Pros And Cons Of Legalizing Marijuana

Later the Act was ruled unconstitutional and was replaced with the Control Substance Act in 1970. The new Act settled schedules for ranking different substances based off their potency (Reiman, Amanda, and Malik Burnett). Marijuana was placed in the most restrictive of the categories known as schedule I. According to the (DEA) the classifications consist of five categories: Schedule I being the most serious and having the highest potential for addiction and abuse. Schedule II, III, IV, and V drugs have less potential risk for addiction and

The question of whether or not marijuana should be legalized for recreational and medicinal use has been a three decade long conversation. There are many pros and cons to legalizing marijuana. There are many different ideas about the effects of marijuana, but as with any drug answers are going to vary depending on the person you survey. Age, health, and mental stability are all factors to consider how a drug can positively or negatively affect you, and marijuana is no different. To be legal or not to be legal is the million dollar question up for debate.

Back in June the marijuana community anticipated a DEA decision on rescheduling marijuana from a Schedule I controlled substance to some other scheduling. For political or other reasons the DEA simply made no decision at all. The outcome being that marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance alongside heroin, LSD, and mescaline.

and?Demerol? among others. These drugs are also classified as a schedule II drug. Substances in this schedule have a high potential for abuse which may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence. Substances are placed in their respective schedules based on whether they have a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, their relative abuse potential, and likelihood of causing dependence when abused.? All of this information has been confirmed by the FDA.

Since the 1970’s marijuana has been considered a schedule 1 drug by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Schedule 1 drugs are drugs that serve no medical purposes at all, has high potential for abuse and has lack of accepted safety use. Among marijuana, other schedule 1 drugs include heroin, LSD, ecstasy, and etc. Marijuana should not be in listed among these drugs for many reasons. Marijuana is much safer than the drugs list and does not have a high abuse rate like the other drugs. It also have many medical properties to contradict one of the schedule 1 safety guidelines.

Lester Grinspoon, M.D., a medical marijuana advocate and highly supports the re-classification of marijuana, makes another good point in one of his articles “A Plea for Reconsideration. In Dr. Grinspoon’s article “A Plea for Reconsideration”, he recommends that marijuana be reclassified to a Schedule II class drug, so that it could maybe be prescribed medically. He writes: In a 1990 survey, 44% of oncologists said they had suggested that a patient smoke marijuana for relief of the nausea induced by chemotherapy. If marijuana were actually unsafe for use under medical supervision, as its Schedule I status explicitly affirms, this recommendation would be unthinkable.

Officials refuse to reclassify cannabis from the Schedule I Drug classification it was given back in 1970, even though, according to Dr. Weiner, five patents regarding medical marijuana exist. Describing a substance as abusive and something that has no medical use, the Schedule I Drug classification makes it nearly impossible to legally obtain any of it to conduct the clinical trials needed to obtain the amount of clinical evidence that would be needed to reclassify cannabis.

“The federal Controlled Substances Act classifies cannabis as a Schedule I substance alongside heroin and ecstasy -- drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." “But the federal Drug Enforcement Administration has largely left legal marijuana states alone”

Currently, marijuana is listed in Schedule 1, which makes it highly addictive with no medical benefit. Lowering the classification would make marijuana available for medical use, making it palatable to prohibitionist. Kreit rejects the idea and used the Controlled Substance Act (CSA) as a rationale that rescheduling marijuana to a lower level or removing it altogether would not meet U.S. treaty

The federal government considers marijuana an illegal Schedule I drug. Because the federal government deems the drug illegal and it is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the drug cannot legally be prescribed.

This has caused a rift in the continuity of thirty-nine different states, in addition to the capital of the United States of America and the protectorate of Guam. In these forty-one jurisdictions, legislators have eliminated the penalties for medical marijuana possession. As a result, individuals with epilepsy, cancer patients, and others who were similarly suffering are now able to turn to medical marijuana for relief. This legal transformation has occurred despite the federal government maintaining marijuana’s classification as a Schedule I controlled substance. This classification puts marijuana in the same category as cocaine and heroin, drugs with no currently accepted medical value.

On August 14, 1970, the Assistant Secretary of Health, Dr. Roger O. Egeberg wrote a letter recommending the plant, marijuana, be classified as a schedule 1 substance, he succeeded and it has remained that way for nearly 45 years. The Drug enforcement agency defines a schedule 1 substance as “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule I drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence. ("Drug Schedules." DEA.gov.)”

Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance under the US federal Drug Scheduling system created by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 (CSA), which indicates that the substance has a high potential for abuse and no approved medicinal use. This policy has the support of several propionate organizations such as the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the American Medical Association (AMA) (Office of National Drug Control Policy 2014). Despite these facts, Medical Marijuana is currently legal in 23 States and the District of Columbia (23 Legal Medial Marijuana States and DC 2014). The use of medical marijuana in these states is supported by several national organizations such as the American Nurses Association, the

Methamphetamine, more commonly known as meth, is currently classified as a schedule 2 drug but should be promoted to a schedule 1 drug for its now outdated medical usage. Currently, methamphetamine can be prescribed by a doctor to treat attention hyperactivity disorder and other conditions, although it is rarely used medically. It is prescribed at doses much lower than those typically abused. (NIH, 2014). There are now other types of stimulants that are more effective, and more regularly used in the medical world for treating hyperactivity such as Ritalin or Adderall. Marijuana, a schedule 1 drug, has more proven health benefits than a schedule 2 drug, meth. Methamphetamine should be changed to a schedule 1 drug, as It has limited medical usage in this time period, and is highly toxic effects on the body if the person becomes addicted.

Cannabis is becoming increasingly widespread and increasingly common in modern-day society for both recreational use and for medication. The article by Craig Reinarman, ‘Criminalisation, legalisation and the mixed blessing of medicalisation in the USA’ generates many controversial issues of cannabis.