The legalization of recreational use of marijuana was opened up to the public in 2012 with the victory in Washington and Colorado. Since then, has the U.S. made much of a change in the advancement of the legalization of marijuana on a federal level?
Recreational marijuana is legal in nine states as of 2018: Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington – plus the District of Columbia.
An additional 21 states only allow medical use.
Although many states have recognized the popular demand for recreational use of marijuana, many states are still seeing marijuana to be a Schedule I drug, as it is classified by the federal government.
Marijuana, according to the federal government, is classified as a Schedule I drug through the structure of the Controlled Substance Act (1970). According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, drug schedules are “drugs [that] are classified into five distinct categories or schedules depending on the drug’s acceptable medical use and the drug’s abuse of dependency potential.” Schedule I having “no current accepted medical use” and a “high potential for abuse” - manufacturing or possession of a Schedule I substance is a federal offense. Some examples of Schedule I drugs are: heroin, LSD, ecstasy, methaqualone, peyote, and marijuana. Cocaine, methamphetamine, xanax, and oxycodone are, by the Drug Enforcement Administration, seen as having a lower level of abuse and lower danger levels than marijuana. Marijuana continues to be in the most restrictive category.
The Obama administration continued to classify marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug and intended on making little progression to re-classify. Obama stated that it’s “a job for Congress”. (Congress could amend the law to reschedule marijuana or exempt the substance altogether, as it did for alcohol and tobacco products.)
However, there is little hope in the hands of our new president and his attorney general, Jeff Session. Jeff recently introduced a “new guidance to marijuana” in January of this year. This guidance would reverse the Obama-era policy and open up the doorway to enforce more federal laws against states that have already legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Jeff also has stated in the past that “good people don’t smoke marijuana.”
Now, you all must be wondering, why the hell is marijuana seen so poorly in the eyes of certain individuals? Well, In January of 2017, the editorial board of The New York Times wrote an opinion piece titled, “Scientists to Government: Make It Easier to Study Marijuana”. There was a report published by the National Academics of Sciences that explained the difficulty of studying the effects marijuana has on the body. The institute, or scientists or researchers generally, have to seek approvals from federal, state, and local agencies to gain approval to study cannabis. And not only that, they are limited to only one lab, the University of Mississippi, to provide samples.
It is ridiculous that the federal government will not even allow researchers the materials to prove them wrong. There are many forms of informal research that proves the safety and benefits of cannabis – that would completely clear marijuana from any substance schedule system.
There is an enormous benefit that the U.S. could gain from legalizing marijuana on a federal level – and this type of progression is not to be expected anytime soon (sadly).
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