White House Rebuffs Marijuana Legalization Petitions

[budbro]

Jg, there was already a petition on "We The People" to remove it from class I and they simply bundled it in with the 7 other petitions relating to cannabis and gave one canned response. The drug czar is a fairly benign figure nowadays and holds no jurisdiction over the DEA, our real enemy. Even some of the Repubs are vowing to remove all the czars if elected in 2012 because they serve no purpose.

Hard to believe, but imo Big Pharma is going to do all the work for us on rescheduling to II or III, IF that is what we even want now? Sativex (made wholly from the cannabis plant) is currently in phase III of trials and once passed, and it will imo, the FDA will have it rescheduled to II or III. The rescheduling along with an FDA approved drug for patients could be even more incentive for politicians to crackdown on the cannabis plant, much like Marinol did.

I think in the VERY, VERY long run it could help by removing the czar on the issue and allowing research (which can take years or decades), but in the short term we can expect a huge fight from politicians protecting Big Pharma after it is rescheduled.

I agreed 100% with you a year ago Jg, but with Sativex in the picture now, I'm not so sure anymore? I can still see both sides on the issue though

 

[Nerdmaster]

I believe budbro is right on. Big Pharma controls the only fully legal cannabis today, and will continue to control it if it's simply rescheduled.

At this point, only full legalization will get "the man" out of marijuana. As long as the government can point to crappy derivatives or synthetics, the plant will stay illegal, and being able to smoke a joint will continue to carry risk, be it for stress relief or cancer treatment.