SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
'Politics Above Science': Obama Administration Keeps Marijuana Restrictions
However, legalization advocates celebrated a minor victory that removed some obstacles to marijuana research
Aug 11, 2016
The Obama administration has rejected efforts to reschedule marijuana to a less restrictive drug category, keeping it classified as a Schedule 1 substance--illegal for any purpose.
That means states that allow marijuana for medical or recreational use will remain in violation of federal law.
The decision, announced by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Thursday, follows efforts by lawmakers and activists to reschedule marijuana to a category in the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) that would loosen restrictions on its use. In a letter to the petitioners--Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, and New Mexico nurse practitioner Bryan Krumm--DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg wrote, "Simply put, evaluating the safety and effectiveness of drugs is a highly specialized endeavor."
The Washington Post explains the impacts of the decision:
The current federal status of marijuana makes it impossible for state-legal marijuana businesses to take the same tax deductions afforded to other business, with some marijuana operations complaining that their effective tax rates are in the range of 60 percent to 90 percent, according to a Denver accountant who works with such businesses, Jordan Cornelius. Federal restrictions also make banks reluctant to work with marijuana businesses, leading many of them to become all-cash operations -- with all the risks that entails.
Legalization advocates were disappointed by the ruling, but saw a minor victory in the DEA's decision that it would end its monopoly on marijuana research, which Michael Collins of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) said would remove some obstacles.
It's "a bad day for legalization efforts and a good day for scientists."
--Kevin Sabet, Smart Approaches to Marijuana
"Keeping marijuana in Schedule I shows that the DEA continues to ignore research, and places politics above science," said Collins, the DPA's deputy director of national affairs. "In reality, marijuana should be descheduled and states should be allowed to set their own policies."
Ending the National Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA) monopoly, however, "is a very welcome move that will enable more research," Collins added.
For years, the University of Mississippi has been the only institution in the U.S. to grow marijuana for research purposes. NIDA funds the school's program. "This restriction has so limited the supply of marijuana federally approved for research purposes that scientists said it could often take years to obtain it and in some cases it was impossible to get," the New York Times noted on Wednesday, and loosening that particular restriction "will have a significant practical effect."
Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana and a former Obama administration drug advisor, told USA Today that the decision signals "a bad day for legalization efforts and a good day for scientists."
Mason Tvert, spokesperson for the Marijuana Policy Project, agreed.
"The DEA's refusal to remove marijuana from Schedule I is, quite frankly, mind-boggling," he said Thursday. "It is intellectually dishonest and completely indefensible. Not everyone agrees marijuana should be legal, but few will deny that it is less harmful than alcohol and many prescription drugs. It is less toxic, less addictive, and less damaging to the body."
"We are pleased the DEA is finally going to end NIDA's monopoly on the cultivation of marijuana for research purposes," he continued. "Removing barriers to research is a step forward, but the decision does not go nearly far enough. Marijuana should be completely removed from the CSA drug schedules and regulated similarly to alcohol."
Currently, 42 states and the District of Columbia have adopted laws that recognize marijuana's medical medical value, and four states--Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington--have legalized recreational use. At least eight more states will consider marijuana-related issues in November, including ballot measures for full legalization in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
The Obama administration has rejected efforts to reschedule marijuana to a less restrictive drug category, keeping it classified as a Schedule 1 substance--illegal for any purpose.
That means states that allow marijuana for medical or recreational use will remain in violation of federal law.
The decision, announced by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Thursday, follows efforts by lawmakers and activists to reschedule marijuana to a category in the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) that would loosen restrictions on its use. In a letter to the petitioners--Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, and New Mexico nurse practitioner Bryan Krumm--DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg wrote, "Simply put, evaluating the safety and effectiveness of drugs is a highly specialized endeavor."
The Washington Post explains the impacts of the decision:
The current federal status of marijuana makes it impossible for state-legal marijuana businesses to take the same tax deductions afforded to other business, with some marijuana operations complaining that their effective tax rates are in the range of 60 percent to 90 percent, according to a Denver accountant who works with such businesses, Jordan Cornelius. Federal restrictions also make banks reluctant to work with marijuana businesses, leading many of them to become all-cash operations -- with all the risks that entails.
Legalization advocates were disappointed by the ruling, but saw a minor victory in the DEA's decision that it would end its monopoly on marijuana research, which Michael Collins of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) said would remove some obstacles.
It's "a bad day for legalization efforts and a good day for scientists."
--Kevin Sabet, Smart Approaches to Marijuana
"Keeping marijuana in Schedule I shows that the DEA continues to ignore research, and places politics above science," said Collins, the DPA's deputy director of national affairs. "In reality, marijuana should be descheduled and states should be allowed to set their own policies."
Ending the National Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA) monopoly, however, "is a very welcome move that will enable more research," Collins added.
For years, the University of Mississippi has been the only institution in the U.S. to grow marijuana for research purposes. NIDA funds the school's program. "This restriction has so limited the supply of marijuana federally approved for research purposes that scientists said it could often take years to obtain it and in some cases it was impossible to get," the New York Times noted on Wednesday, and loosening that particular restriction "will have a significant practical effect."
Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana and a former Obama administration drug advisor, told USA Today that the decision signals "a bad day for legalization efforts and a good day for scientists."
Mason Tvert, spokesperson for the Marijuana Policy Project, agreed.
"The DEA's refusal to remove marijuana from Schedule I is, quite frankly, mind-boggling," he said Thursday. "It is intellectually dishonest and completely indefensible. Not everyone agrees marijuana should be legal, but few will deny that it is less harmful than alcohol and many prescription drugs. It is less toxic, less addictive, and less damaging to the body."
"We are pleased the DEA is finally going to end NIDA's monopoly on the cultivation of marijuana for research purposes," he continued. "Removing barriers to research is a step forward, but the decision does not go nearly far enough. Marijuana should be completely removed from the CSA drug schedules and regulated similarly to alcohol."
Currently, 42 states and the District of Columbia have adopted laws that recognize marijuana's medical medical value, and four states--Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington--have legalized recreational use. At least eight more states will consider marijuana-related issues in November, including ballot measures for full legalization in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
The Obama administration has rejected efforts to reschedule marijuana to a less restrictive drug category, keeping it classified as a Schedule 1 substance--illegal for any purpose.
That means states that allow marijuana for medical or recreational use will remain in violation of federal law.
The decision, announced by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Thursday, follows efforts by lawmakers and activists to reschedule marijuana to a category in the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) that would loosen restrictions on its use. In a letter to the petitioners--Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, and New Mexico nurse practitioner Bryan Krumm--DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg wrote, "Simply put, evaluating the safety and effectiveness of drugs is a highly specialized endeavor."
The Washington Post explains the impacts of the decision:
The current federal status of marijuana makes it impossible for state-legal marijuana businesses to take the same tax deductions afforded to other business, with some marijuana operations complaining that their effective tax rates are in the range of 60 percent to 90 percent, according to a Denver accountant who works with such businesses, Jordan Cornelius. Federal restrictions also make banks reluctant to work with marijuana businesses, leading many of them to become all-cash operations -- with all the risks that entails.
Legalization advocates were disappointed by the ruling, but saw a minor victory in the DEA's decision that it would end its monopoly on marijuana research, which Michael Collins of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) said would remove some obstacles.
It's "a bad day for legalization efforts and a good day for scientists."
--Kevin Sabet, Smart Approaches to Marijuana
"Keeping marijuana in Schedule I shows that the DEA continues to ignore research, and places politics above science," said Collins, the DPA's deputy director of national affairs. "In reality, marijuana should be descheduled and states should be allowed to set their own policies."
Ending the National Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA) monopoly, however, "is a very welcome move that will enable more research," Collins added.
For years, the University of Mississippi has been the only institution in the U.S. to grow marijuana for research purposes. NIDA funds the school's program. "This restriction has so limited the supply of marijuana federally approved for research purposes that scientists said it could often take years to obtain it and in some cases it was impossible to get," the New York Times noted on Wednesday, and loosening that particular restriction "will have a significant practical effect."
Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana and a former Obama administration drug advisor, told USA Today that the decision signals "a bad day for legalization efforts and a good day for scientists."
Mason Tvert, spokesperson for the Marijuana Policy Project, agreed.
"The DEA's refusal to remove marijuana from Schedule I is, quite frankly, mind-boggling," he said Thursday. "It is intellectually dishonest and completely indefensible. Not everyone agrees marijuana should be legal, but few will deny that it is less harmful than alcohol and many prescription drugs. It is less toxic, less addictive, and less damaging to the body."
"We are pleased the DEA is finally going to end NIDA's monopoly on the cultivation of marijuana for research purposes," he continued. "Removing barriers to research is a step forward, but the decision does not go nearly far enough. Marijuana should be completely removed from the CSA drug schedules and regulated similarly to alcohol."
Currently, 42 states and the District of Columbia have adopted laws that recognize marijuana's medical medical value, and four states--Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington--have legalized recreational use. At least eight more states will consider marijuana-related issues in November, including ballot measures for full legalization in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.