No, the title of this post is not some Republican campaign slogan, and it’s not a joke, either.
Barack Obama’s Drug Enforcement administration (DEA) today issued its final decision that marijuana is to remain on the federal government’s list of the most highly dangerous and regulated drugs, the Associated Press reported today. The decision followed a petition by the governors of Washington state and Rhode Island to reclassify pot into a far less severe category. Note: That petition by the governors of the above states was filed at the DEA in 2011 – yes, it has taken the DEA five years to arrive at not only any decision in this matter, but the most scientifically and socially unsupported decision possible. This is your tax dollars at work: Stonewalling, inefficiency, foot dragging.
So why would the federal government take five years to reach this insulting and unsupportable decision? Two words: Politics and money – inseparable bedfellows. You see, controlled substances (regulated drugs) are classified by the DEA into five different “schedules” – from the most dangerous drugs that the federal government has declared have no medicinal value (“Schedule 1”,) to the least dangerous drugs that the DEA has declared do have medicinal value (“Schedule 5”.) Example: Heroin is classified as a Schedule 1 drug. Care to know where marijuana has been classified, for over 70 years? Correct: Schedule 1 – along with the likes of heroin – and extremely dangerous drug, with extremely high addiction potential.
As a Boston Massachusetts drug charges lawyer, I can assure you: The fact that federal officials have been able to claim this with a straight face for decades, has been a laughingstock. That they’re still doing so now, is almost criminal. Reasons: A) Marijuana has been shown time and again to ease pain and other debilitating symptoms of a wide variety of diseases; B) Despite the most laughable of smoke-and-mirror arguments advanced by federal officials. marijuana has never been shown to be addictive, and C) Over 25 states in the U.S. have either approved medical marijuana, decriminalized possession of an ounce or less for personal use, or outright legalized it and taxed it. Four states – Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Wshington state and the District of Columbia (D.C. – as in Washington, D.C., the very heart of the federal government) have legalized it altogether.
Despite this, the federal government will not yield in its insane position here. (The same basic position it’s taken since it spent our tax money to put out the long-famous laughfest , “Reefer Madness” in the 1950’s – A pathetic attempt to convince youth that they’d go “mad” if they smoked pot.) And the reason the federal government won’t wake up to reality is because Big Pharma owns Congress, they own the DEA, and they own President Obama. You see, the longer that Big Pharma can prevent cannabis from being declared to have medicinal value – by keeping it a Schedule 1 drug – the longer they can maintain the choke-hold they have on “conventional” medications to treat a variety of conditions – mostly painkillers and cancer medications. Dozens of major drug companies like Eli Lilly, Merck and more have billions of dollars at stake if pot is reclassified to a lower schedule than it has been classified at for decades – and they’re going to continue to do everything they can to stop it. Who is “they”? Big Pharma – the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers Association of America.
Legally, while 25 states have allowed marijuana use in some form, whether medicinally or recreationally – as a matter of federal law, it remains illegal, and if you’re caught with it in a location where federal jurisdiction controls, such as on an airplane, Amtrak, or any federal properties – you will be prosecuted and could be jailed. It happens, all too frequently. Sick, isn’t it?
And Democrats thought that Obama was actually going to bring “change”? They chanted “Yes, we can,” and hailed Obama’s 2008 book, “The Audacity of Hope.” Barack Obama is the weakest ‘change agent’ I’ve ever seen in the White House. He is in bed with the same entrenched interests that have run Washington and public policy, for decades. Think of that, if you’re ever arrested by federal police on a marijuana charge.