Why is he writing to the Drug Czar?  The Czar does not make policy or in any way influence it.  He's just the spokesperson/cheerleader for federal drug policy.  It would be like sending your complaint about McDonald's burgers to Ronald McDonald.

It's time to see if those Republicans, and conservatives in general, really believe in the gospel they preach.  States rights?  Less expansive federal government?  More civil liberties with individual responsibility/accountability?  None of these core beliefs align with forbidding citizens from taking any substance they want.  Dictating what a citizen can and cannot put in their own body is a grave intrusion into civil liberty.  If anything, alcohol has proven to us that mind altering substances can be used safely and responsibly.  What do you hear in all the beer commercials?  "Enjoy responsibly!"

We certainly have the technology to develop tests to determine marijuana intoxication for those who make the mistake of driving while under its influence.  We only lack the tech now because we've thus far lacked the research to develop it.  I'm confident a reliable "breathalyzer" for weed could be developed if people were just allowed to do some darn unrestricted research on marijuana.

Really, in light of a vastly diverse array of pollsters all saying the same thing, Americans simply want legal weed.  At the very least, leave it up to individual states.  Let the more liberal states who want it, have it.  And even individual counties and cities in those states can still bar it through local law the way some do in the medical marijuana states.

It's time to stop enforcing an ancient policy that was based on lies.  Marijuana prohibition trivializes the government and our laws for crying out loud!  Wake up!  Hop on board now, congress, or be remembered by the history books as the last of the ignorant generation who held out to the bitter end, then gave way to younger, more sensible politicians that followed in your wake!

Schedule 1 classification may be moot by the time they hold hearings. See the court proceedings, Oct 16 regarding a challenge to MMJ having no medical value, etc. at http://reason.com/blog/2012/10/16/federal-appeals-court-hears-challenge-tos.  

It is untenable for the feds to classify MMJ as a schedule 1 "narcotic" when there is no science to justify it. Remove the classification to schedule 2 or below and it can be prescribed by your doctor and the prescription filled at the pharmacy, like oxycodin or Marinol (pure THC capsule Schedule 3).

Pres. Obama has his political cover with rescheduling, we have our medicine and the prohibitionist will get their "pound of flesh" for unauthorized diversion.

The court proceedings that Damon mentioned are about forcing the DEA to hold serious rescheduling hearings using current information about the medical uses of cannabis. The court's ruling is probably months down the road, and who knows how long after that the DEA would hold the hearings IF the court rules in favor of the Coalition to Reschedule Cannabis and Americans for Safe Access, who filed the case. The DEA took about 9 years to respond to CRC's petition for rescheduling, which was filed in 2002, and then denied it.You can read the gory details at http://americansforsafeaccess.org/article.php?id=6440

Rescheduling would be a very positive step for states with medical cannabis laws, as it would give the feds the leeway to back off from busting dispensaries, etc, although it wouldn't require them to do that. But rescheduling - versus full legalization - could almost complicate things as much as it helps. Keeping it as a scheduled substance that has to be prescribed by a doctor gives the feds justification to block state legalization for recreational use. Tobacco and alcohol are not on the CSA at all, and are regulated under totally different federal laws. This is where we need to get with cannabis as soon as possible. Senator Leahy's hearings will probably not come close to accomplishing federal legalization, but they will at least keep the issue on everyone's radar and raise the level of discussion. Hopefully DRCNet will keep a scorecard of who is pro- and con- during the hearings, it would provide a scorecard to decide who to vote for in the next election.

If you organize 5 of your friends to make scheduled calls every day, and email once a week, you can get your local State reps and your State Senators working toward this issue now, so that when they reconvene again in Jan. they realize they have constituents who are in support and want representation in these hearings.  It can only help if we all use our collective bargaining to pressure them relentlessly.  Make them know we are going to start voting them out and electing politicians who WILL do the jobs we pay them for.

including "amend[ing] the Federal Controlled Substances Act to allow possession of up to one ounce of marijuana, at least in jurisdictions where it is legal under state law."

I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air.

Feds have already set a precedent on reasonable amounts. Why would Leahy bait and switch to an impossible amount to grow? How does one even grow an ounce or less? One might also ask why Biden lied three times and then switched test drugs to pass the bogus RAVE Act? It is more than obvious that Nixon lied to schedule Ganja #1, that should be the end of the story and the CSA overturned. Now we know from released documents that
Nixon committed Treason.  Special Report: Definitive proof of a historical mystery is often elusive, even with archival documents and memoirs. Skeptics can always say some witness or some evidence isn’t perfect. But the case that Richard Nixon sabotaged the Vietnam peace talks in 1968 to win that pivotal election is clear. From past tapes and his rejection of his own Commission results. There is more than enough evidence to remove Cannabis, Ganja and Hemp as a schedule#1 narcotic. Leahy was a prosecutor and knows full well what he is doing.

But would they lie about Ganja?

Is The DEA Legalizing THC?
 if a pharmaceutical product contains THC extracted from the marijuana plant, that would be a legal commodity. But if you or I possessed THC extracted from the marijuana plant, that would remain an illegal commodity.

Wait, it gets even more absurd?

Since the cannabis plant itself will remain illegal under federal law, then from whom precisely could Big Pharma legally obtain their soon-to-be legal THC extracts? There’s only one answer: The federal government’s lone legally licensed marijuana cultivator, The University of Mississippi at Oxford, which already has the licensing agreements with the pharmaceutical industry in hand.

Con Flicts of Interest Bush Barthwell & Drugs

Feds rule states and commerce, States rule individuals.

Drug Czar is Required by Law to Lie

Why Do YOU Think They Call it DOPE?

Methinks Thou Dost Protest Too Much



Still for those wanting the money regardless of the citizens. Continue to enact restrictions on themselves for individuals. As it stands there is only one state permitting recreational use and that is CA under Prop 215. Note: Compassionate Use Act not the MMJ Act Anyone for any reason and the amount is already determined by the Feds. Nothing is written in the law about selling it and since Raich the only way to sell or give it away in charities is to remove it from the bogus CSA, Don't be fooled by Leahy's new legislation that would lower the Feds standards to an ounce or less. How the hell do you grow an ounce or less? But that seems too much strain on the fascist corporations to allow. As it stands the Feds have patents on cannabinoids and a place to grow it. GW's sativex sublingual spray is already on the market and could be in the US whenever they want it. Keeping Hemp and Ganja outlawed, to sell. The personal use would still be legal for individuals as it is now in states with laws on the books or without laws against it. But only under state guidelines. MMJ states have to follow the hoops and barriers they provide. Under the protection of the 10th amendment granting states jurisdiction over all things not designated to the Feds under the Constitution, or Commerce Clause. So Feds rule states and interstate commerce and states rule individuals. Most of the arrests are by states and these appeasement's and appeasers are only perpetuating this for profit police action known as the ganjawar.


 

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