Senators Pushing for Rescheduling of Cannabis
It is said that the 1970 Controlled Substances Act decision which labeled marijuana as a Schedule I drug was more a response to counterculture movement than to any scientific or medical study of the drug. In fact, the Shafer Commission, an investigative body into the drug, recommended that marijuana be decriminalized and removed as a Schedule I drug. Then president Richard Nixon rejected the report by the commission, a commission appointed by Nixon himself. Almost 45 years later the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is finally considering rescheduling marijuana.
The DEA is supposed to release its decision sometime this year, apparently relying heavily on a yet unknown recommendation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A handful of senators are pushing for the rescheduling of the drug, advocating its medicinal benefits.
Where a primary condition for a drug to be considered a Schedule I drug is that it have no medicinal benefit, logic dictates marijuana should not be classified as such. Half of the country’s states have legalized it for medical use, and more are following. And, each month more and more scientific studies are being published about its medical benefits.
When solid federal funding is given to studying marijuana, maybe the federal government will see that the antiquated criminalization of the drug is the result of personal bias and not valid study, and change accordingly. In the meantime, the DEA’s decision is anxiously awaited. With the help of senatorial advocates and legitimate studies, hopefully the DEA will get on board with the modern accepted conventional wisdom that marijuana is not in fact some harmful, psychosis inducing substance that incites violence, but rather it is merely a mellow relaxant with multiple medicinal benefits.
To discover if you are eligible for the medical benefits of marijuana, make your appointment with Medical Alternatives Clinics today.