Earlier this month, the DEA proved its utter detachment from reality – and its subservience to Big Pharma – by maintaining the classification of cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug. This means, according to their classification system, it has “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
The decision was a surprise to many who were expecting the agency to acknowledge the 21st century body of scientific evidence on cannabis’ medicinal value, and the real-life stories of people cured through this plant. The Free Thought Project has documented many examples of children suffering from constant epileptic seizures, who, after receiving CBD treatment (an extract of cannabis), experience a dramatic reduction in seizures and gain a quality of life like never before.
The DEA’s tyrannical chokehold on the wondrous potential of medical cannabis is downright criminal.
In a review of the evidence, published on the U.S. government’s own National Institutes of Health, researchers concluded:
Based on evidence currently available the Schedule I classification is not tenable; it is not accurate that cannabis has no medical value, or that Information on safety is lacking.
The good news is, hardly anyone really cares what the DEA thinks. Civil disobedience is happening all over the country as individuals and even state governments recognize the injustice of cannabis prohibition. In a heartening example, one brave Georgia lawmaker admitted that he goes to Colorado to secure medical grade cannabis and brings it back to treat sick children in his own state.
Soon after the DEA gave its decision, Washington state – which has legalized the recreational and medicinal use of cannabis – announced perhaps the boldest act of defiance yet.
Washington state is moving ahead with its plans to allow scientific research of marijuana, sidestepping federal rules that critics say have hampered study of the drug for decades.
The state has a new marijuana research license that will allow laboratories to grow marijuana for scientific study. State officials expect to start accepting applications for the new license by January.
The DEA says they “don’t have enough research” to say cannabis has medicinal value, but their own impossibly strict regulations have stifled research for decades. So Washington is directly addressing this disingenuous claim by paving the way for more research – and, very satisfyingly, giving the DEA the middle finger.
As Sam Méndez, executive director of the Cannabis Law & Policy Project at the University of Washington School of Law, points out: “It can take up to two years just to get the federal licenses in the first place, because the process is so long and onerous.”
And, when a researcher finally does get a federal license, the only place they can get research-grade cannabis is from the University of Mississippi. Further, when discoveries are made about the medicinal properties of cannabis, they cannot be applied to state-level systems.
Washington’s state licensing program will bypass these absurd hurdles, and will open the door for private research facilities to conduct research as well as state universities. Research-grade cannabis can be sourced from within the state from a variety of qualified producers.
The state Liquor and Cannabis Board is now setting up a scientific review panel to scrutinize applications for the new marijuana research license, a first step toward opening the door to applicants, said board spokesman Brian Smith.
The scientific review panel — made up of officials from Washington State University and the University of Washington — will evaluate the quality of proposed research projects, as well as whether applicants have the expertise and facilities to carry out the work.
After developing rules to govern the application process, the LCB expects to start soliciting applications at the start of 2017, with the first licenses to be issued sometime after that.
On the issue of cannabis, Washington gets full commendations for the rare act of “legislating” freedom by allowing recreational use of cannabis, and for breaking tyrannical barriers to a research on a plant with such medical promise.
It will soon join Israel as one of the world’s leading areas of medical cannabis research, and open the door for a thriving multi-million dollar industry which also serves the benefit of humanity.
Justin Gardner writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared.
dea=big pharma. a since it can’t be patented big pharma does not see business in researching it. this is easy to understand. but like the article points out, everybody will start ignoring those morons.
I gotta disagree. Unfortunately there are still plenty of people that believe the DEA, FDA, and any other alphabet agency has the people’s best interest at heart. True, the number of awoken people has dramatically increased over the years, but hardly the majority at this point. Still far to many socially engineered people out there.
Actually Big Pharma already has researched marijuana, why do you think they have prevented scientists from researching it? Think about it??
If there is anything that exists on this planet that cures sickness or disease what is the motivation to bring it forward to the market place? And kill all the different kinds of medications that are incredibly profitable!
Israel has already gotten amazing results fighting epilepsy with canibis oils that Americans have to fly to Israel to use. A pharmaceutical company solving diseases is company that is getting there CEO fired!
Looks like since Trump has dumped political correctness, people began leaving the PC fiasco in the ditch and now the State(s) is thumbing their nose at their master. This is nice! It looks – dare I say it – it looks American!!!!
What are you talking about ?
Trump is anti-cannabis, pro-pharma and anti-people, pro-profit !
You’re drinking the Kool-Aid. Trump didn’t dump PC he ditched tolerance, science, and liberty. Under Trump you and cannabis would be more regulated than ever. Unless you happen to look like Trump, act like Trump, and be in his supposed income bracket life under Trump would suck.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
Hitlery for prison – lock her up!!!!!
****Trump 2016****
You’re right about Hillary, but way off base about Trump, he’s just the next Zio scam artist.
No Trump is really for America and Americans. And he really can do what he says he can do. Trump is different than the other billionaires because he has a heart and he hasbn’t liked the way this country has been going for the last 30 years. His positions are mostly the same.
So if yooyu don’t vote because you don’t like either one, then you are voting Hitlery.
Trump is really the only one who can turn things around. USA is biggest corporation on the planet, and Trump knows how to build and run big corporations.
****Trump2016****
Pack your bags DEA. The congress might disband you three letters.
Trump will fix it and fix it fast.
Make America Great, again.
Trump will do what his son-in-law’s clique tell him to do.
You hit the nail squarely on the head!
Trump has as much chance of defeating the oligarchy’s chosen presidential choice as a centipede with arthritis has of winning an Olympic medal for sprinting. It wouldn’t matter if he actually had the majority of American voters with him (which he doesn’t): those who count the votes decide the election. Sorry.
Washington State and others need to completely get out of the way. Regulating marijuana and taxing it, while better, isn’t the right solution.
I mostly agree, but would want to see your plan for keeping high school students and such away from it if it is completely unregulated. Marijuana use also comes with some negative effects on motivation as several studies tend to suggest.
High school students and other children are already smoking dope and much worse. While there are no solutions, the best way forward is responsible parenting. As for ‘motivation’, our entire society appears mostly motivated toward self destruction.
When you say “dope”, you really out yourself. Great job, old man!
don’t see what his age has to do with the discussion but ok.
As it is right now marijuana IS essentially unregulated, simply because of the fact that it is illegal. And many high school students ARE doing much worse things than smoking marijuana – many of them legal.
Meanwhile, high school students are using alcohol less because they’d rather smoke pot. Alcohol has been proven to be far more dangerous than pot, as tons of research has proven.
We tax tobacco, alcohol, and gambling. Vices have social costs we offset that with taxes. It’s the way social responsibility works. The counterpoint is that the state doesn’t get involved with your friend’s weekend poker game or your homebrewing. We should have gone closer to colorado and oregon and allowed homegrows, but retail should be taxed. It is a business.
Washington State taxes everything that moves, crawls or is stationary. The only thing it doesn’t tax are its wealthy like Bill and Melinda Gates. They get a free ride. There’s also a growing trend in western WA State by government to just plain steal private property.
Don’t you know, America would be free if we didn’t have any rules. If we’d just let everyone do whatever they want and never tax them then roads, firemen, police, hospitals, and national defense would all just magically appear. I bet even unicorns would come back.
So what is the solution?
Thanks, that’s what I thought.
Here is the solution you desperately need to get your fingies around: government has no right to make such things criminal, nor should citizens empower them through further compliance. That is probably what he meant by what was done isn’t the right solution, but good enough for the block-headed fools who move at bureaucratic snail paces. If you believe that government has the right to dictate behaviors, like anything to do with a plant, then you are too stupid and too deeply into being part of the problem to ever grasp what he meant. If your filter is a slave minded morality, then it sucks to be you.
BOOM
The solution is for Lib Turds to start minding their own business instead of nanny stating America to death.
It’s not the libs keeping it illegal.
No, it’s Lib Turds and so-called Conservatives that are Nanny Stating and taxing America to death.
Just curious, do they have education where you come from?
We have no education and rely upon Lib Turds like you to help us out… and we come from outer space. Got a problem with that?
No, I’m just chuckling over the moment when they say “Take me to your leader”. It’s Trump and you’re embarrassed so you introduce them to someone more reasonable… a big purple dinosaur named Barney.
Keep on chuckling while Your savior Trump sells you down the river like the rest of the Zio monsters.
I thought you were a Trump chump. Heck, I’d vote for Mr. Rogers(and he’s dead) before I’d elect Trump. What is a Zio monster?
Nixon’s the one ! The one who ordered government research to prove that marijuana CAUSES cancer but after much study they found that marijuana CURES cancer, they even patented this discovery !
As much as we detest government regulation of Cannabis at all, here in Washington the state is now making so much money it can afford to tell D.C. to piss off and put the political pressure on.
They have done us a great service by publicly demonstrating that they DO NOT serve the interests of the American people, rather they serve their true master; the one who is the father of lies and comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Don’t confuse them with facts. They will do what they do just like the dog who licks his privates; because they can. This is how corrupt things have become. Public corruption equals private profit.
Same treachery was used to enact prohibition. At one time farmers ran their equipment off of alcohol and any left over was sold to motorists. Prohibition stopped that and “created” a market for petroleum and the swine who own same.
The government has played both sides of the marijuana issue leaving nothing to chance. Since 1937 marijuana has been an illegal substance that will land you in jail if consumed for recreational or medicinal purposes. In 2003 the U.S. issued Patent No. 6,630,507 which procures the rights to the medicinal properties of cannabinoids. The U.S. government issued this patent to itself. Exact words from the government’s application read: “The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as near-protectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke or trauma, or the treatment of neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia.” Marijuana WILL be legalized and on Day One the government will prosecute and jail those individuals who infringe upon the profit ratio of the patent holder… the government itself. Ultimately We The People must reign in the government We created. Education is the only way we are going to walk our way out of the maze of lies.
You underestimate the power of collective civil disobedience. The system CANNOT enforce unfair laws in the face of millions of people who claim their power. This is exactly why it makes examples of the few who begin to act according to their consciences. The marijuana prohibition proves the weakness of authority, over time, to control our behavior. And it will not be able to effectively prosecute people for using something they can grow in their homes.
…..ZZZZ…. F-U ……DEA!!
Is anyone doing it through legal channels? Why not conduct the research in Mississippi. You have to beat them at their own game and on their own court. There has to be a good lawyer that would take the case. Do the research. Get evidence of the corruption. Ask Wikileaks for help they are the only ones doing the heavy lifting these days. Industrial Hemp is an example of how lame the laws are. You would have to smoke 550 pounds of it. Yet they regulate it to death.
Right, play the game. Thats how the civil rights movement finally got action right? NOT. It took organized civil disobedience combined with the threat of massive national unrest to finally get it done. When it comes to injustice in the form of unfair laws, JUST SAY NO
You think people haven’t tried? It’s a rigged game if you go through the “legal channels”. They’ll only approve the research if it’s to prove MJ’s “harmful effects”, and not to test its “medical benefits”.
Hopefully WA won’t be the only state with the balls to tell the DEA to go eff themselves.
Hurray for the state of Washington!
I hope you’re serious because I think it’s be good to recognize government when it does something courageous and right. If all we do is complain it’s just Peter crying wolf.
Move to Colorado, like 10,000 a month are currently doing and you can imbibe with a little help from your friends.
Obama. Hope. Change. I think Obama needs more credit for this. He left Bush’s appointee at the head of the DEA for six years, and only after a scandal forced his hand did he select the current piece of feces as the new head of the DEA, who is on record before the confirmation as saying “medical marijuana is a joke”. Obama has literally gone out of his way to ensure there was no change.
Let us not forget the other Organizations that do NOT want marijuana legalized:
1) Big Pharma: There is no way to control who is growing it, therefore not profits it marketing it.
2) DEA: We would be out of business… Although there would be a use for border patrol or customs agents. Only 5% of containers coming into this country are inspected.
3) Big Alcohol: Do you really think Anheuser-Busch wants the competition? They are already struggling to keep up with all the micro-brew shops.
4) Any company making oil based products (particularly petroleum-based): Oil from seeds?, Lotions… yes it is possible…
5) Lumber Industry: Could you imagine building a house with hemp based plywood instead of the crappy chip board? and it would also be more water resistant than marine grade plywood… naturally.
6) Prison industry: I should not have to elaborate on this.
Many corporations don’t want the competition and will pay off your congressmen and various agencies to keep a lid on marijuana. Do your own research, you will find many that don’t want it
I do have a problem sharing “news” that includes glowingly calling anything “wondrous”. A little objectivity, if you want people capable of critical thought to share information published here. (Very pro-cannabis here, just anti-hyperbole).
that patent is only effective when access to marijuana can be restricted via big pharma channels. as useful as patenting your dna
there should be some way to indict the FDA and DEA for knowingly ignoring overwhelming scientific evidence for ulterior motives.
There is but it involves pitch forks and torches.
Police Law Enforcement have this all covered allow Medical Marijanna Establishments to open then Raid them with SWAT Teams and constructively steal all $$$Cash Found on Legal Premises. All perfect Legal in the Sustainability Communitarianism Agenda 21 Small Print with kick-back to Local Politicunts. Same peoples have Cancer Cures for own families through use of Hemp Oil