything was a total failure so maybe another plan.. So legalize and pay for treatment.

Re: DEA Still Insists Marijuana Has No ‘Accepted Medical Use'

#49
post #38
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I understand correctly, the answer is "they probably did need to, but didn't bother". You'll sometimes see articles say "these states have legalized marijuana, but it remains illegal at the federal level". If the DEA did choose to try and enforce marijuana prohibition in one of these states, the state would be able to sue, making the argument that the US constitution does not give this power to the federal governm…

The US Supreme Court found in 2005 that the federal government is within its rights to criminalize the growing of marijuana for personal use via the commerce clause: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzales_v._Raich As for why an amendment was needed in 1920 but not 1971, apparently the commerce clause didn't become the anything clause until after 1937. If this all sounds hopelessly inconsistent and/or hypocritical, we…

All the more reason to dispense with the current constitution that enshrines slavery and violence as protected rights. We nominally took back the slavery part but then recreated it with the prison system.
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