Here’s a national security reason for the federal government to modernize its position on cannabis. Most of the separated and retired military personnel, pilots in particular, I know use weed in some form or another. In the event of a big war, toward which the current global environment is trending, you are going to need to put all of these people back in service for the duration of the emergency. And it won’t be as simple as telling them to stop upon activation. Some common sense rules about who can use and when, just like we have with alcohol, are the way to head.
Come on. Anyone who hasn’t been living in a bubble has known someone doing all da drugs. Allah willing, yourself too. Weed ain’t anything like all the other options. You don’t even know for sure someone has been smoking weed. You for damn sure know they have been doing all others. Although coke is also pretty stealthy.
I think many of us know why marijuana is still, to this day, a Schedule I controlled substance. The government bends over for big pharma's money. Why would they legalize something most average citizens can easily grow and cultivate, is completely natural, has minimal side effects and is very therapeutic for a lot medical issues? They'd be cutting their own throats. That is the one and ONLY reason marijuana is a Schedule I controlled. Yet, some of us still lap up big brother like he's going out of style......
Nothing would stop big pharma from participating in a legalized “medical marijuana” industry. Without the stigma and inconsistent state/federal laws, they could put products on the shelves at Publix or CVS (prescription or otherwise). In FL many of the marijuana dispensaries and CBD oil places that popped up seem like shady operators, right there with vape shops. Who knows what they they are selling. Plenty of opportunity for a branded product (should it receive FDA approval). Legalization seems very much a social warrior issue. You could also make the same $$$ argument about law enforcement and the prison industrial complex. Gotta keep those prisons and jails stocked with drug offenders! When you see who is for or against legalization, it lines up much more neatly with the social warriors. Plenty of dems in places like NY/NJ and CA that are top pharma $$$ recipients and are pro legalization. Check a map of the states that are most legalized vs. most restrictive and you get the picture. Seems to me it’s mostly old guard social conservatives that are still in favor of staying the course in the failed war on drugs. In places like FL and Ohio they don’t even seem to care what their own constituents think (younger conservatives seem to be more in favor of legalization, which is why ballot access initiatives tend to pass even in red states, but leave it to the “conservative” politicians to undermine the will of the people).
I was posting about this issue here a few months ago and was met with a lot of brush back. The weed today is nothing like what people here smoked 10-20 years ago. Weed isn’t the panacea that it’s being pushed as. They want it treated as a “medicine” do studies to prove it treats what they say it does. That should include long term safety studies. Will never happen.
My kid’s psychiatrist has been saying for years that pot can lead to psychosis in a non trivial percent of young people - something like 5-10%. I’ve posted that in the past and people just shrug it off and stick with the historical pot is harmless line of discussion. I think pot should definitely be decriminalized, and it certainly should not be schedule 1. I’m kind of 50/50 on actual legalization - I think in many ways it can be harmful for individuals and society, but at at the same time I’m not a fan of pot crimes gumming up the criminal Justice system, plus legal pot is more likely to be free of additives like Fentanyl.
Biden administration plans to reclassify marijuana, easing restrictions nationwide (cnbc.com) Looks like it's happening ... going from class I to class III.
Medical marijuana has been bastardized in much the same way that emotional support animals have. Those with legitimate need with true benefits get lumped in with folks who just want permission to get high or take their emotional support anaconda with them.
less addictive than caffeine, much less addictive than alcohol or tobacco and much less harmful. if mj consumption cuts alcohol and opiod use, it is a net win
After months of testing, and several cases of Funyons and Cheetos, they have ruled weed is hereby "actually pretty groovy man"
Actually I find this a fascinating subject too. Frankly, couldn't repeated behavior of any kind be somewhat defined as "addictive"? This of course could run the gamut of almost anything: Running, golfing, climbing mountains, being a "gear-head", TV, music, eating a favorite cookie, I-Phones what have you. "Im not a fan of authorities being able regulate the choices of individuals. That said, the horrors of some of these substances are so palpable that I can see why it would be considered dereliction of duty for government officials to just stand by while so many people are hurt" Hmmm (authorities) - You are aware that the "Bayer" Corporation brought societies that wonderful "cure-all" called 'Heroin"? When it was introduced it was hailed a miracle drug, and really interesting, was extensively used to help abusers of "Cocaine and the tinicture of "laudnum" RECOVER from those addictions. Coke was perhaps MORE out of control in the early part of the 20th century than in the 1980's because of abuse in the medical communnity, and I'm talking doctors and surgeons. . I bet most people don't know that one of the first recorded uses of "cocaine" (no not Eric Clapton) for medicinal purposes was described in the journals of one "Amerigo Vespucci" in the late 14th or early 15th century. Almost everywhere in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, coke was used by the medical profession for an assortment of afflicitions. While not a student on the subject I would be most interested in why the "Feds" decided to classify "pot" as a "schedule 1" when they did. I imagine it was thru a combination of medical ignorance about THC, and a general lack of study and understanding. Having said that, I put about as much confidence in the Hoover Administrations doing so to "Protect and Serve the General Publics Welfare" as I do with the medical community advising the public to take "Thalidomide", or "bleach", as some present day former president suggests. I wouldn't be surprised if the tobacco industry had something to do with that classification myself, to protect market share from a potential competitor. Anyway, how many citizens have (and continue to) suffer from the heavy hand of law enforcement because of this categorization? Now, I am NOT an advocate for anyone to smoke pot, especially young persons. Like liquor it is potent, and as far as I know smoking it is no good. Smoking is not good for anything. However, as (current) research continues, (emphasis on current) it turns out it is far from tobacco and it does have medicinal uses. As far as drugs go, THC does seem to have one positive affect on Homo Sapiens: "chill out / toned down" aggressive behavior. Outside of Meth or H withdrawal, what drug creates more aggession than liquor?
