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DEA Still Insists Marijuana Has No ‘Accepted Medical Use'

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61–70 of 96 posts

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

#61
post #39

I think it's OK say that Marijuana should be legal but acknowledge that the concrete proven medical benefits attributed to it are pretty marginal.

My take too. It has not followed anywhere near a normal process for a medically safe/effective drug to be approved. I'm for it being completely legalized but the medical aspect is very weird. The DEA has not helped this at all but MJ is basically legal at the state level(s) because activists successfully argued against the war on drugs and via political will. Not because MJ treatments have been proven scientifically…

There are certainly people who view medical marijuana as just a way to get high legally.

There are also people who are certain that access to medical marijuana saved their lives. The example that comes to mind was someone who was dealing with significant nausea / appetite issues that had caused dangerous weight loss that no other prescription medications could manage. Medical marijuana ameliorated these issues when nothing else had.

This doesn't mean MJ is a miracle drug, but it does meam that there is a significant group that quite genuinely supports medical marijuana for medical reasons.

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

#62
post #18

I am reminded, from time to time, that one of my high school classmates is living out a 25-year federal sentence after being convicted on marijuana conspiracy charges. On the other hand, I can get marijuana delivered to my house.

> I am reminded, from time to time, that one of my high school classmates is living out a 25-year federal sentence after being convicted on marijuana conspiracy charges. There has to be more to this right? Trafficking tons of the stuff? Repeat offender? Violent history? enhancements? see also: https://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentenc... edit, since people clearly are against this comment: I'm not…

they were allegedly involved in a project that moved marijuana across the south by truck, and they were the only defendants who did not plead guilty and agree to a deal, and were subsequently the only ones sent away for real time.

my partial understanding is that they were involved in the laundering and/or obfuscation of funds, they probably had strong suspicions about what was going on, but there was enough easy money that they did not demand answers.

they felt insulated from the crimes about which they had no concrete knowledge.

claims were made at trial that were demonstrably false, but they refused to admit to things in a plea that they did not do or have knowledge of. which was the wrong call under the circumstances.

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

#63
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The 13th amendment does in fact outlaw "slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime".

I agree with your sentiment that the current prison system is a major problem.

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

#64

What bullshit. I have a prescription for a cream containing CBD and THC that has almost totally removed arthritis pain in my hands. Really life changing for me.

Do you find (or know) that the THC is contributing to this effect on top of the CBD?

I told my Doctor that I was using over the counter CBD ointment. He told me that prescription CBD + THC ointment would be more effective, and he was correct!

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

#65

I am reminded, from time to time, that one of my high school classmates is living out a 25-year federal sentence after being convicted on marijuana conspiracy charges. On the other hand, I can get marijuana delivered to my house.

Reminds me of some NOFX lyrics.

    Jerry spent some time in Michigan
    A twenty year vacation, after all he had a dime
    A dime is worth a lot more in Detroit
    A dime in California, a twenty dollar fine
Note that "a dime" refers to a "dime-bag" of weed, or $10 worth of the stuff. 20 years in prison for personal possession in Michigan (at the time), while it was a $20 infraction in California for the same amount.

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

#66
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cbd is generally derived from hemp (which is legal federally in the us) not marijuana

oh, true. found some pro marijuana sites that said it came from marijuana, but per more reputable sites it's just contained in marijuana, but derived from hemp. Thanks!

The difference between "marijuana" and "hemp" is only legal, not biological, so a distinction without a difference. Hemp growers use a variety bred to have little THC in it. The species is the same.

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

#67
post #50

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.

Point of order: it's not JUST the US, it is most of the world.

Yeah, because the US lobbied for it through the UN.

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

#68
Just to point out, the "war on drugs" is just slightly veiled systemic racism in both who is targeted and for how long they are put away. Just another way for a person of color to lose their voting rights by becoming a felon.

If the US really wanted to fight the war on drugs it would take a recovery approach and treat addiction like a disease.

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

#69
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The 13th amendment does in fact outlaw "slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime". I agree with your sentiment that the current prison system is a major problem.

Right; it’s nominally outlawed in that it’s outlawed in name but not in practice.

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

#70
post #55

And they will continue to do so until directed otherwise by the White House, in this administration or the next (or the next, or the next...).

I think both the Trump admin and the Biden admin have revealed how the White House is not as powerful an influence over the unelected bureaucracy as we have hitherto imagined. Many, many influences and vested interests at work in the executive branch that watch presidents come and go.

In this case it doesn't matter. Biden has been a dedicated drug warrior throughout his whole political career, and he probably ain't gonna go soft now.
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