U.S. health officials ask DEA to reclassify marijuana following review

Decriminalize drugs and defund the DEA 👍

Abolish the DEA.

Deschedule cannabis & mushrooms.
- Deschedule E V E R Y T H I N G. Prohibition & enforcement solve nothing except to make matters worse. Reallocate those $$$$$$s to education and rehabilitation, and remove (mostly) the criminal elements behind intoxicant consumption.

If we're actually following the scheduling guidelines, can we do psychedelics next?

I mean, they probably will. They've got to offer fucking something other than "I'm not a literal fascist who will black bag and torture you like Trump." It's not particularly effective to be like "I know your lives are fucking terrible out there, but I'm not gonna do a god damned thing to really improve them, because why should I have to, my opponent is fucking bonkers and I'm going to hold him over your head abusively, dangling him as a threat that you'll be punished under unless you vote for me."

Far easier to threaten us with the spectre of fascism than actually fucking do anything to improve things or, you know, stop fascism. However, enough folks in the Democratic party are waking up to the public not actually responding well to this abuse, and see that they're enabling fascism to be able to lean on it as a danger that only they can thwart. So they gotta start giving something, and drugs are an easy one.
I forgot the exact details but that's slowly becoming a reality in the states. I think the FDA was re reviewing mushrooms for use fighting against PTSD
- Mushrooms are in phase three trials and have been for awhile. That doesn't help a lot of other plants that were misclassified under Nixon, several of them used in religious contexts such as Ayahuasca (DMT) and Peyote (mescaline).
  
  Essentially, all of these medicines need to be reviewed because scheduling was based on political motivations and not any understanding of their pharmacology. They were being used as medicine by medical doctors (psychiatrists) when Nixon scheduled them. This was a great injustice to anyone with mental health issues and direct violence towards groups already using psychedelics (rather medicinally, spiritually, or recreationally). And this injustice and violence continues to this day.
  
  We all know Nixon was a crook and that the drug war is a crock of shit. Yet, we continue locking people up and denying access to medicine (or spiritual food depending on your outlook) because we don't like the substances people choose to have a relationship with. We're complicit in his violence everyday we let it continue as though it's justice.
  
  Anyway, I hope the DEA reschedules cannabis. It would be a great first step. But we have to recognize that it's just one step and not the end goal. The drug war needs to end. And we can't be content with only weed being looked at.
- Yeah, and cannabis has numerous well known and well studied medical applications. Has been common knowledge for years. And yet...
- It's already available in Oregon.

DEA: Ok, it's reclassified.

Indiana: Cool. We'll make it 5 years in prison for smoking a joint.

I hate this state.

The states surrounding Indiana:
- I go to Illinois to get weed. Most of the cars in the parking lots are from Indiana. I wish I was closer to Michigan. Their weed is super cheap and they don't have a limit for out-of-state purchase quantities like Illinois.
Wisconsin is gonna be the last state to legalize because we're the Alabama of the fucking north. Your 5th DUI probably has lesser consequences than getting caught holding here.
- You're the Alabama of the north? Have you ever heard the Hoosier accent? And both Dan Quayle and Mike Pence come from Indiana. Also, we once tried to legislate pi. And not to the correct value of pi.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_pi_bill
- Yall might have something akin to fair elections this year. Maybe.
  
  Your purple state may actually be purple soon.
- Meanwhile, yesterday I walked into a store and bought THC vape cartridges legally. There was even an armed cop in there for security. I said hi to him on the way in.
  
  I know "just move" isn't a real solution, but man I would never live in a state that isn't solid blue ever again. After growing up in a "purple" area of a red-leaning state, the difference is pretty insane.

They are now seeing how profitable the plant is, so they want to change the narrative. Don't be fooled.

Edit: The reclassification will just put the plant in its due place, before its reputation was tarnished by the war on drugs.

True, but I still want it reclassified
They’re just trying to not only have it be a cash business. The banks want a portion of that monies.
Bro they will never let homies grow at home tho opium i mean
- A little too much refined weed isn't going to kill you.

It may be finally happening!

The whole scheduling system is ridiculous, Schedule 1 is for drugs with no medicinal usage and high addiction potential, which isn't true for a lot of them. LSD has therapeutic uses (I've used it myself) and Heroin, while addictive, definitely has medicinal usage as a strong pain killer. IIRC Cocaine is Schedule 2.

“It may finally be happening!”

I’ve heard that every election year since 2008, so I won’t expect to see it until several birthdays from now
- In how many of those election years had the DHHS finally asked the DEA to reclassify...?
Alcohol is unscheduled.

Cannabis is schedule 1.

These should be reversed to reflect the actual truth of things.
- Ethanol does have medical uses. It's the only way to stop poisonings from things like antifreeze, methanol, to name a few
Serious question- with all the alternatives available today, does heroin still have medical uses?

I'm 100% against the moronic drug war, so this is a tangent from the point, I'm just curious.
- Nope. I don't think there's any reason why heroin should even be manufactured these days. If you're going to make painkillers from opium, they've got a million better options at this point.
  
  That said, unfortunately we have people addicted to it, and I would rather see them getting high safely, on clean drugs, in a safe location than having them get hooked on fentanyl and end up dying of an overdose under a bridge. So it does make sense to continue manufacturing it for that. Otherwise, black markets will fill in the gap.
- I don't think anyone uses heroin medicinally anymore, but there are many similar opioids that are uses all the time.
Don't they more or less give heroin to people recovering from surgeries?
- You might be thinking of morphine. They're both opioids but they are distinct.

Oh wow, I guess William Randolph Hearst's ghost must have finally run out of bribe money.

Hey if this happens does anyone know how this will affect drug testing for work? Employers are private entities obviously but a lot only drug test due to federal regulation or contract compliance.

I assume that companies would still drug test for weed. It's still a controlled substance with reclassification. They may be less likely to do so, but this wouldn't stop it from occurring.

This is why it's also important to ensure doctors can prescribed weed as a medicine. It forces companies to accept weed as a medical accommodation for most positions.
- Even so, but for most non critical jobs, it really shouldn't be a problem if an employee smokes off the clock or not. They don't say shit when every office worker is sloshed from 5:30 onward.

I expect reclassification to happen just before the election.

Yeah and right after they send the $2000 for electing Warnock
- You would have had Herschel Walker? That drooling imbecile?
- Seems like good advertising to me.

Can the DEA even reclassify drugs? All the DEA could do, in theory, is decriminalise and not prosecute - which they're kind of doing already.

It's up to Congress to write laws. Maybe the FDA, in this case.

The FDA and HHS have already made their recommendations to reschedule. Now the DEA gets to weigh in, then there’s a period for public comment. ~~After that, IIRC, the FDA makes a final decision~~. The current recommendation is to Schedule III from Schedule I.

but that’s just for rescheduling on a federal level.

edit: correction-- it's the DEA who makes the ultimate decision.
- Unfortunately the DEA is the agency that makes the final decision. I have less faith in them to do the right thing on this than the FDA. Though the new head Biden appointed specifically called for a review of the scheduling, which could be a signal the DEA is receptive to dropping it. Schedule I for marijuana is a joke. I mean, you could make an argument caffeine is more dangerous. Even just lowering it to another level could make a big difference in the states it's legal.
- Thanks, that's a good overview.
  
  Schedule III is still too harsh, imo, though.
Yes, the DEA has the final say. Congress defers its rule making ability to agencies all the time, and it's codified in court under the Chevron Doctrine (something the current right wing faction would like to get rid of).

The FDA makes its recommendations and the DEA decides. This is the one part that makes me nervous; the DEA wants to keep that sweet War on Drugs budgeting going. But I don't think they'll be stubborn about it this time. Too much public opinion against them, including a chunk of Republicans.

Criminalization is a multi-million dollar industry and greed is more powerful than our laws.

Million? My friend, it's a 7.4 BILLION dollar industry.

Abolish the DEA, legalize all drugs, and put education/treatment programs in place to help people. Repair lives instead of destroying them. That should always be the goal.

US health officials ask DEA to jeopardize their own jobs

The DEA has basically ignored cannabis for years now. Opioids will keep them employed, don't worry.
- Exactly. They're basically asking them to do something the DEA can't do - change the law. What the DEA can do is prioritise what they're prosecuting and decriminalise weed, which they more or less unofficially have been doing for a few years now.

So why do they have to ask? Ok these are health officials, couldn't Congress tell them to?