DEA chief: medical marijuana is "a joke." Science: No, it's not

Good thing the Nazi “blood purity” ideology of the DEA is not a joke!

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@LDoBe pointed it out, but I want to emphasize it: The DEA can take marijuana out of schedule 1 whenever it wants. There are various other laws at the state and federal level that secondarily criminalize it, as well as treaty obligations we got ourselves into, but the Obama administration and the DEA have the legal authority to act unilaterally in a huge way, without congressional approval.

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Obama?

(To be technically accurate, Loretta Lynch, who was herself nominated by Obama)

California’s much sloppier than that. The legislature had passed two different medical marijuana bills, and the right-wing governor Pete Wilson vetoed both of them because they were politically incorrect, so it was up to the stoners to get organized and pass Prop 215, and they did a very thorough job of making it very flexible. (In response, some other states have gone to the other extreme and placed offensively tight limits on it.)

The first time I got a medical marijuana card, I did fill out a medical history survey, and the doctor checked that I had a pulse, and gave me a list of conditions for which medical marijuana can be helpful, but half of that was filling up the time while the laminating machine was printing my card. Some of the renewal interviews have been a bit longer - the doctor does emphasize that you really should stay off the stuff for a month or more every year, because otherwise you build up tolerance and it’s less effective. But also she’s had some practical advice about which nearby dispensaries are ripoffs, and about San Mateo County’s cops interpreting “marijuana” as just the raw plant material, not processed forms such as hash or edibles, so to be careful around there.

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I have a card. My friends seem actually shocked (shocked!) when they ask, effectively, “What excuse did you give the doctor?” and I give the list of actual medical issues I have, such as a half-destroyed disc in my lumbar region, for which weed has been shown to actually be helpful. I don’t even care to get high much, really, as I prefer beer. I’ve purposefully sought out high canaboid strains specifically because they don’t get you terribly high and help with pain, anxiety, and muscle spasms.

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The whole comment was outstanding, but I particularly liked this phrase. “Intractable institutional inertia” is precisely what it is, and it is absolutely enraging that we can’t seem to get our collective shit together on this. Hell, we passed legalization in DC but Congress refused to allow the city to spend any money to set up the necessary infrastructure for businesses. The mind boggles.

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defending the dea’s position that marijuana is illegal so that they can keep seizing assets related to marijuana growing/selling.

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Rescheduling marijuana would make it a prescription drug - probably Schedule 2, just like oxycodone, methamphetamine, and morphine.

As a California Medical Marijuana user, I don’t see that as an improvement - the current CA MMJ system is a vastly better approach, IMO, than all the triplicate-prescription DEA-form horseshit that Percocet users have to endure.

And treating black-market cannabis users and dealers the way we currently treat black-market Oxycontin users and dealers would be a mistake. Cannabis is not a dangerous narcotic - it’s an herb with a better safety profile than aspirin.

Cannabis should be legalized. Don’t settle for anything less.

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Yeah, I got my card when I developed ‘Morton’s Neuroma’, which made my feet so painful I almost couldn’t walk. Smoking weed doesn’t really reduce the pain much, it just makes it a whole lot easier to ignore.

But the MMJ doc suggested that I try a topical preparation, and that has made a WORLD of difference. It actually does substantially reduce the pain.

I just spent several hundred bucks stocking up my supply of 'Doc Green’s Therapeutic Healing Cream", which I smear on my feet, and doesn’t get me high at all.

It just makes it possible for me to walk without grimacing from the pain.

I’m not going to pretend I don’t enjoy getting high now and again, But being able to relieve this otherwise-intractable pain without getting high is a joy.

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Marijuana salve is about the only thing that lets my elderly father continue hiking with his sore knee. Because of it, he can stay active and enjoy nature without the cost, risk and long recovery time of knee replacement surgery. I sincerely hope Chief D.A.R.E. develops every one of the symptoms that marijuana is a valid cure for.

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I’m all for complete legalization. But I know quite a few medical users who went to great lengths campaigning against Washington’s current legalization system or any move away from the current two-tier system because they really don’t want to pay the recreational tax rate.

I can’t really blame them. But then, why not just get a prescription or something? Why can’t we figure out a way to make insurance cover it, like any other drug? I’m sure that medical marijuana makes lots of people well enough to work, and MMJ is probably a net positive to productivity.

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My thoughts exactly. He’s not defending the company line, he’s defining the company line. Think about it this way. His institution is funded to keep America safe from harmful drugs. If the most popular of those drugs is deemed to not be harmful, what happens to his funding?

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They can remove it, too. Rescheduling isn’t the only option available to the DEA and FDA, IIRC.

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Spelled douche

Spelled DOOOSH.

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Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
So, what does dooosh mean?

dooosh: n. Internet pedant of insulting vulgarities.

It’s [doosh] a colloquialism from New Jersey, circa 1960’s. You’d have to be from there to understand, apparently. Have a nice evening, and watch out for the “dooshes” of this wonderful world.

I see your point, but there is a significant difference between Kim Davis and Chuck Rosenberg. Kim Davis was elected into her position. That means she can’t be fired, and she can legitimately say that it is the will of the local citizenry that she perform (or not perform) her job in the way that she’s been performing it. So unless she’s impeached, you are correct, quitting is the only way someone else will get in the job for now. Come election day, she might or might not be re-elected.

Chuck Rosenberg, on the other hand, holds an appointed position. He has his job because President Obama gave it do him. He can say he’s doing his job the way he’s doing it because the President wants him to. And if the President doesn’t like it, he can fire him.

One wonders why the President would appoint a guy like Chuck Rosenberg to be in charge of the DEA. Perhaps he has other redeeming qualities that keep him from being fired for making statements like he has.

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