The Drug Enforcement Administration alerted Congress that it may finally leave its Nixon-era fantasyland and reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. For decades marijuana has been listed in Schedule I (dangerous drugs with no medicinal uses) right alongside heroin and LSD. Kind of strange considering that over a million people have marijuana prescriptions.
The 5 schedule system started in 1970 with the passage of the Controlled Substance Act . Schedule I was intended only for drugs with very high possibilities of abuse and dependency and absolutely no reasonable medical use.
The use of marijuana by hippies and racial minorities provided enticing political reasons to put the drug at Schedule I and keep it there, despite other more harmful drugs being assigned to lower schedules. Because of the drug’s classification, federal research on marijuana has been stymied, and sentencing for pot crimes remains unreasonably draconian.
A rescheduling may finally end the amusing “schedule shuffle” the DEA must do to avoid looking like total hypocrites when testifying before Congress. (See video below.)
But even if the DEA does lower marijuana’s danger status, it will not come close to fixing a highly antiquated system. Just look at Xanax, for instance. The popular anti-anxiety drug (benzodiazepine) is listed as Schedule IV despite being highly addictive and killing thousands per year.
Schedule IV is supposedly reserved for drugs with low potential for abuse and low risk of dependence. Has the DEA listened to any rap lyrics lately?
And then there’s the huge number of deaths from opioid pain relievers that is reaching epidemic proportions.
Oxycontin and Vicodin are only schedule II, despite the fact they are extremely dangerous and are gateways to heroin abuse.
Considering that fatal marijuana overdoses are essentially nonexistent, the only rational scheduling of the drug would be at the bottom of the list—next to over-the-counter cough syrup, which still is more dangerous than weed.
The DEA needs to wake up and accept the reality that our nation has not only reduced the stigma around marijuana but has begun legalizing it in a growing number of places for both medicinal and recreational uses.The fact that you can legally grow six pot plants in the same town that the DEA is making its high-minded decisions shows how behind the times the agency is on weed.
