Cannabis rescheduling in the United States – Cannabis | weed | marijuana

Last week, US President Joe Biden asked his Attorney General to look into a cannabis debt restructuring. Right now, authorities are referring to it as a “Schedule I drug.”

But what does that mean? And what would it mean if the government postponed or canceled cannabis altogether?

Cannabis rescheduling in the United States

It began in 1970 with the passage of the Narcotics Act. This classified substances into five categories or “timetables”.

The inclusion of substances on their lists is based on Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) criteria. They examined the potential for abuse and medicinal use.

List I consists of substances with high abuse rates and little to no medicinal properties. At the same time, Schedule V is intended for substances with low rates of abuse or addiction.

For example, a Schedule V drug would be an over-the-counter cough medicine. Where a Schedule I drug is street heroin.

Somehow cannabis ended up on List 1. Even in 1970, very few believed cannabis to be as addictive and dangerous as cocaine or heroin.

For decades, activists have tried to remove cannabis from Schedule 1. With Biden’s latest announcement, a rescheduling of cannabis could finally happen.

What if they rescheduled cannabis?

The DEA has five “schedule” for substances. Whereby I is dangerous and addictive and V is relatively harmless. Here is an example:

• Schedule I: Marijuana, Ecstasy, Heroin, LSD
• Schedule II: Methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl
• Appendix III: steroids, ketamine
• Appendix IV: Xanax, Valium
• Schedule V: Cough Syrup

Obviously, these categories do not reflect reality. No one can unequivocally label LSD as “addictive,” nor does anyone believe that fentanyl has a higher safety profile than heroin.

like dr As Carl Hart has shown in his numerous books, lectures and podcast appearances, drugs like heroin are not harmful per se.

It all comes down to a person’s headspace and environment. “Set and Setting” is a famous phrase used to ensure a psychedelic trip is a positive one.

But this term can be applied to any substance.

Many observers suspect the Biden administration is rescheduling cannabis on Schedule V.

But even if they reclassify cannabis into Schedule II, the DEA is out and the FDA is in.

And since the pharmaceutical industry effectively owns the FDA, that option is only marginally better than a ban, and even that is debatable.

But what if the Biden administration refrains from restructuring the debt? What if cannabis is scheduled off the schedule instead?

What if cannabis is taken off schedule?

The Controlled Substance Act should not exist. And cannabis certainly shouldn’t even be listed as a Schedule V drug.

The only real solution is the complete elimination of cannabis by picking it up. Derecognition of cannabis would protect legal states and greatly simplify banking since they no longer deal with a federally banned substance.

Determination would require little to no federal bureaucracy for implementation. There would not be a need for a national task force dealing with the legalization of cannabis. Congress would not have to pass any technical, regulatory details either.

De-schedule cannabis and then treat it like any other good or raw commodity.

How likely is it that the Biden administration will do this? I wouldn’t put any money on that. Just look at Biden’s legislative history.

Biden pardons Americans jailed for his crime bill

The 1994 Crime Act introduced a mandatory minimum sentence and compounded the problem of rising incarceration rates. It introduced a “three strikes” provision that grouped violent crimes with non-violent offenses and petty crimes.

Joe Biden, then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote and promoted the 1994 crime bill. During the 2020 presidential campaign, he defended parts of it and apologized for others, blaming Republicans.

Regardless, Biden’s federal pardon for cannabis offenses is helping to reverse the damage done by the 1994 crime statute.

People are praising Biden for this move without fully understanding how Biden himself is responsible for people in prison for cannabis. (Don’t get me started on Vice President Kamala Harris’ cannabis prosecution file.)

Where were those critics when Donald Trump commuted seven prisoners to life in prison on cannabis charges?

The government jailed people without parole under Joe Biden’s 1994 crimes statute.

As one attorney put it, “Biden is responsible for the 1994 Criminal Code [resulted in] Corvain Cooper was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on marijuana charges, and the Obama-Biden administration was directly responsible for prosecuting.”

Is Biden’s move a political pose for the midterms? Most likely.

footnote(s)

https://www.dea.gov/drug-information/drug-schedulinghttps://nypost.com/2021/01/20/trump-releases-pot-prisoners-jailed-under-bidens-1994-crime-bill/ https://drcarlhart.com/