this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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Marijuana has a lower potential for abuse than other drugs that are subjected to the same restrictions, with scientific support for its use as a medical treatment, researchers from the US Food and Drug Administration say in documents supporting its reclassification as a Schedule III substance.

Marijuana is currently classified as Schedule I, reserved for the most dangerous controlled substances, including heroin and LSD. In 2022, President Joe Biden asked US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and the attorney general to begin the administrative process of reviewing how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Rachel Levine wrote a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration in August in which she supported the reclassification to Schedule III, a list that includes “drugs with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence” such as ketamine, testosterone and Tylenol with codeine.

...

Rescheduling marijuana could open up more avenues for research, allow cannabis businesses to bank more freely and openly, and have firms no longer subject to a 40-year-old tax code that disallows credits and deductions from income generated by sales of Schedule I and II substances.

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[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com 123 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Even naming heroin and LSD in the same breath is laughably unhinged

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 64 points 10 months ago (4 children)

America, where opening your mind is considered just as dangerous as ruining your life and health.

[–] Rubisco@slrpnk.net 84 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behaviour and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.

Terence McKenna

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

"Fuck the drug war. Dropping acid was a profound turning point for me, a seminal experience. I make no apologies for it. More people should do acid. It should be sold over the counter."

George Carlin

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[–] Yearly1845@reddthat.com 12 points 10 months ago

Took me like fifteen years to do that without drugs. Could have saved me a lot of time.

[–] ZeroCool@slrpnk.net 43 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I took acid once. I giggled a lot and led my friends on an “adventure” into my backyard where we played hacky sack until it got dark enough to watch the stars. It was awful! You don’t want no part of this shit, Dewey!

[–] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I used to love acid when I was younger. I bought 30 hits of blotter just for my 18th birthday for me and my friends. Never hallucinated like some people claim but had tons of energy and it made everything feel so... real? and vibrant. Shrooms were cool but just not nearly on the same level.

You definitely want to plan ahead and make sure you're surrounded by good company and plenty to do beforehand though.

[–] Nastybutler@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (6 children)

Of all the drugs I've done, which isn't too many, acid is my favorite. Haven't done it since I was in college over 20 years ago. If I knew how to get my hands on some, I'd consider doing it again occasionally. Best body high I've ever had.

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[–] stinky613@lemmy.sdf.org 72 points 10 months ago (6 children)

It's inherently problematic that the DEA is in charge of scheduling

Rescheduling marijuana would likely lead to a lower budget for the DEA... No way is the DEA going to voluntarily lower the scheduling of such a widely used drug

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[–] HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml 51 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

Reminder that the most dangerous drug in terms of deaths caused per capita is alcohol. Refined sugar probably has alcohol's numbers beat if you consider that a drug though.

[–] kromem@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

When I wasn't in a position to decide my own client list, I used to hate working for some of the large companies with high sugar products. Felt like consulting for Philip Morris or something. I remember one corporate HQ had giant posters in their cafeteria talking about how scientists didn't find a causative relationship between sugar and childhood health complications, and it felt just like the classic "nine out of ten doctors recommended XYZ brand cigarettes."

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Nicotine/cigarettes are up there too.

[–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I'm guessing obesity beats them all.

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[–] MaxPow3r11@lemmy.world 47 points 10 months ago (3 children)

It never should have been "classified" or "scheduled".

Or alcohol should be schedule 1.

Cannabis being a "schedule 1" drug (one of the safest drugs we can consume) while alcohol (an extremely dangerous [to society and individuals] drug that is also addictive) is UNSCHEDULED and PROMOTED is beyond absurd.

Make anything make sense.

[–] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 11 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Doctor, my wife left me for my brother. May I please have a medicinal alcohol license?

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Here's some change. Get yourself a nice liquor store and a handgun.

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[–] pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Money. That's how it makes sense.

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 9 points 10 months ago

It goes deeper than that. They could be making money from weed instead of alcohol.

The answer is existing wealth and power structures.

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Alcohol would at worst be schedule 2 since it has medical use. It's the cure to methanol poisoning and ethylene glycol poisoning.

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[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Marijuana is currently classified as Schedule I, reserved for the most dangerous controlled substances, including heroin and LSD.

Fucking christ lmao.

[–] scottywh@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago

LSD doesn't belong on Schedule I either.

[–] Xanis@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The reason for this has often been thought due to prison and possibly even tobacco lobbyists. Dunno about the second one, though the first certainly has the numbers to back it up, and the history. The history itself is quite the rabbit hole that begins in the U.S. back around the late 1930s. Though the drug itself has been around for hundreds of years, according to study.

Sadly, due to the times we live in, just ask yourself what the modern Republican party would want to claim. Who uses Marijuana and for what reasons and you'll probably land on why this became a fiasco in the first place.

[–] archomrade@midwest.social 24 points 10 months ago

The schedule 1 classification of cannabis and LSD is pretty famously linked to Nixon pushing for its criminalization, due to it being primarily used by anti-war "hippies"

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I was just highlighting how absurd it is to consider heroin and lsd in the same category at all.

[–] Tyfud@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

Agreed. Not even remotely comparable to each other from an addiction/damage potential standpoint. LSD is entirely non-addictive habit forming, while heroin is the polar opposite. In terms of health damage, you can't die from doing too much LSD, but you can from heroin (easily).

All in all, it's like comparing apples to heroin. Or cake to heroin. Or pizza to heroin. Or LSD to heroin.

[–] skulblaka@startrek.website 7 points 10 months ago

Though the drug itself has been around for hundreds of years

Longer than that. There is credible evidence that humans have been using cannabis for at least about as long as we've been brewing alcohol. Ancient religious relics recovered from archeological digs have been tested and shown cannabis residue.

[–] 7u5k3n@lemmy.world 37 points 10 months ago

But my profits!!!

  • alcohol and prison companies
[–] Bonehead@kbin.social 27 points 10 months ago (3 children)

This is nothing new. Nixon commissioned a report that said the exact same thing 50 years ago.

[–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 6 points 10 months ago

Of course fucking Nixon ignored the report so that he and the rest of the right fuckos could use pot as a legal (and often physical of course) cudgel against black people and hippies.

I wonder what pain relief drugs would be available if the Executive Branch followed science.

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[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Was this the review Biden asked for awhile back?

[–] Habahnow@sh.itjust.works 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)
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[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago (1 children)

So all the guys locked up with mandatory minimum sentences will be released now, right? Right?

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[–] _number8_@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago (17 children)

i have a feeling biden will finally get this done right before the election. hopefully this will mobilize the young enough to combat the hoards of jug hooters

[–] the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works 26 points 10 months ago (2 children)

My guess is he promises to get it done next term tho

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (3 children)
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[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago (5 children)

At this point I trust cannabis more than I trust HFC. No one is trying to sneak cannabis in my food and cannabis doesn't make me fat.

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[–] Hobbes@startrek.website 11 points 10 months ago

Well no shit.

[–] HiddenLychee@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

Wait, Ketamine and lean are schedule three* drugs? I thought those were pretty addictive and pretty damaging?

Edited number

[–] squiblet@kbin.social 8 points 10 months ago

Schedule I means not legal for any purpose, so no. Ketamine is used medically and “lean” is a fairly mild opiate, and also used medically (it’s a cough syrup, where did you think it came from?). Drugs like that are schedule ii-iv.

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