Marijuana has a lower potential for abuse than other drugs that are subjected to the same restrictions, with scientific support for its use as a medical treatment, researchers from the US Food and Drug Administration say in documents supporting its reclassification as a Schedule III substance.
Marijuana is currently classified as Schedule I, reserved for the most dangerous controlled substances, including heroin and LSD. In 2022, President Joe Biden asked US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and the attorney general to begin the administrative process of reviewing how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Rachel Levine wrote a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration in August in which she supported the reclassification to Schedule III, a list that includes “drugs with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence” such as ketamine, testosterone and Tylenol with codeine.
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Rescheduling marijuana could open up more avenues for research, allow cannabis businesses to bank more freely and openly, and have firms no longer subject to a 40-year-old tax code that disallows credits and deductions from income generated by sales of Schedule I and II substances.
Even naming heroin and LSD in the same breath is laughably unhinged
Reminder that the most dangerous drug in terms of deaths caused per capita is alcohol. Refined sugar and HFCS probably has alcohol’s numbers beat if you consider that a drug though.
When I wasn’t in a position to decide my own client list, I used to hate working for some of the large companies with high sugar products. Felt like consulting for Philip Morris or something. I remember one corporate HQ had giant posters in their cafeteria talking about how scientists didn’t find a causative relationship between sugar and childhood health complications, and it felt just like the classic “nine out of ten doctors recommended XYZ brand cigarettes.”
But let’s be fair, if every bar and liquor store switched to selling meth and kids dad’s brought them their first meth on their twenty first birthday, weddings had a traditional opening the meth moment, etc then things would be a lot worse.
It never should have been “classified” or “scheduled”.
Or alcohol should be schedule 1.
Cannabis being a “schedule 1” drug (one of the safest drugs we can consume) while alcohol (an extremely dangerous [to society and individuals] drug that is also addictive) is UNSCHEDULED and PROMOTED is beyond absurd.
Make anything make sense.
Doctor, my wife left me for my brother. May I please have a medicinal alcohol license?
Here’s some change. Get yourself a nice liquor store and a handgun.
A whole store? Golly, doc, you’re the best.
I may have just nose snorted beer onto the back of a small child while reading this.
Money. That’s how it makes sense.
It goes deeper than that. They could be making money from weed instead of alcohol.
The answer is existing wealth and power structures.
Alcohol would at worst be schedule 2 since it has medical use. It’s the cure to methanol poisoning and ethylene glycol poisoning.
Damn dude, your comment made me look up the actual classes. For anyone else:
Schedule 1: high chance of addiction and no professional use; weex, lsd, ecstacy, peyote
Schedule 2: high potential for abuse, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence. Considered dangerous; cocaine, methamphetamine, methadone, oxycodone, fentanyl, Dexedrine, Adderall
Schedule 3: moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence; ketamine, anabolic steroids, testosterone
Schedule 4: low potential for abuse and low risk of dependence; Xanax, Soma, Darvon, Darvocet, Valium, Ativan, Talwin, Ambien, Tramadol
Schedule 5: generally used for antidiarrheal, antitussive, and analgesic purposes; Lomotil, Motofen, Lyrica, Parepectolin
Marijuana is currently classified as Schedule I, reserved for the most dangerous controlled substances, including heroin and LSD.
Fucking christ lmao.
LSD doesn’t belong on Schedule I either.
The reason for this has often been thought due to prison and possibly even tobacco lobbyists. Dunno about the second one, though the first certainly has the numbers to back it up, and the history. The history itself is quite the rabbit hole that begins in the U.S. back around the late 1930s. Though the drug itself has been around for hundreds of years, according to study.
Sadly, due to the times we live in, just ask yourself what the modern Republican party would want to claim. Who uses Marijuana and for what reasons and you’ll probably land on why this became a fiasco in the first place.
I was just highlighting how absurd it is to consider heroin and lsd in the same category at all.
Agreed. Not even remotely comparable to each other from an addiction/damage potential standpoint. LSD is entirely non-addictive habit forming, while heroin is the polar opposite. In terms of health damage, you can’t die from doing too much LSD, but you can from heroin (easily).
All in all, it’s like comparing apples to heroin. Or cake to heroin. Or pizza to heroin. Or LSD to heroin.
Though the drug itself has been around for hundreds of years
Longer than that. There is credible evidence that humans have been using cannabis for at least about as long as we’ve been brewing alcohol. Ancient religious relics recovered from archeological digs have been tested and shown cannabis residue.
But my profits!!!
- alcohol and prison companies
So all the guys locked up with mandatory minimum sentences will be released now, right? Right?
There are exactly zero federal prisoners incarcerated for marijuana possession.
Was this the review Biden asked for awhile back?
Yes,I believe so
It’s coming this summer. It’s a political winner for Diamond Joe.
Yeah it’s pretty big
i have a feeling biden will finally get this done right before the election. hopefully this will mobilize the young enough to combat the hoards of jug hooters
My guess is he promises to get it done next term tho
And then doesn’t do it.
The blame will depend on whether Republicans have control of a house of Congress. If they refuse to put it through the Republican-controlled Senate then it tracks that a Democratic presidential candidate would promise it but be unable to deliver due to the opposing party.
Blame him if he gets complete control and doesn’t do it, blame the other party if they stop him from doing it.
I’m not going to give him credit for something he hasn’t accomplished.
But when we complain that we still can’t buy pot in our state we’ll get 4 replies 10 paragraphs long with citations all smugly telling us that we don’t understand, he actually got “the most work done towards legalizing pot then any president since FDR”
This is the politician way.
LOL “jug hooters”… I love it!
What more does Biden need to do? They already directed HHS to consider reclassifying it from schedule I to III and HHS made their recommendation to the DEA who classifies the drugs. I thought it was up to the DEA now?
He said we’d look into it, so it’s accomplished!
The executive branch is a bureaucracy that has to follow procedures. The president can direct the agency to start these processes, and that’s what he done. The HHS has done the necessary work to show that cannabis is deserving of a lower schedule according to the Controlled Substances Act. It is now up to the DEA to review that data and reschedule it accordingly. This is the process stipulated by the law, and the executive branch must adhere to it. If they don’t, it will be undone in the courts.
The alternative route would be for Congress to pass a new law to specifically legalize cannabis, but they do not have the numbers, so the Biden administration has to follow the process outlined in the existing laws. He’s done what he is legally able to do, and it’s more than any of his predecessors have. It may be slow, but it’s pretty much a fast as the law allows.
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The executive branch is a bureaucracy that has to follow procedures. The president can direct the agency to start these processes, and that’s what he done.
That’s great. Until it’s actually happened, it’s not an accomplishment. I’m not sure how centrists keep failing to understand this. You don’t get credit for something that hasn’t happened. Cannabis is still illegal federally. If that changes due to Biden’s efforts, I’ll happily give him credit.
But it hasn’t happened yet. This isn’t the Silmarillion. You don’t get credit for trying.
What more does Biden need to do?
Are you unable to answer the question or do you not have an answer? Is that why you resorted to snark?
Not expect praise for something that hasn’t happened?
Centrists demand credit for non-accomplishments because they prefer to accomplish nothing.
Not expect praise for something that hasn’t happened?
Where did I demand Biden be praised?
Centrists demand credit for non-accomplishments because they prefer to accomplish nothing.
When did I demand Biden get credit?
Often on social media the same people who decry one side behaving like authoritarian dictators act like it’s acceptable for their side to behave like gasp authoritarian dictators.
Yes, some people like to give undue credit but you’re just the other side of that coin shitting on any action that is taken.
Instead of engaging in the discussion you resort to snark, assumptions and insults. It’s clear you have nothing to contribute, engaging with you any further would be a waste of my time.
Have a day!
Yes, some people like to give undue credit but you’re just the other side of that coin shitting on any action that is taken.
I’ve said that I will be happy to give Biden credit for actual accomplishments. This is not an accomplishment. It could be groundwork for one, or it could be making a show of looking into it and then not following through.
Democrats squandered what remaining benefit of the doubt they had years ago. Until it’s an accomplishment, it’s a bill of goods as far as I’m concerned.
This is not an accomplishment.
It’s not, it’s what Biden can do. That’s why you still haven’t provided an example or an actual answer to the original question, what else is there for Biden to do?
it could be making a show of looking into it and then not following through.
So you don’t understand how the process works? That’s effectively what you’re saying.
There’s a system, it’s part of how that whole checks and balances thing works. Ignorance often leads to anger as you so aptly demonstrate. I honestly wonder if people who comment like you have are being intentional or are unwittingly part of the disinformation machine.
At this point I trust cannabis more than I trust HFC. No one is trying to sneak cannabis in my food and cannabis doesn’t make me fat.
I don’t know, man… Those munchies are killer, man… /s
I know you’re joking but maaaaan if they just made my damn munchies with real sugar this wouldn’t be as big of a problem and they’d taste better, goddammit
Ok fine if you consumed pot every day it could cause issues.
I think research has shown that every day tokers actually have a lower body fat percentage than the average. I actually get a high-protein granola from the store that has hemp seeds in it, they are high in amino acids and protein. It isn’t super obvious it has hemp in it too so in a way they did sneak cannabis into it haha.
Three decades of the munchies beat you to it. - Hermes Conrad
Well no shit.
2022, Biden: We need to shore up the youth support. What do youth vote for? Student loan cancelation and Marijuana reform? Let’s try the former for 2022 and save the later for 2024.
Wait, Ketamine and lean are schedule three* drugs? I thought those were pretty addictive and pretty damaging?
Edited number
Schedule 3
Whoops, meant to say “aren’t”
Ketamine has medical applications such as being commonly used as an anesthetic in short term procedures and with those who do not respond positively to opioids. Ketamine is classified under low addiction risk as it’s not physically addicting as in its users do not suffer from withdrawal. The problem with ketamine however is that it helps users cope with a plethora of different mental illnesses which in itself is addictive.
This article seems to imply that stopping heavy marijuana use can lead to withdrawal symptoms.
Yeah, I’m calling bullshit on that.
Irritability, sleep problems, night sweats, appetite issues, etc. These are 100% withdrawl effects for some heavy or frequent cannabis users who stop cold turkey.
Is it cocaine or heroin withdrawl? Absolutely not. But we don’t do anyone any favours pretending that people don’t experience these symptoms when stopping (though, on the other hand, not everyone does. Depends how heavy/long you’ve been imbibing and individual differences in body chemistry).
Crazy vivid dreams after stopping long term use as well.
Not necessarily a negative withdrawal effect, although the sudden vivid dreams can be extra scary if the dreams aren’t happy dreams
Irritability, sleep problems, night sweats, appetite issues,
Tbf, these are also some of the issues that starting weed helped me fix probably because ADHD.
Thing is, I 100% believe you. Cannabis can help with these kind of problems too, depending on the person.
My only gripe is when people say “Lol, no one gets withdrawl symptoms when they stop smoking weed”. It’s true that not everyone experiences it, but a) when I have stopped cold turkey for anything more than a few days, I personally have these problems, with a fairly predictable timeframe/duration, and b) I don’t seem to be the only one who does*
Want to make it clear that I really like cannabis, and it can legitimately be a game changer for some people’s conditions. But it’s important to balance out the actual good and the actual bad when talking about it - cannabis is neither 100% perfect for everyone every time, nor is it the Devil’s Lettuce that will lead to doing bumps of heroin on a pile of dead babies and an unhealthy love of freeform jazz. The truth’s in the middle - it has benefits as well as downsides, and different people experience both to different degrees.
*There is, of course, an argument to be made that people who get ‘hit hard’ with withdrawl effects do so because they were self-medicating for some unrecognized condition. I don’t necessarily buy that for all cases, but it’s worth thinking about.
It said mild withdrawal symptoms. Nothing like alcohol or cocaine withdrawal.
The body is going to react to anything that it stops getting after it has been getting it consistently. Caffeine is perfectly legal and I get bad migraines from quitting it.
Very vivid dreams for a week count?
That’s about it. I am getting a good amount of pushback from people who very much like the idea that being able to dream again and not being high are withdrawl.
And sure, they’re all technically correct in the most pedantic way.
When I smoke more regularly everyday and stop suddenly I can feel horribly depressed, have trouble eating and sleeping, there are pretty widely recognized withdrawal symptoms though they aren’t as bad for everyone. Ask a therapist who works with substance abuse if weed has any withdrawal symptoms, plenty of people have trouble taking breaks or stopping because it can be hard for some to tolerate the symptoms. Obviously it’s not the same as something like heroin or benzos but it’s more than just more dreams.
Obviously it’s not the same as something like heroin or benzos but it’s more than just more dreams.
It’s not even the same as caffeine, my dude.
True, I feel much worse physically when lacking caffeine lol.
longtime user here, i tuck in with a bowl every night, and every morning i wake up with a dream still dancing in my head. when i go on a break i don’t “start dreaming again”, I have extremely vivid and bizarre dreams for like a week and then it settles back to normal. Drugs have more effect on dreaming than just “stop” and “go”. I suspect the issue is less others being pedantic and more you being unwilling to challenge a deeply oversimplified take.
Wow, you remember vivid dreams. That’s clearly withdrawl.
…In the most technical sense, only. You’re technically correct, the best form of correct. Which is pretty much the definition of pedantry.
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You’re just straight up provoking me now without even the pretense of trying to make any kind of point, so I’m going to just hit that block button and be done with this exchange.
Glad it meets the criteria.
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I believe that both have made a similar recommendation at this point.
