Hudak, John. “How to Reschedule Marijuana, and Why It’s Unlikely Anytime Soon.” The Brookings Institution. Brooking, 13 Feb. 2015. Web. 12 Aug. 2015.
http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/fixgov/posts/2015/02/13-how-to-reschedule-marijuana-hudak-wallack
In the article “How to reschedule marijuana, and why it’s unlikely anytime soon” by John Hudak and Grace Wallack , the authors argue why marijuana is most likely to not be reschedule soon. The article also argues how The Controlled Substance Act is prohibiting medical marijuana . It states that in 2006 the FDA reaffirmed that they did not find any scientific studies supporting medical marijuana as schedule II. In July 2011 the DEA denied the petition for medical marijuana to be legalized stating that marijuana has no accepted medical use and would therefore remain in schedule I. The authors also state that if marijuana was to be rescheduled then it would complicate their production and prescription process. The drug would have to undergo testing and numerous regulatory requirements, “the outcome may not be what legalization advocates would want in the end.”
The article adds that Congress has the power to reschedule marijuana, “ether through new legislation specific to marijuana or through tailored amendments to the Controlled Substance Act. Basically the author states that if Congress wanted to they would have had already reschedule marijuana. The author then gives examples of proposed bills that have failed. The first bill that was proposed to move marijuana from a Schedule I to Schedule II was introduced by Representative Stewart McKinney (1981). In 2011 Representatives Ron Paul and Barney Frank introduced a bill to remove marijuana from the schedules entirely, and as usual “died in committee”. The author then adds that President Obama is contended that Congress has the responsibility to reschedule marijuana. According to the article “It is ironic that the president, who is so often criticized for overreaching his authority, is shrinking from the administrative power that Congress has granted him”. The author argues that even the President doesn’t want to be responsible for rescheduling. Lastly the author states that some in Congress “have been quite vocal about their opposition to administrative scheduling”. Also that the actor at the DOJ and HHS as well as the white House may be unwilling to spend political capital on this issue. This decreases the possibility of rescheduling marijuana.
The author states that the Controlled Substance Act is getting in the way of medical science. The law that identifies marijuana as a Schedule I Substance, “meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no current accepted medical use”. The author then states that the substance Scheduled II-V are still subject to varying degrees of control, but have a recognized medical use and can be dispensed with a prescription. The fact that the author states that marijuana, a Schedule I substance is high for potential abuse is debatable. Substances that are also classified II are as addictive. For example cocaine, morphine, and Opium are Schedule II substances and can be as addictive as marijuana. This is one of reasons why people disagree that marijuana should be used for medical purposes. Marijuana should be reschedule and The Control Substance act should be readdress considering medical marijuana.
I agree that the Controlled Substance Act is getting in the way of medical science. Marijuana should be reschedule and The Control Substance act should be readdress considering medical marijuana. For me it is hard to understand why are drugs like cocaineand Opium, Schedule II substances yet marijuana that has less harmful and more beneficial effects, is not.
I like how your one of the very few who added a picture. It made me stop and read your argument. So I would like to first and foremost thank you for your picture ha. Moving on, I appreciated your post because I never even heard the term “reschedule marijuana” and now I have a new light on it. I too believe that marijuana should be rescheduled.
The fact that the Federal government is choosing not to deal with the controversy of marijuana in regards to amending its schedule makes me question if they’re concerned with this controversy or even view it as a controversy. It is obvious that no one wants to reschedule the drug , that they (the Federal government) do not want to outright legalize it, and that they are not cracking down on the states that have legalized marijuana. I don’t believe the federal government sees marijuana as a threat in our country. They appear to be morally righteous by refusing to legalize it, without taking any definite actions to either progress or put an end to the drug all together.