Trump Administration Seeks Public Comments On Marijuana Reclassification

[Swordsmyth]

The federal government wants your input on whether marijuana should be reclassified under global drug treaties to which the U.S. is a party.

Specifically, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is asking for public comments about the "abuse potential, actual abuse, medical usefulness, trafficking, and impact of scheduling changes on availability for medical use" of cannabis and several other substances now under international review.
Under current U.S. federal law as well as global drug policy agreements, marijuana is classified in the most restrictive category of Schedule I. At home, that means it is considered illegal and not available for prescription, while research on its potential benefits is heavily restricted. Cannabis's international status means that nations who are signatories of drug control treaties are not supposed to legalize it, though that hasn't stopped Canada and Uruguay from doing so.

Public comments on marijuana's effects and legal status "will be considered in preparing a response from the United States to the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding the abuse liability and diversion of these drugs," Leslie Kux, FDA's associate commissioner for policy, wrote in a Federal Register filing published on Wednesday. "WHO will use this information to consider whether to recommend that certain international restrictions be placed on these drugs."
WHO's Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) is meeting in Geneva next month to consider the classification of marijuana and other substances, and is now seeking to "gather information on the legitimate use, harmful use, status of national control and potential impact of international control," the United Nations body said in a notice excerpted in the FDA filing.

More at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomangell/2018/10/10/trump-administration-seeks-public-comments-on-marijuana-reclassification/#7b22878c749a

[dannno]

Trump Endorses Prison Reform, while throwing a wet blanket on Sessions in the process
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?527364-Trump-Endorses-Prison-Reform-while-throwing-a-wet-blanket-on-Sessions-in-the-process

[Swordsmyth]

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), long a champion of legalizing marijuana, told the Fox Business Network on Thursday that President Donald Trump intends to reform federal policies on marijuana after the midterm elections in November. Trump’s new policy (https://www.civilized.life/articles/republican-says-trump-white-house-will-unveil-marijuana-reform/) is expected to approve the medical use of marijuana, while leaving the question of recreational marijuana to the states. That would fulfill a campaign promise from 2016, when Trump said (https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-and-clinton-on-weed-legalization-2016-11) he backed medical marijuana “100 percent.”
Rohrabacher told (https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/white-house-to-unveil-federal-cannabis-reform-very-soon-says-gop-lawmaker) Fox Business that the president had made a “solid commitment” to reform: ““I have been talking to people inside the White House who know and inside the president’s entourage… I have talked to them at length. I have been reassured that the president intends on keeping his campaign promise.”

More at: https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/10/12/dana-rohrabacher-trump-to-legalize-medical-marijuana-after-midterms/

[UWDude]

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), long a champion of legalizing marijuana, told the Fox Business Network on Thursday that President Donald Trump intends to reform federal policies on marijuana after the midterm elections in November. Trump’s new policy (https://www.civilized.life/articles/republican-says-trump-white-house-will-unveil-marijuana-reform/) is expected to approve the medical use of marijuana, while leaving the question of recreational marijuana to the states. That would fulfill a campaign promise from 2016, when Trump said (https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-and-clinton-on-weed-legalization-2016-11) he backed medical marijuana “100 percent.”
Rohrabacher told (https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/white-house-to-unveil-federal-cannabis-reform-very-soon-says-gop-lawmaker) Fox Business that the president had made a “solid commitment” to reform: ““I have been talking to people inside the White House who know and inside the president’s entourage… I have talked to them at length. I have been reassured that the president intends on keeping his campaign promise.”

More at: https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/10/12/dana-rohrabacher-trump-to-legalize-medical-marijuana-after-midterms/

Worst President ever.

[jmdrake]

My comment:

Comment:
The current laws on marijuana make absolutely no sense. Marijuana is scheduled worse than heroine and cocaine. One of the reasons that we have a federal system of government is that states can act as "laboratories of democracy." Well the data is now from states that have partially or fully decriminalized marijuana. In Colorado use of marijuana by teens went down after marijuana was legalized. (See: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/colorado-s-teen-marijuana-usage-dips-after-legalization/) Nationwide, states where marijuana has been legalized for medicinal or recreational use have a significantly lower incidence of opioid deaths. (See: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29019782 and https://www.wolterskluwercdi.com/dental-newsletters/study-on-the-relationship-between-medical-cannabis-laws-and-opioid-analgesic-overdose-deaths/)

The reasons for these results should be obvious. Drug dealers do not care to whom they sell but licensed dispensaries do, hence lower teen use post legalization. Further if someone who might use opioids to control pain instead uses marijuana that person is less likely to die because while you can "green out" from an overly high dosage of marijuana it is unlikely to kill you because THC does not affect pathway that, for example, control breathing the way opiods do. (See: https://www.leafscience.com/2017/10/17/overdose-marijuana/)

According to cancer.gov, marijuana may help shrink tumors. (See: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/cam/hp/cannabis-pdq#link/_26_toc)

Finally there is the constitutional question. When alcohol was prohibited that required a constitutional amendment. Drug prohibition should be the same. The interstate commerce clause should not legally cover marijuana grown and consumed with a state. Yes I am aware of Wickard v Filburn, but that was a poorly thought out decision made in part in response to FDR's threat to pack the supreme court with justices loyal to him. The case U.S. v Lopez, which struck down federal gun laws regarding school zones, should also be considered in other areas such as federal drug laws.

Now it's your turn. (Anybody reading this). I oppose Trump when he is wrong and support him when he is right. Same with Obama or any other president. (Obama was right to grant No Child Left Behind waivers and to begin the process of undoing the Clinton Crime Bill.) Anyway, talking to each other does nothing.

Here's the link.

https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=FDA-2018-N-3685-0001&p=1

+rep to anybody who actually comments and posts his/her comment in this thread. Once upon a time we ruled the political internet. Is that still true?

[shakey1]

Trump outta fucking know how the majority of Americans feel about this by now.

[Working Poor]

I hope Trump does this but I bet you anything that the dems will be the ones putting the most restrictions and tax on it if they let him get it thru.

[jmdrake]

I hope Trump does this but I bet you anything that the dems will be the ones putting the most restrictions and tax on it if they let him get it thru.

I have never understood the "But if the legalize marijuana they are going to tax" it argument. Of course it will be taxed. There's a sales tax on food which includes a tax on water if you buy it. They would tax the air if they could. Yes if marijuana is legalized it will be taxed. And.......?

[homahr]

Legalization should include exoneration and release of all non-violent marijuana offenders as well as expunging the records of any charges/arrests of marijuana related offenses for all with no exceptions.

[oyarde]

Legalization should include exoneration and release of all non-violent marijuana offenders as well as expunging the records of any charges/arrests of marijuana related offenses for all with no exceptions.

I can live with that .

[Swordsmyth]

Legalization should include exoneration and release of all non-violent marijuana offenders as well as expunging the records of any charges/arrests of marijuana related offenses for all with no exceptions.

I agree.

[Swordsmyth]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv2xG_dY1Go

[jmdrake]

My comment:

Comment:
The current laws on marijuana make absolutely no sense. Marijuana is scheduled worse than heroine and cocaine. One of the reasons that we have a federal system of government is that states can act as "laboratories of democracy." Well the data is now from states that have partially or fully decriminalized marijuana. In Colorado use of marijuana by teens went down after marijuana was legalized. (See: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/colorado-s-teen-marijuana-usage-dips-after-legalization/) Nationwide, states where marijuana has been legalized for medicinal or recreational use have a significantly lower incidence of opioid deaths. (See: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29019782 and https://www.wolterskluwercdi.com/dental-newsletters/study-on-the-relationship-between-medical-cannabis-laws-and-opioid-analgesic-overdose-deaths/)

The reasons for these results should be obvious. Drug dealers do not care to whom they sell but licensed dispensaries do, hence lower teen use post legalization. Further if someone who might use opioids to control pain instead uses marijuana that person is less likely to die because while you can "green out" from an overly high dosage of marijuana it is unlikely to kill you because THC does not affect pathway that, for example, control breathing the way opiods do. (See: https://www.leafscience.com/2017/10/17/overdose-marijuana/)

According to cancer.gov, marijuana may help shrink tumors. (See: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/cam/hp/cannabis-pdq#link/_26_toc)

Finally there is the constitutional question. When alcohol was prohibited that required a constitutional amendment. Drug prohibition should be the same. The interstate commerce clause should not legally cover marijuana grown and consumed with a state. Yes I am aware of Wickard v Filburn, but that was a poorly thought out decision made in part in response to FDR's threat to pack the supreme court with justices loyal to him. The case U.S. v Lopez, which struck down federal gun laws regarding school zones, should also be considered in other areas such as federal drug laws.

Now it's your turn. (Anybody reading this). I oppose Trump when he is wrong and support him when he is right. Same with Obama or any other president. (Obama was right to grant No Child Left Behind waivers and to begin the process of undoing the Clinton Crime Bill.) Anyway, talking to each other does nothing.

Here's the link.

https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=FDA-2018-N-3685-0001&p=1

+rep to anybody who actually comments and posts his/her comment in this thread. Once upon a time we ruled the political internet. Is that still true?

Am I the only one here that posted a comment? :(

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zmkab8/the-trump-administration-has-secretly-launched-an-anti-weed-committee


The Trump Administration Has Secretly Launched an Anti-Weed Committee

But no one outside the administration seems to know what it's doing.

Trying to figure out where the Trump administration stands when it comes to cannabis is so difficult that Donald Trump himself may not know. Marijuana legalization wasn't a big issue during the 2016 campaign, but Trump promised to leave the issue "up to the states," a fairly typical position. Then he appointed Jeff Sessions, a noted drug war crusader, to be his attorney general. At the beginning of this year, Sessions announced a policy change that would free federal prosecutors to go after marijuana growers and sellers—even in places where weed is legal under state law, seemingly signaling an anti-cannabis approach.

But Sessions's reefer madness is an outlier even in his own party. Many Republicans, especially young ones, support weed legalization, and cannabis-friendly legislation has been surprisingly successful in this GOP-dominated Congress. In 2017, a rider attached to a spending bill banned the Department of Justice from using funds to go after medical marijuana operations that are legal under state law, and more recently a bill to finally legalize hemp has been backed by Republicans including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Trump himself signaled vaguely in June that he "probably will end up supporting" a bipartisan Senate bill that would stop the federal government from interfering with states that have decided to legalize weed.

All that makes it even harder to decipher a Wednesday report from BuzzFeed News that the administration "has instructed 14 federal agencies and the Drug Enforcement Administration this month to submit 'data demonstrating the most significant negative trends' about marijuana and the 'threats' it poses to the country." That's part of the work of the "Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee," a previously unknown body that has apparently been charged with pushing an anti-marijuana line.

Anti-pot animus is apparently pretty common among the people putting this committee together. According to a summary of a meeting between the White House and nine federal departments obtained by BuzzFeed, “Staff believe that if the administration is to turn the tide on increasing marijuana use there is an urgent need to message the facts about the negative impacts of marijuana use, production, and trafficking on national health, safety, and security."

It's unclear what the committee is actually doing—the Trump administration refused to tell BuzzFeed anything about it on the record, though it didn't deny the committee's existence—but it seems strange to launch a project that's hostile to marijuana at a time when legalization is both popular in polls and winning at the ballot box.

Legalization is not without its problems. Experts are concerned that increased access to marijuana will lead to more people being addicted, and advocates are debating how to help people and communities harmed by the war on drugs as the legal weed industry expands. But the committee's apparent focus on demonizing weed risks missing problems caused by criminalization, like the bizarre gray legal area many cannabis businesses find themselves in.

Of course, this administration isn't the first to have a crappy prohibitionist stance toward weed. What makes the Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee a uniquely Trumpian government body is that it was launched in secret for reasons the administration won't explain and seems to contradict the president's own not-unfriendly public messaging about marijuana. How does this committee square with Trump's past statements? Does it represent a change in policy? Does Trump even know about it? Those would be routine questions for a normal administration to answer, but Trump has a way of turning the straightforward into the inscrutable.

[dannno]

Am I the only one here that posted a comment? :(

No

[jmdrake]

Am I the only one here that posted a comment? :(


No

+rep :)

[dannno]

+rep :)

I wonder if zippy made a comment, and what it might have been.. since he seems so interested.

[Swordsmyth]

Am I the only one here that posted a comment? :(

No.

[Grandmastersexsay]

the administration "has instructed 14 federal agencies and the Drug Enforcement Administration this month to submit 'data demonstrating the most significant negative trends' about marijuana and the 'threats' it poses to the country."

And if Trump didn't do his due diligence before descheduling marijuana he would be criticized for that. If your going to do something like deschedule marijuana, you might just want to say we fully investigated all the potential negative impacts first.

[jmdrake]

No.

+rep

[Mach]

And if Trump didn't do his due diligence before descheduling marijuana he would be criticized for that. If your going to do something like deschedule marijuana, you might just want to say we fully investigated all the potential negative impacts first.


It's literally called, The Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee.

This is what's happening..... ACCORDING TO THE BUZZFEED REPORT!!

Filled with propaganda.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xovOSqUxHvw

[CCTelander]

So, now Trump has secretly formed a "Reefer Madness" committee intended to impede progress toward legalization/decriminalization? Who ever could have seen such a move coming, I wonder?

[Swordsmyth]

So, now Trump has secretly formed a "Reefer Madness" committee intended to impede progress toward legalization/decriminalization? Who ever could have seen such a move coming, I wonder?
:rolleyes:


http://www.ronpaulforums.com/images/misc/quote_icon.png Originally Posted by Grandmastersexsay http://www.ronpaulforums.com/images/buttons/viewpost-right.png (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?p=6698164#post6698164)

And if Trump didn't do his due diligence before descheduling marijuana he would be criticized for that. If your going to do something like deschedule marijuana, you might just want to say we fully investigated all the potential negative impacts first.

[CCTelander]

:rolleyes:


So, more lame excuses and prognostications to justify actual, real life, anti-freedom actions? :rolleyes: indeed.

[Swordsmyth]

So, more lame excuses and prognostications to justify actual, real life, anti-freedom actions? :rolleyes: indeed.
If he wanted to be anti-freedom all he has to do is leave things as they are, the only reason to do this is to move towards legalization.

[dannno]

So, now Trump has secretly formed a "Reefer Madness" committee intended to impede progress toward legalization/decriminalization? Who ever could have seen such a move coming, I wonder?

Trump is setting one of his famous traps.

They were asked them to come up with negative trends specifically.. but if you look at the trends, like teen use, highway safety, opiate addiction and so on in places that have legalized we see positive trends.

The article said they are going to complain about the problems with trafficking operations and criminal elements, well, that is a great argument for legalization as well.

But yes, it is just them doing due diligence, but the way it is being framed will work in our favor.

That's why zippy and vice.. are fake news.

[osan]

WHO's Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) is meeting in Geneva next month

Experts on drug dependence? They are almost certainly NOT experts on liberty.

FAIL^FAIL