-U.S. health officials are conducting an analysis on whether marijuana should be reclassified under federal law. -The DEA has asked the Food and Drug Administration to carry out a review of marijuana’s status as a Schedule I drug, a FDA official revealed during a congressional hearing on Friday. -The FDA will evaluate whether marijuana still meets the Schedule I criteria, which considers cannabis to be highly dangerous with no medical use. -The classification is the harshest of the five DEA drug schedules and comes with the most restrictions. Other Schedule I drugs include heroin, LSD and MDMA. -The FDA previously reviewed marijuana’s status in 2001 and 2006, both times concluding that it should remain in Schedule I. http://www.leafscience.com/2014/06/21/fda-reconsider-marijuanas-schedule-1-status/
This is bullshit! Obama can order a rescheduling anytime he wants. And the DEA is passing the buck, doesn't want to admit the War on Drugs is a failure, and their repression of cannabis users a complete farce. The FDA is notorious for over-regulating everything in its purview. How many years will this review take? Meanwhile how many more people will be busted for using their MEDICINE?
You're right, and also the FDA has absolutely nothing to do with Drug Scheduling. According to the Nixon DEA law the drug scheduling is controlled completely by the DEA. And nobody else. They can choose to listen to recommendation, if they wish too. But they schedule. Congress didn't want to get bogged down with having to pass a law on each and ever drug so they delegated that power solely to the DEA. Also, the DEA knows perfectly well that the FDA can't by law say "yes" in regard to anything, without having absolute findings from several major studies or drug trials. So, if they can't say "yes" than the answer must turn out as a "no". Hummm … How about that?
Also, if the DEA is in charge of deciding what is legal and what is not legal, and then after deciding, they are in the business of going out and enforcing the very same thing, isn't that called a conflict of interests? i.e. That's Illegal to do. conflict of interests Under those circumstances, if I were in charge, I could name air as Schedule I and Water as Schedule I and then ask congress for trillions more to go out and enforce that. The DEA has a pretty cool deal. Hun?
With a clear physicians sign of approval I see how little harm could come to the individual user. Physiciannly we're curing humans not their physicians.
Yes, but it is by virtue of how those laws are written that will ultimately force a re-scheduling of marijuana. Our current drug laws have their genesis in the Pure Food and Drug act of 1906 that required ingredient labeling. That put most patent medicines out of business. that is point 1 point 2; by virtue of the wording of the Constitution, is is UN-constitutional to dictate what an individual person can ingest. To circumvent this constitutional snag, the laws were written based on a substances medical efficacy weighed against it's addiction/abuse potential. Things deemed to have little medical use OR are highly addictive are Schedule 1. So given that the FDA was first created to deal with/administer the first set of laws targeting drug use, and that current laws are a direct descendant of that 1906 act, the FDA and AMA actually have more clout than you may think regarding this..... especially when current laws are solely predicated upon a substances medical efficacy...marijuana will be re-scheduled, there is really no alternative for the DEA, otherwise they will very blatantly further call into question their existence. In that same light, we may see a day when LSD, MDMA, and a few other substances will be re-scheduled in light of burgeoning evidence of the vast medical applications of these substances as well as the fact that they are virtually harmless. The drug laws are fucked up for sure, but at least by virtue of how they are written, the DEA has tied their own hands.