[jump /injack]

Stop hoping the DEA does the right thing! They will not, the declassification of the herb cannabis sativa is to big of a cudgel against the American People for the DEA to every let go of the ability to put the American People in Prison for nothing except for puffing on cannabis like the Presidents daughter was doing this week. We have a house of Representatives that aren't doing their job, vote them out of office and let them lose their sinecure of $187,000 per year in Government salary plus all they can steal. Vote for those that fear the people's vote, that's the only sure way to get this done so people don't go to prison.

Why We Should Demand That Congress Reschedule Marijuana
August 15, 2016
By Keith Stroup, NORML Legal Counsel

Like most Americans who follow the debate over marijuana legalization in this country, I was disappointed that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration this week once again determined that marijuana has no medical use and left it in Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act.

Disappointed, but not surprised.

NORML first petitioned the DEA to reschedule marijuana to a lower schedule back in 1973, and we have been involved in two subsequent attempts to accomplish the same result, without success. The DEA is a law enforcement agency. So they will continue to oppose any steps to loosen controls over marijuana until Congress forces them to change.

A Brief History of Rescheduling Attempts.

The initial petition NORML filed to reschedule marijuana in 1973 ended up being an endurance test. The agency refused to even acknowledge our petition or respond to it until we went to the court of appeals and forced them to respond. And this strategy of ignore and delay continued at every step, dragging the process out for 15 years until 1988, when DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge Francis Young, following days of testimony, finally ruled in our favor.

The ruling concluded that “Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of medical care.”

Judge Young continued: “It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record.”

However, the DEA Administrator simply ignored the decision of his own hearing examiner and rejected our petition, claiming the hearing examiner had relied on anecdotal evidence. NORML again appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals, but the court allowed the Administrator’s decision to stand, saying he had acted within his discretion.

And twice in the intervening decades NORML has been a party to subsequent attempts to require the DEA to reschedule marijuana; and both times, as they did in this most recent case, the DEA continued to insist that marijuana has no medical usefulness and should remain on Schedule I, along with heroin.

So I hope readers will understand when I say, “Enough is enough! Time to ignore the DEA altogether and focus our efforts on Congress.”

How Marijuana Ended Up on Schedule I in the First Place.

When the federal Controlled Substances Act was being considered by Congress in 1970 — after the prior federal anti-marijuana act had been held unconstitutional — various members of Congress debated the question of where to place marijuana under the new act. A separate provision of that new law established The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (aka the Marijuana Commission), which was charged with the responsibility of determining the appropriate policy regarding marijuana and reporting back to Congress. A compromise was reached to temporarily place marijuana in Schedule I until the commission came back with their report.

When the commission came back with its marijuana report in 1972, they recommended that minor marijuana offenses be decriminalized, which would have made it available (again) as a medicine. (Marijuana was on the U.S. Pharmacopeia from the mid-1850s until 1937, and it was available by prescription and widely prescribed for several conditions.)

However, those recommendations were not accepted by then-Presdient Nixon or Congress, and marijuana was left in Schedule I, where it remains today.

In fact, what Congress should really do, and what NORML has been arguing for some time, is to totally de-schedule marijuana by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act and treat it as we do alcohol and tobacco, thus providing states the power to establish their own marijuana regulatory policies free from federal interference.

Bills Pending In Congress.

There are currently several bills pending in Congress that, if adopted, would resolve this matter. HR 1774, the Compassionate Access Act, introduced by Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) and Rep. Dana Rorhabacher (R-Calif.), would require that marijuana be rescheduled and would prohibit federal officials from interfering in state-compliant activities specific to the physician-authorized use or distribution of medical cannabis.

And Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) recently introduced S.2237, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2015, that would de-schedule cannabis from the CSA and treat it like alcohol and tobacco.

Of course, neither of these bills have been scheduled for a hearing or given a vote — even in committee. But those conditions may change following the upcoming election in November, and we may well have the opportunity to move a rescheduling proposal forward in the next Congress.

So instead of trying to convince the DEA that they should act responsibly and compassionately and lower marijuana to a more appropriate schedule under federal law, or remove it entirely, it is now time to put our efforts behind a push to convince the next Congress to solve this problem directly.

[jump /injack]

"HR 1774, the Compassionate Access Act, introduced by Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) and Rep. Dana Rorhabacher (R-Calif.), would require that marijuana be rescheduled and would prohibit federal officials from interfering in state-compliant activities specific to the physician-authorized use or distribution of medical cannabis.

This bill introduced this year would do the job, it would take away from the DEA the ability to harass people, it would take away the ability of the DEA to jail people, it would take away the ability of the DEA to do anything against the HERB Cannabis Sativa, isn't this what you want? Vote against those that fight against the decriminalization of Cannabis, get rid of those people in Congress and the fight is over, just the start of a national drive to get rid of people who won't listen to the People and who work for the payoffs from the Guard Unions that need the bodies in prison to pay their wages, get rid of those that vote against you, whether Democrat or Republican get rid of them. Time to stop the BS that can get you 10 fucking years in Prison. $5 sent to the campaign fund of those that fight for the herb Cannabis Sativa will in 2 years get rid of those you detest because of representatives taking money from drug companies and unions representing the ball breaking guards unions who pay the Democrats to continue the incarcerations.

[Agaricus]

HR 1774 would allow rescheduling to permit medical use of cannabis but would do little to nothing for the average toker. It would be a great thing, taking away the feds' ability to prosecute medical users and providers but as long as weed's subject to DEA scheduling recreational legalization in individual states is still in shadowland. At any point DEA could come down on weed growers and weed shops.

What's really needed is total descheduling, removing cannabis from the oversight of the DEA once and for all.

[jump /injack]

Its a political thing and if that's forgotten you're pissing up a rope. You have to make it so expensive for a legislator to vote against that they won't and the way you do that is to vote their ass out of Congress and they lose the $187,00 salary and all they can steal. There is a list of all the people in Congress that vote against the reclassification of Cannabis Sativa a herb, not a narcotic, those people have to be voted out of office and their opponents given financial aid to get them out. They either change their minds or they look for another type of extortion to get into. These people are the one's you go after, you can't do anything to an employee of ANY federal agency because of Civil Service, vote your enemies of reason out of office.

[rolandomota]

A law to have nationwide voter initiatives that change federal law would be the only way to legalize. Their will always be a high number of weed haters especially in congress so that's the only way but guess what? No such law exists .....these pro pot politicians need to look into passing the national voter initiatives act. I will ask some state reps if they will be willing to write a bill for my state to change the law we don't have voter initiatives......yet

[Dawn Patrol]

The DEA will never remove Cannabis from Schedule 1 as it is their biggest reason for funding. Would you agree to eliminate the main focus of your own job and not think that it would have a huge financial impact??

Legislators may say they favor legalization, but the flood of cash from Big Pharma, the cigarette and alcohol industries and anybody else whose bottom line would be threatened by legalization (cough Sheldon Adelson) will keep it illegal no matter the cost and what the will of the voter is.

Money and power trump the will of the people every time. Democracy in America is dead, this is a an oligarchy where every two years we pretend it's not.

Case in point - Hillary says she wants to break up the big banks and raise the minimum wage yet she's taken millions of dollars from them in campaign contributions and speaking fees. The chance that she actually does anything if she's elected is negligible

PS - please don't think that this makes me a Trump supporter and if you are, do an in depth study of his business history. There is a 30+ year history of him fucking over business partners and doing business with criminals and mobsters in addition to losing money as fast as he can find new investors/partners. He won't release his tax returns because it will reveal that his net worth is way less than what he says it is and that through complex accounting he pays almost no taxes despite ranting about all the other corporations that do the same thing.

Anybody remember the Southpark episode with the Giant Douche and the Turd Sandwich??

[pashio]

The DEA is a law enforcement agency.

Exactly... They won't cut their own branch...

[paladin420]

Re-place them all..... Re-elect nobody... They work for us,time to remind them

[ExoticsRus]

You can't ask the DEA do the right for cannabis since it's their 75% arrest of total drugs . Corrupt obvious asshole system :(