The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, The Associated Press has learned, a historic shift to generations of American drug policy that could have wide ripple effects across the country.
The DEA’s proposal, which still must be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, would recognize the medical uses of cannabis and acknowledge it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs. However, it would not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use.
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Once OMB signs off, the DEA will take public comment on the plan to move marijuana from its current classification as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD. It moves pot to Schedule III, alongside ketamine and some anabolic steroids, following a recommendation from the federal Health and Human Services Department. After the public comment period and a review by an administrative judge, the agency would eventually publish the final rule.
The pot dispensaries would then be able to access the banking system and use credit cards. The tax revenues would flow more easily. And using pot with a prescription would remove the legal stigma for using it now.
This would partially dismantle Nixon's War on Drugs. It does nothing to restore the civil liberties that the courts, especially the Supremes, have stripped away in furthering that "war".
Too bad it took this far into the Biden Administration to do this, but I'll take it for the good step that it is.
2 comments:
'Bout time. I have several good friends and some family members who have done hard time for weed.
The last time I was in Oakland, I saw this giant billboard on College Avenue advertising cannabis delivery, and I thought of all the years I spent hiding my weed involvement from the law, and it felt kinda good. Because all of that time and effort was dumb. Cannabis is a plant that grows in the ground, and it's utterly retarded that folks I know have been killed over it.
And don't expect that once they finally get around to fully legalizing it everything will automatically be hunky dory. The black market that built up around its criminalization is massive and all of that money won't just stop moving without some major issues, as the newly legal cannabis marketplace has learned. A lot of those black market weed growers and sellers are really good at what they do, and expecting the newly created legal market to compete with them is misguided. Give them a few more years, and maybe, but until they've had the same learning curve that the black marketers overcame (and under the added pressure of criminality) they won't compete in the marketplace.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
Though never one for smoking pot after a couple of tries. I do use the THC Gummies now, about 1/4 to 1/2 dose on nights that I know my brain is restless before bedtime.
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