OT: Weed remains schedule 1

[esplanade91]

DEA keeps weed as a schedule 1 and rationalizes their decision by saying there isn't enough research to indicate otherwise, despite schedule 1 status preventing it from being studied as a medicine.

Interesting though that they admitted in the same release that weed is not a gateway drug.

Whoever you're voting for in November, I think marijuana being legalized/taken off schedule 1 is going to happen fairly soon into their first term. Our prisons are littered with people serving life sentences for selling weed while parents in Washington state are giving their kids extract to prevent them from having seizures. Somehow the DEA continues to see weed in the same category as heroin and thinks they're doing the lord's work.

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/...a-remains-illegal-under-federal-law/88550804/

 

[PBRME]

Alcohol and tobacco has a lot of money invested in keeping weed where it is.

 

[esplanade91]

Alcohol and tobacco has a lot of money invested in keeping weed where it is.

Don't know if they are as worried as big pharma. Amphetamine market is about to drop out of the bottom.

Government regulations on tobacco have proven that people will continue to smoke cigarettes regardless of barriers, and alcohol is too fun (and addictive) to ever struggle.

 

[Dawgzilla]

I don't think tobacco is worried....they are ready to start growing weed as soon as its legal.

 

[jb1020]

Not really, I think its Big Pharma pushing this

Alcohol and tobacco has a lot of money invested in keeping weed where it is.

they would rather people get opiates/painkillers from them rather than smoking pot for what ails them. I'm sure this isn't the biggest racket the govt is involved in, but it has to be up there pretty damn high.

 

[paindonthurt_]

I'm assuming those innocent people in prisons that you seem to be defending don't want weed legalized either.

Also, I have no idea whether or not weed should be schedule 1 or not, but there are some pot heads that can't function in society bc of weed. Not all of them but some. Just like some people can casually bump the snow and function and some can't.

When I say function, I mean get up and go to work before say 11a on an even semi regular basis. Contribute to GDP. Etc.

 

[Bcash2]

'Not enough research'...

Despite millions of people smoking it for decades/centuries, and there not being a SINGLE reported instance of overdose. Nope, not enough research.

 

[dawglawz]

Govt agency makes decision that guarantees continued funding.

Nothing too surprising here.

But I agree a change is coming soon, and it will have to be done through executive action. DEA won't do it on its own.

 

[ShrubDog]

Yep lets suppress a plant that has many more advantages and is allot safer than pharmaceuticals and alcohol.

It should not be schedule 1. Damn cocaine and opiates are schedule 2 because they have 'medical' benefits. Some studies have shown that weed used in certain ways can destroy cancer cells. But we dont want to do that.

Alcohol is 10x more descrructive than weed. Combine that with all the deaths attributed to prescription medicine and you have your answer.

 

[AlCoDog]

Those people aren't that way because of weed. They're just lazyz. If it's not weed holding them back, it would be something else.

 

[RingN2012]

It's been discussed in Sports Illustrated, Real Sports and 60 minutes in the last year about painkillers.
Young athletes get hurt and their doctors prescribe hydrocodone or Oxys. Kid gets addicted to them after recovery and ends up on heroine. Lots of overdoses of former high school athletes.
Doctors can give out painkiller to anybody for anything, but smoking a little grass is a terrible crime.
Completely 17'd up if you ask me.

 

[Drewbowski]

Another article I read implied that Marijuana fields other than the one at UM would be open to grow for research purposes. Interesting topic despite one's personal feelings on the issue.

 

[maroonmadman]

The for profit private prison system that has taken over in many places also has a vested $$ interest in keeping marijuana illegal. In states where it has been legalized/decriminalized their profits have gone down.

 

[VillagepeopleDogs]

Great decision by DEA. Hard to believe they had the balls to do it today's 'anything goes' society.

 

[ckDOG]

How much of their budget is allocated to weed enforcement?

My guess is a lot. Of course they aren't taking it off Schedule 1. Somebody is going to have to take it off for them. Where you at small government conservatives? Perfect chance to save some bucks and scale back a government agency with a multi-billion dollar budget.

 

[MaroonNation]

^^^Smokes Weed^^^

 

[esplanade91]

I'm assuming those innocent people in prisons that you seem to be defending don't want weed legalized either.

Also, I have no idea whether or not weed should be schedule 1 or not, but there are some pot heads that can't function in society bc of weed. Not all of them but some. Just like some people can casually bump the snow and function and some can't.

When I say function, I mean get up and go to work before say 11a on an even semi regular basis. Contribute to GDP. Etc.

Why would they not want it to be legal? It would probably mean they could appeal their mandatory sentence, something else that needs to go.

Selling weed on the streets is wrong, but the punishment hasn't fit the crime. If you believe in the true purpose of prisons, you'd think they'd come out with a GED and a willingness to be apart of our society. If you just want them to rot in prison, then I think we'll just disagree on everything. We spend too much money locking people up for nonviolent crimes.

It's considered, as a schedule 1, the worst drug (along with heroin, which is rebranded as oxycotin and is one of the most prescribed drugs in America) and carries the stiffest of penalties. Whether you agree with weed is a different issue completely, I think you can agree it's not the worst controlled substance. The issue I'm calling out the DEA for being hypocritical is the fact that they cite the need to do more research on marijuana to identify it's medical purposes (which exist) but as a schedule 1, it's virtually impossible for independent researches to study marijuana. So they've created a catch 22. The only people who can study weed for medical purposes is the government, who until today's announcement has openly called it a gateway drug and locked thousands of people up in private prisons for their lifetime for selling it. Call me skeptical.

The GDP gained by selling marijuana would far outweigh the marginal % of newly found comatose citizens' laziness.

 

[bbqbully]

The for profit private prison system that has taken over in many places also has a vested $$ interest in keeping marijuana illegal. In states where it has been legalized/decriminalized their profits have gone down.

This and big pharma are the reason for this ruling. Those two have a lot of clout, read $$$$$, in DC.

 

[DerHntr]

My guess is a lot. Of course they aren't taking it off Schedule 1. Somebody is going to have to take it off for them. Where you at small government conservatives? Perfect chance to save some bucks and scale back a government agency with a multi-billion dollar budget.

Gary Johnson is making a lot of damn sense for the libertarian party. The small government republicans are hopefully listening instead of plugging their ears and cherry picking what parts of small government fit their religious/morals agenda. I hope Johnson makes it onto the debate stage. Trump and Clinton absolutely don't want that happening, which is why it should.

 

[CochiseCowbell]

Gary Johnson is making a lot of damn sense for the libertarian party. The small government republicans are hopefully listening instead of plugging their ears and cherry picking what parts of small government fit their religious/morals agenda. I hope Johnson makes it onto the debate stage. Trump and Clinton absolutely don't want that happening, which is why it should.

^^ THIS

 

[esplanade91]

Gary Johnson is making a lot of damn sense for the libertarian party. The small government republicans are hopefully listening instead of plugging their ears and cherry picking what parts of small government fit their religious/morals agenda. I hope Johnson makes it onto the debate stage. Trump and Clinton absolutely don't want that happening, which is why it should.

[preface statement about not liking Hillary] It's an official position of the DNC to legalize marijuana and outlaw for-profit prisons, thanks to my boy Bernie. Somehow I don't think Trump could even 17 that one up, it's coming regardless. Public opinion polls across every demo pretty much favor legalizing marijuana in one capacity or another.

But yeah, what you said, but also don't agree on Hillary.... or even Trump. It's happening. DEA needs to go along with the entire Reagan era War on Drugs. If your kids haven't tried it, they eventually will. Demonizing it while this country celebrates alcohol and combining that with a scorched earth policy on its eradication is a quick way to end up a country with more people in jail than communist China and spending more money on locking up mentally ill people than educating mentally fit people.

 

[GOOD_DAWG2.0]

Nothing too surprising here.

But I agree a change is coming soon, and it will have to be done through executive action. DEA won't do it on its own.

The DEA is run by the executive branch of the govt. If Obama wasn't a hypocrite, weed would be legal tomorrow. It remains to be seen why he is unwilling to direct the DEA to reschedule marijuana (especially considering the massive number of African Americans sitting in prison today for selling weed, which i personally find pretty ironic). My bet is on campaign contributions by big pharma, alcohol and tobacco. Another lobby that doesn't want pot legalized: prison industry. Billion dollar industry built on keeping people in prison for non violent offenses. Pot being legal= MASSIVE cuts in the prison industry because of less people in jail.

 

[GOOD_DAWG2.0]

I don't think tobacco is worried....they are ready to start growing weed as soon as its legal.

Tobacco does NOT want weed legalized. Pot isn't addictive. Unlike the highly addictive nicotine in their tobacco.

 

[The Fatboy]

You can thank the prison industrial complex for this decision.

 

[The Fatboy]

Sorry buddy. Party platforms don't mean ****.

 

[The Fatboy]

Seconded

 

[The Fatboy]

********. They are ready to grown pot as soon as it's legal.

 

[KurtRambis4]

You can't blame

it on conservatives. Rosenberg gets his directives straight from the top.

 

[Hump4Hoops]

Johnson/Weld are a breath of fresh air compared to Trump and Hillary.

The libertarian party itself has a few wacky ideas (Their official platform currently supports repealing the civil rights act and going back on the gold standard) but luckily Johnson is very much a moderate libertarian.

I agree with him on most (but not all) issues, far more than either the republicans or democrats. The best part is that he seems like a genuine guy, easily the most trustworthy candidate this year.

It's a shame he's probably not going to get the 15% average polling in order to make the debate stage, but damn it would be awesome if he did.

There's a bunch of reasons to vote for Johnson, but if you're pro legalization, he's certainly your guy.

 

[Digging dog]

It's illegal ONLY because it can't be fully controlled upon taxation. Same reason moonshine is illegal.
You can debate every political, medical, moral, and religious reason you want. If the government could collect a tax dollar off of all the pot sold, it would be legalized.

Alcohol makes you think you can drive like Jeff Gordon.
Pot makes you drive 35****

 

[GOOD_DAWG2.0]

********. They are ready to grown pot as soon as it's legal.

Well it turns out that I was wrong. Here's a good article about that (which I am positive will not link correctly but oh well):

https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/ar...juana-could-be-big-tobacco-s-next-pot-of-gold

However I was correct in that tobacco, along with the alcohol industry, have spent millions lobbying against pot legalization in recent years. I will assume your point was that big tobacco would hop on it as soon as they can just to make more money, especially considering the declining number of tobacco users in the country. However, I would imagine that as long as big tobacco has a choice, they will pick the addictive substance over the non addictive one

ETA: that it's incredible that linked correctly. Wow.

 

[esplanade91]

The DEA is run by the executive branch of the govt. If Obama wasn't a hypocrite, weed would be legal tomorrow. It remains to be seen why he is unwilling to direct the DEA to reschedule marijuana (especially considering the massive number of African Americans sitting in prison today for selling weed, which i personally find pretty ironic). My bet is on campaign contributions by big pharma, alcohol and tobacco. Another lobby that doesn't want pot legalized: prison industry. Billion dollar industry built on keeping people in prison for non violent offenses. Pot being legal= MASSIVE cuts in the prison industry because of less people in jail.

$75 billion*

Obama has done all he can do as an executive over the DEA, even going as far to publicly criticize the DEA for trying to supersede state's individual decisions to allow storefronts. Federal marijuana policy and the DEA's policing of it comes directly from Congress, and there's a long list of candidates who receive lobby money from the private prison industry... especially in Florida.

Regardless of how the federal government goes forth, I think it's nearly a guarantee that Mississippi will be the last state to allow marijuana. All the blue hairs...

Missouri is voting in November, if anyone was ever interested in visiting Mizzou.

 

[archdog]

^^ THIS

Not a libertarian, but I 100% agree he should be up there showing a different perspective in prime time with the other candidates.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

DEA keeps weed as a schedule 1 and rationalizes their decision by saying there isn't enough research to indicate otherwise, despite schedule 1 status preventing it from being studied as a medicine.

Interesting though that they admitted in the same release that weed is not a gateway drug.

Whoever you're voting for in November, I think marijuana being legalized/taken off schedule 1 is going to happen fairly soon into their first term. Our prisons are littered with people serving life sentences for selling weed while parents in Washington state are giving their kids extract to prevent them from having seizures. Somehow the DEA continues to see weed in the same category as heroin and thinks they're doing the lord's work.

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/...a-remains-illegal-under-federal-law/88550804/

Inhaling anything but air (or medical treatment) is not good for you. However of people are stupid enough to subject themselves to that I'm ok with it being legal so long as government healthcare doesn't cover treatment of illness caused by it...

 

[GOOD_DAWG2.0]

Missouri is voting in November, if anyone was ever interested in visiting Mizzou.

Columbia could get about 10x more interesting lol

I am proud that MS was the first (I believe that's correct) state to decriminalize it. That has gone a long way in opening up prisons and not ripping families apart over stupid stuff. But there's no doubt we will be the last to allow it. We have to make our stand against the immorality of progress. Just look at the great "religious freedom" bill that we passed this year. MS has so many problems and THIS is what we decide to spend time passing? Sigh. That's an entirely different subject.

 

[fishwater99]

Big Pharma, for profit prisons, the tobacco and alcohol lobbies all want marijuana to stay illegal and a schedule 1 drug.

The war on drugs will never be won, weed is a plant and has many medicinal purposes. Just another bad decision by Washington DC..

 

[KurtRambis4]

You have no

idea how the DEA/DOJ works.

 

[VillagepeopleDogs]

It all boils down to a perception issue. Put the active ingredient that has the medicinal purposes in a pill form and it would pass as a legal drug. Old timers like me don't like the idea of lazy, low life, unemployed, know-it-all 20 somethings sitting around smoking weed and calling it 'medicinal'. It's all about perception and in the real world, perception is reality.

 

[DerHntr]

It's illegal ONLY because it can't be fully controlled upon taxation. Same reason moonshine is illegal.
You can debate every political, medical, moral, and religious reason you want. If the government could collect a tax dollar off of all the pot sold, it would be legalized.

Alcohol makes you think you can drive like Jeff Gordon.
Pot makes you drive 35****

If they'd get their heads out of their asses, they would see that it in essence would be like raising taxes because they'd save so much money not investigating, arresting, prosecuting, and incarcerating people because of it. The bill for all of that has to be extremely significant on a daily basis. The republicans could even cut taxes after decriminalizing it and have a win/win. Of course they won't look at it this way in our congress.

 

[Digging dog]

If they'd get their heads out of their asses, they would see that it in essence would be like raising taxes because they'd save so much money not investigating, arresting, prosecuting, and incarcerating people because of it. The bill for all of that has to be extremely significant on a daily basis. The republicans could even cut taxes after decriminalizing it and have a win/win. Of course they won't look at it this way in our congress.

Exactly!!!! Alcohol is a much more destructive"legal" drug.