Marijuana News

Recent Report Does the Impossible Makes DEA Look Even Worse, Source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7xh7Wu_8aG8/UwLivMSf9XI/AAAAAAAAEkY/8GMxOehGdP0/s1600/breaking+bad+42.jpgIt’s not as if you needed another log to toss onto your “DEA is the Devil” bonfire, but a new report from the Drug Policy Alliance casts them in an even more pejorative light (if you can believe it).

The report is a scathing assessment of the DEA’s 40-year role in obstructing the scientific study of cannabis. “The DEA is a police and propaganda agency,” Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said Wednesday. “It makes no sense for it to be in charge of federal decisions involving scientific research and medical practice.”

I didn’t even know this, but, apparently, in 1973, 1995 and again in 2002, the DEA was served with petitions to consider rescheduling cannabis out of Schedule 1. In each instance, the DEA dragged their feet for years and, on two occasions, were sued multiple times just to get a decision.

The report further criticizes the DEA for creating a “regulatory Catch-22.” They argue there is no scientific evidence to support the rescheduling of cannabis, yet they are the very agency that is impeding the research that could produce that evidence. Basically, they are saying that there is no science to back up what the potheads are claiming, while at the same time obstructing nearly every chance that research has to occur.

Of course they don’t want to reschedule cannabis! Would you voluntarily unplug your very own money minting machine?

California Republican, Dana Rohrabacher, recently supported a medical marijuana bill and stated, “nobody should be afraid of the truth. There’s a lot of other drugs that have harmful side effects. Is the downside of marijuana a harmful side effect? Or is there a positive side that actually does help? That needs to be proven.” And it’s the DEA that needs to get its thumb out of its ass to let that happen.

In a fatefully ironic twist, however, one expert claimed that the DEA has actually catalyzed the state-level MMJ/legalization push. Rick Doblin, executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies stated, “the DEA has obstructed research into the medical use of marijuana for over 40 years and in the process has caused immeasurable suffering that would otherwise have been treated by low-cost, low-risk generic marijuana. The DEA’s obstruction of the FDA approval process for marijuana has — to the DEA’s dismay — unintentionally catalyzed state-level medical marijuana reforms.”

People need their cannabis and if the DEA won’t join the party, they will be steamrolled. It’s already starting to happen. Congress recently voted to defund DEA raids in states where cannabis is legal. Also, look at this statistic: “In 2003, 22 grants totaling $6 million were approved for cannabis research. In 2012, that number had risen to 69 approved grants totaling more than $30 million.”

The times, they are a-changing. If anyone at the DEA is reading this and hopes to be relevant in the next decade, please pass it up the chain. Personally, I think the nation would be better off if the whole damn agency was dissolved. But, I suppose we’d have a surplus of jackasses back in the job market.