A federal appeals court ruled against the thousands of people who have experienced the life-saving effects of CBD oil by upholding the decision that the substance is a Schedule 1 drug.
The post Federal Court Proves Gov’t Loyalty to Big Pharma, Rules CBD Has No Medical Value appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
Hemp has the potential to be used in more than 25,000 products, which may explain why the federal government has wrongfully kept it classified as a Schedule 1 drug.
The post The History Of Hemp: America’s Love-Hate Relationship With One of The Planet’s Most Useful Plants appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
In a bipartisan push back against the tyrannical Jeff Sessions and his relentless war on cannabis, U.S. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) have introduced a bill that will end federal prohibition of marijuana.
“The fact is our marijuana laws in America are broken,” Democratic Sen. Cory Booker said at the bill’s unveiling at the Capitol. “They are savagely broken, and the jagged pieces are hurting American people.”
The Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States, or CARERS, Act would go directly after the DEA’s absurd and immoral classification of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act. It would allow for the states to act on their own in regards to possession, production, and distribution of medical marijuana.
While this bill was originally introduced in 2015 — as the first ever medical marijuana bill in the US Senate — it now boasts even more support, adding Democratic Sen. Al Franken and Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mike Lee.
This bill mirrors bipartisan legislation that was introduced in Congress by Representatives Tom Garrett (R-VA) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) to exclude cannabis from the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in February, and illustrates how preventing the government from caging and killing people over a plant has transcended party lines.
The CARERS Act also specifically addresses veterans and the ability to obtain this most beneficial plant. SB-683 directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to authorize VA health care providers to provide veterans with recommendations and opinions regarding participation in state marijuana programs.
“The reintroduction of the CARERS Act is the first of many steps we hope this Congress will take to end the federal prohibition of medical marijuana,” Don Murphy, director of conservative outreach for the Marijuana Policy Project, said in a statement. “Polls show overwhelmingly strong support for medical marijuana, and it spans the political spectrum.
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“The federal government should not be meddling in state laws that allow it or obstructing research into its many medical benefits.”
This bill comes at a dire time in the history of cannabis prohibition in America. Just after tyrant Jeff Sessions was exposed for privately sending a letter to congressional leaders asking them to turn legal medical marijuana patients into criminals, Republicans and Democrats put their party differences aside and joined forces to stave off the inevitable persecution of innocence that would follow such assinine policy.
“I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime,” Sessions penned. “The Department must be in a position to use all laws available to combat the transnational drug organizations and dangerous drug traffickers who threaten American lives.”
Notably, the senators are even calling Sessions out for his misguided rage against cannabis, pointing out how it has already — in spite of prohibition — saved the lives of countless children who suffer from seizures.
“I dare him to sit down with families and listen to their stories and then pursue a policy like he’s advocating for now,” Booker says of Sessions’ letter.
However, judging from Sessions’ ignorance and obstinance on the issue of marijuana, he would most likely arrest the parents and their child for possessing a controlled substance.
As Rolling Stone reports, While the bill’s proponents know their proposal faces an uphill battle, they also say they believe the effort is quickly picking up steam, especially because many red states have now passed some form of legal weed. “I believe things are changing and they’re changing fast,” Sen. Gillibrand tells Rolling Stone. “I think we will get the support we need.”
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Gillibrand is right, the times are changing. People are no longer accepting the status quo of government kidnapping and caging people for possessing a plant. People are also waking up to the fact that cannabis is a medicine and can fight our current opioid problem in this country.
Those who continue to persecute their fellow American for possessing this plant would do well to get on the right side of history and refuse to enforce such tyranny. After all, without the state’s enforcers willing to ruin people’s lives by extorting, kidnapping, caging, and killing people over pot, prohibition is nothing more a piece of paper, scribbled on by a bunch of corrupt lowlifes who couldn’t care less about their fellow human.
The government’s solution to every problem they create is to just pass more draconian rules on top of the immense pile of crap they have already dumped on Americans.
The Drug Enforcement Agency will publish a new rule on Monday banning five forms of synthetic marijuana, sometimes called “spice” or “K2”.
This action is based on a finding by the Administrator that the placement of these synthetic cannabinoids into schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act is necessary to avoid an imminent hazard to the public safety. As a result of this order, the regulatory controls and administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions applicable to schedule I controlled substances will be imposed on persons who handle (manufacture, distribute, reverse distribute, import, export, engage in research, conduct instructional activities or chemical analysis, or possess), or propose to handle, [five types of synthetic cannabinoids].
Synthetic marijuana is a man-made creation which is said to mimic the effects of marijuana.
Except that sometimes it makes you go crazy and die.
As I am sure you are aware, no death has ever been recorded as a direct result of marijuana–though every once in a while the media claims someone kills themselves after eating special brownies.
“Spice” however, has killed directly, and it is actually chemically addictive. The drug regularly makes users do crazy things, like walk into traffic, pass out in public, slip into comas, and every once in a while, murder their children.
So it may sound like spice should be illegal, (if you think prohibition ever really works).
But one problem is that the DEA already made five types of the synthetic cannabinoids illegal.
In 2011, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) placed five compounds that are commonly found in K2 on its list of illegal substances, to help clamp down on sales. But manufacturers responded by tinkering with the chemicals to sidestep the regulations.
This led to the creation of newer versions of K2 that are even more harmful than early versions, Scalzo said. The newest products on the street can cause low blood pressure and a slow heart rate, and may even result in coma, seizures and kidney damage, he said.
And because the compounds in the drugs can constantly change, their effects on users can be unpredictable and, in some cases, deadly.
Apparently, the DEA will just continue to make compound after compound illegal. That should do the trick… it’s worked so well in the past.
Or We Could Just Try Freedom
Spice has been a legal substitute for marijuana. People smoke it as an alternative to weed.
So wouldn’t the sane thing to do be legalize real marijuana? The risks of real pot pale in comparison to K2. This includes personal health risks due to the actual substance, as well as risks of injuries to oneself and others while using real cannabis.
It is insane that the reaction to an increase in the use of fake marijuana involves no discussion of the regulations which pushed the increase, the original laws which made cannabis illegal!
The same thing happened during prohibition of alcohol in the 1920’s when people turned to dangerous alternatives to commercially produced alcohol.
Legalize weed, and all the issues involving fake cannabinoids will go away. And it might even inadvertently solve a little bit of the opioid crisis–some people are only introduced to harder drugs because the same person who sells them weed also peddles heroin.
Prohibition doesn’t work! People come up with a replacement for whatever is banned, and look where it leads: to people overdosing and harming themselves and others with a far more dangerous alternative.
The only thing which can make you crazier than smoking spice is dealing with United States Government regulations.
