DEA Plans To Decide Whether To Reschedule Marijuana By Mid-Year

DEA Plans To Decide Whether To Reschedule Marijuana By Mid-Year

The Drug Enforcement Administration plans to decide whether marijuana should reclassified under federal law in “the first half of 2016,” the agency said in a letter to senators.

DEA, responding to a 2015 letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and seven other Democratic senators urging the federal government to facilitate research into marijuana’s medical benefits, doesn’t indicate whether it will reclassify marijuana as less dangerous.

The DEA has agreed to respond to a petition by 8 Senators to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule 1 drug by the first half of the year (we are in month four of six in that half by the way). I mean I'm not going to hold out hope. This isn't the first time the DEA has done this and they are usually pretty uncool about it still. However, I did notice some things are different this go around, so there is hope.

The letter, signed by Acting DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg, explains in great detail the marijuana supply available at the University of Mississippi, the federal government’s only sanctioned marijuana garden.

First, we have the fact that Michele Leonhart is no longer the DEA director and we have an acting director in charge. However, I'm not sure how he feels on this. Though Wikipedia isn't fond of him.

Rosenberg drew media attention in November 2015 after telling reporters that medical marijuana is "a joke" and not medicinal.[3] The same month he also said, "there is something to" the idea of a "Ferguson effect," that an increase in crime was the result of the public filming the police.[4] Following these comments, an ongoing petition has been created to remove Rosenberg as head of Drug Enforcement Administration. The petition "Fire DEA Head Chuck Rosenberg for Calling Medical Marijuana a 'Joke' " has already garnered over 151,730 supporters on Change.org.[5]

That doesn't make me very fond of him either. Nor hopeful that anything will change this time, BUT there is one more caveat in the letter.

The Food and Drug Administration has completed a review of the medical evidence surrounding the safety and effectiveness of marijuana and has forwarded its rescheduling recommendation to the DEA, according to the letter. The document didn’t reveal what the FDA recommended.

There may be some hope here. We don't know what the FDA concluded, but if it is positive maybe it will sway their opinions. It's tough to say. Though really, Obama could just end this whole idiocy and force the DEA to reschedule it...

a reply to: Krazysh0t
People in the government makes too much money from certain drugs being illegal, and I am not talking about the fines they receive from busts. They make more money from the sales when it is illegal than they would if it was taxed as a legal product..... and the tax money would be on the books.
I will be surprised if anything changes at the Federal level.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Should have never been classified as a schedule 1 substance to begin with. You mean to tell me cannabis is more dangerous than coke? Than Meth? I never was able to buy that one...

a reply to: butcherguy

Yeah but with everyone getting all agitated lately, and all the evidence that's pro marijuana, they need to give us something to calm us down, and they are losing this fight anyway. Legalizing weed would be a great way to pacify a lot of agitated people. It might be a necessary sacrifice for them to help maintain the status quot. Seems the best option to me.

originally posted by: Puppylove
a reply to: butcherguy

Yeah but with everyone getting all agitated lately, and all the evidence that's pro marijuana, they need to give us something to calm us down, and they are losing this fight anyway. Legalizing weed would be a great way to pacify a lot of agitated people. It might be a necessary sacrifice for them to help maintain the status quot. Seems the best option to me.

It would probably be a good thing, but I am just looking at it as an issue that is controlled by TPTB, who tend to line their pockets because it is illegal.

originally posted by: CagliostroTheGreat
a reply to: Krazysh0t

Should have never been classified as a schedule 1 substance to begin with. You mean to tell me cannabis is more dangerous than coke? Than Meth? I never was able to buy that one...

You might have included tobacco and alcohol in your list.
They kill far more people than cannabis.

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: Krazysh0t
People in the government makes too much money from certain drugs being illegal, and I am not talking about the fines they receive from busts. They make more money from the sales when it is illegal than they would if it was taxed as a legal product..... and the tax money would be on the books.
I will be surprised if anything changes at the Federal level.

At least not from procedural methods. We are going to need like a SCOTUS decision or a force reschedule from the President to do the trick.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: Krazysh0t
People in the government makes too much money from certain drugs being illegal, and I am not talking about the fines they receive from busts. They make more money from the sales when it is illegal than they would if it was taxed as a legal product..... and the tax money would be on the books.
I will be surprised if anything changes at the Federal level.

At least not from procedural methods. We are going to need like a SCOTUS decision or a force reschedule from the President to do the trick.

Has there ever been a suit filed to that end?
If not, it is well past time for it to happen.

originally posted by: butcherguy

originally posted by: Krazysh0t

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: Krazysh0t
People in the government makes too much money from certain drugs being illegal, and I am not talking about the fines they receive from busts. They make more money from the sales when it is illegal than they would if it was taxed as a legal product..... and the tax money would be on the books.
I will be surprised if anything changes at the Federal level.

At least not from procedural methods. We are going to need like a SCOTUS decision or a force reschedule from the President to do the trick.

Has there ever been a suit filed to that end?
If not, it is well past time for it to happen.

I don't know actually. I think I'll go check, but I do agree with you. If one hasn't been filed, it is high (heh heh) time one was filed.

originally posted by: CagliostroTheGreat
a reply to: Krazysh0t

Should have never been classified as a schedule 1 substance to begin with. You mean to tell me cannabis is more dangerous than coke? Than Meth? I never was able to buy that one...

Uber douche bag Leonhart was able to say cannabis was just as dangerous as coke and meth- with a strait face somehow!!!! It is a joke to them, and how anyone can say it has no medicinal value is so far beyond me that I will never understand!

I'm not a pot smoker. Tried once as a kid, hated it, never touched it since. But I have nothing against it's use - as a recreational drug or as a medicinal aid - at all.

That being said, the fact that the DEA is even considering rescheduling marijuana signifies a major shift in the mindset of this organization, that in 2011 essentially said it would never remove marijuana's Schedule 1 classification. I still doubt it will ever pass this time around, but for them to even consider it is amazing to me.

This is in no doubt encouraged by the growing shift in public opinion regarding the social use of marijuana, as well as the economic benefits through the tax revenue of legalized sale in that states where it has been legalized - namely Colorado - and the lack of an appreciable rise in crime rates, as endlessly predicted by the same groups of people who in the past claimed that rock and roll, jazz, and integration would destroy the fabric of society.

I believe the deciding issue on this will not rest with public opinion or tax revenue, but with the $25 billion-per-year cotton industry. Are they going to appreciate the inevitable rise of hemp production and competition should marijuana be reclassified? That will be the real linchpin to this deal.

a reply to: Puppylove

If they would just leave my guns alone and legalize marijuana I'd feel a lot better about life.

As it is, after getting hurt in Afghanistan I have been prescribed a huge amount of garbage drugs that I since stopped taking barring a few pain meds.

If marijuana was rescheduled from Schedule 1 I would be able to access marijuana for treatment without losing my right to arms.

As it stands today, if I am a medical marijuana patient my 2nd Amendment rights get taken away.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

The prohibition of Marijuana was a joke and a sham from the very beginning instituted by dim witted and racist establishment cronies. "if we allow the use of this drug to continue then good innocent white women will start fornicating with negro's" is no sh.. what was said before a senate hearing committee in 1937. You know that got all those rich old white men fired up like "oh hell no we ain't gonna sit by and let our white women sleep with negro's"" and voila cannabis is illegal.

The establishment also hates this plant because it grows with ease in just about any and every environment so anybody can really grow it and we all know how they like any industry to be highly regulated and taxed. Aside from the financial aspect of it all I have also heard and tend to believe that it is also a deprogramming substance. From my experience I have found that people that smoke are more prone to being deep/critical thinkers that ask questions and challenge the status quo as opposed to those who vehemently protest this plant. Think about the implications of that alone in that people who protest this plant are unable and/or unwilling to see past the government BS and propaganda can you say "sheeple".

The only reason it is at the point that it is now is that the majority of the populace especially the younger generations are starting to see through the lies and corruption after years of witnessing people they know like maybe their brother, neighbor or friend who smoke and do not fit the bill of any of the anti drug campaigns. Go to a common house party and tell me who you think is more fun to be around the chill stoners who are having deep conversations or the drunk frat bro's that are trying to fight people and get laid. The numbers and stats which we the people are starting to notice are not adding up to what big brother has told us for years and people are sick of the lies.

I do not expect the DEA to change it's stance on this anytime soon, change will have to come from above them unfortunately. They like stealing money from pot farmers and dealers because they are more compliant and less violent than the other groups of drug dealers.

God willing, they'll finally do the right thing. So many lives have been ruined because of the laws against this plant. My own sister could desperately use medical maryjane but we're in a State where it's still illegal (and she refuses to risk it).

a reply to: Krazysh0t

My opinion?

It should be "scheduled" the same as booze.

Let's concern ourselves with bigger issues.

a reply to: ArchAngel_X

They've considered it before though. From the article:

This isn’t the first time DEA has been asked to reconsider marijuana’s classification. In 2001 and 2006, DEA considered petitions, but decided to keep marijuana a Schedule I substance.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

It's because not enough people are going to jail.Some VERY rich folk are losing a lot of money.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Was this article from April 1st?

How many times are these criminals going to repeat the "we need to facilitate research" garbage?
How much money is made when doing all this "research" and who is pocketing it? There is absolutely no way they are blind to the vast amount of research already done. It's all lies, from the ground up.

The fact that cannabis was EVER schedule 1 is 110% proof of their criminal activities (denying many medicine and freedom, supporting certain industry over others...etc etc etc...blah blah blah)

The fact that these assholes can stand and claim that cannabis has no medicinal value, the fact they call medicinal cannabis "a joke".....with all the research firmly in place for many years, it's proof that these assholes are willfully blind and deaf to the truth because they profit from prohibition (in more ways than one)....

The fact that these assholes will claim these things to the faces of the suffering is not only sickening, it IS a crime against humanity.
....I, for one, demand their heads! They are traitors to the human race and should be treated as such, their worthless lives snuffed out of existence...point blank. F**k them!

There is not much in this world that angers me more (given my proximity to the issue)...so much pain and suffering left unchecked, so much pain and suffering caused...lives destroyed, over a plant that has killed no one, not EVER!....

Goddamned bunch of crooks.
Hang them!

..............
Was that straight forward and politically incorrect enough?

..............
All the while, the industries that kill so many and destroy so much (alcohol, tobacco...others) march on, completely "legal" and within your rights to suicide yourself with (I say this as a drinker and a tobacco smoker)...

....grrrr, I'm going to shut up now....getting pissed for no good reason, and it's too early for that sh*t.

WHAT?! This substance better remain ILLEGAL! It GROWS out of the ground NATURALLY and causes severe HAPPINESS. What kind of IDIOT would go near this HIGHLY DANGEROUS AND TOXIC BIG SCARY PLANT!