HEY, YOU GUYS, did you hear? The federal government is about to make weed legal. No, for reals, I saw it on Facebook, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is going to totally make it so doctors have to give it to you, for free! Thanks Obama! I’m gonna make my doctor give me an ounce next week!
Before you start demanding that your podiatrist procure you some shatter, maybe we should do what Americans sort of suck at—taking a pause and examining what’s really up.
As my colleague in cannabis Vince Sliwoski so skillfully wrote in his column last week, yes, the DEA is considering rescheduling cannabis. And while I’ve written about portions of this topic in the past, you may have been too high to recall the edge-of-your-seat details. Because among the least used phrases in the English language, “Let’s get really stoned and examine federal policy on prohibition” is a clear frontrunner.
Background: Since 1970, the DEA has listed cannabis as a “Schedule I” drug. (Not because it’s so awesome that it’s number one, although that’s a great guess.) We’ve talked about things listed as Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which considers these drugs to have “a high potential for abuse” and “no currently accepted medical use.” The other Schedule I drugs read like a shopping list for Hunter S. Thompson circa 1977: LSD, heroin, ecstasy, peyote, and methaqualone (AKA Quaaludes, AKA Bill Cosby’s allergy meds for trusting young women). The DEA considers all these drugs to be so deadly, that even under a doctor’s supervision they cannot be used safely.
