The Obama Administration has refused to remove marijuana from Schedule 1 under the Controlled Substances Act–”no currently accepted medical use, high potential for abuse.” From the NPR story:
The Obama administration has denied a bid by two Democratic governors to reconsider how it treats marijuana under federal drug control laws, keeping the drug for now, at least, in the most restrictive category for U.S. law enforcement purposes.
Drug Enforcement Administration chief Chuck Rosenberg says the decision is rooted in science. Rosenberg gave “enormous weight” to conclusions by the Food and Drug Administration that marijuana has “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States,” and by some measures, it remains highly vulnerable to abuse as the most commonly used illicit drug across the nation.
This (anti-science) administration has no respect for the rule of law.
Why bring up that obvious point in a post complaining about the DEA refusing to reclassify marijuana off of Schedule 1?
Two reasons:
First, Using circular thinking–”no medical use in treatment in the United States” (because the law hasn’t allowed the testing)–the administration ignores the clear evidence that cannabis does have medical applications, as demonstrated in, and thus allowed by, the law in several other countries.
Such a factually flawed basis for the Schedule 1 classification allows the law to remain based in a demonstrated untruth, breeding disrespect for rule of law and the proliferation of anarchic state “medical marijuana” statutes by which doctors write “letters” allowing legal purchase for whatever condition they–wink, wink–believe warranted.
Second, at the same time it refuses to reschedule marijuana off of Schedule 1, the administration doesn’t enforce that law, for example, allowing state medical marijuana mega stores to operate, which are really often fronts for recreational drug pushing.
This we-won’t-change-the-law-but-also-won’t-enforce-it approach is cowardly, corrosive of integrity, and a crass political expediency.
If marijuana were reclassified, its medicinal properties could be prescribed for dose and condition, it could delivered in a medicalized way with proper dosages, etc.. For example, I have a friend in Canada with very bad MS, who was prescribed a marijuana mouth spray to control muscle spasms. It works.
This question is a completely different issue than whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use. I mean, good grief, cocaine isn’t on Schedule 1!
Congress has the power to reschedule marijuana. It should do so forthwith, both for compassionate reasons and as a means of strengthening this country’s increasingly frail commitment to the rule of law.