Oh, the sweet irony of it all!
Yesterday the DEA announced that it would recommend moving Marijuana from a classification of Schedule 1 to Schedule 3. Finally, the steps to move Marijuana from being classified at the same level as Heroin and LSD – schedule 1- to a lower level that would group it with Ketamine and anabolic steroids – schedule 3.
What is the irony?
Well, a couple of weeks ago I started to write a “time to legalize marijuana column,” that I am still researching, with the plan to post it next week. This, after several decades of consuming marijuana and profoundly benefiting from it.
So the DEA beat me to the punch. Just a few decades late.
I will post that column next week, clearly within a new context.
For most of my adult life, I have wondered why certain things were legal in the U.S. and others were not. The federal government has not done a rational evaluation on this. I will dive into that with the column next week.
What the Justice Department -via its DEA department – did yesterday was to start the process to align the consumption of marijuana with the reality of it in this country.
What has pleased me for my adult life, and in the past decade or so, helped me get through several medical issues, is now going to be looked at by the government as less threatening than heroin or LSD. Now marijuana is going to join such drugs as ketamine and anabolic steroids in class 3. Uh, I don’t know about you, but I have absolutely no interest in taking either ketamine – a horse tranquilizer- or anabolic steroids anytime soon.
When one looks at the DEA categories of schedules 1-5, what one sees is morality, ignorance, and the influence of pharmaceutical companies.
Here is a list of the five levels and some of the drugs in each category. Do you see a reflection of reality?
Schedule I
The drugs that are considered the most dangerous by the DEA are known as Schedule I substances. These are drugs with no current medical use, per analysis by the DEA and FDA. These substances also carry a high potential for abuse and addiction.
Heroin
LSD
Marijuana
Ecstasy
Qualudes
[social morality showing itself]
Schedule II
Schedule II drugs are also considered highly addictive with a dangerous potential for abuse. What makes them different from Schedule I drugs? Unlike the group above, Schedule II drugs are considered medically acceptable in particular cases, like for treating chronic pain or addiction. For this reason, Schedule II drugs can be obtained with a doctor’s prescription, but the risks of long-term use are still great.
Methadone
Demerol
Vicodin
OxyContin
Fentanyl
Morphine
Codeine
[the power of the pharmaceutical industry showing]
Schedule III
Low to moderate potential for physical and psychological dependence. When misused, these drugs can still lead to abuse or addiction, but less dangerous than Schedules I and II
Suboxone
Ketamine
Anabolic steroids
[And, drum roll please, now marijuana!]
Schedule IV
Drugs that have clear evidence of viable medical use, and possess a low probability for misuse and abuse. Schedule IV drugs could still lead to addiction if they are seriously misused or mixed with other substances of abuse.
Xanax
Soma
Valium
Ativan
Schedule V
These are the least addictive substances. These substances have a very low potential for abuse, however if the substance is misused to a large degree, physical or psychological dependency could develop.
Robitussin AC
Ezogabine
All of the above from the American Addiction Centers . To quote further from this informative site is the background as to how and why the U.S. has this schedule:
“Drug classifications have officially been in place since the 1970s, when President Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) into law. However, the CSA is merely a chapter in the United States’ long and complicated history with addictive substances. The US has been striving to safely and effectively control drug use since the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. This act required food and drug manufactures to clearly label any product that contains dangerous substances – substances that included alcohol, morphine, opium, and cannabis.
The act was amended numerous times over the six decades that followed, but the greatest change took effect in the early 1970s with the CSA. A companion to Nixon’s War on Drugs, the Controlled Substances Act gave the DEA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the power to determine which substances are fit for medical use.”
Aaah, Richard Nixon. Well, he started the “War on Drugs” with a highly reactive morality to what had happened in the 1960s. He did start the EPA however, so a nod to him for that.
Now, 50 years later, the DEA does the right thing, the moral thing, the rational thing, and the scientific thing. It was 50 years too late, but the step was taken yesterday.
There is much more in the developing column for next week. I could not be happier that I was preempted with this announcement. Sanity finally rules.
Eric- You got the idea. My post on this next week will come from the point of view of what is legal and illegal in the US and how many deaths from each. That is my first question: why are so many things that kill people legal and marijuana, which has no record of death by overdose, illegal? Morality and politics. Thanks for the comment!
I kept scrolling, looking for where alcohol is on the schedule.
Just kidding! I know it's not a dangerous substance because it's profitable for the government to pretend it isn't.