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.
Despite the fact that over half of the states in the country have legalized cannabis in some form, the federal government still insists that the plant—which has been found to treat a variety of diseases—is one of the most dangerous substances available, with no medicinal value.
Lawmakers in the state of California are now calling out the hypocrisy and calling for the government to reclassify cannabis. A joint resolution that received overwhelming support from the California Assembly, with a vote of 60-10, called for reclassification in order to allow for research that is currently banned with cannabis labeled as a Schedule I substance.
“The Legislature urges the Congress of the United States to pass a law to reschedule marijuana or cannabis and its derivatives from a Schedule I drug to an alternative schedule, therefore allowing the legal research and development of marijuana or cannabis for medical use and allowing for the legal commerce of marijuana or cannabis so that businesses dealing with marijuana or cannabis can use traditional banks or financial institutions for their banking needs, which would result in providing a legal vehicle for those businesses to pay their taxes, including, but not limited to, payroll taxes, unsecured property taxes, and applicable taxes on the products sold in accordance with state and local laws.”
California became the first state to legalize cannabis for medicinal use in 1996. But it was not until last November that it was legalized in the state for recreational use.
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As the resolution notes, cannabis has been “studied worldwide outside the United States for years” and has shown “efficacy for various conditions, such as wasting syndrome, as an antinauseant in those taking chemotherapy, Glaucoma (reduces intraocular pressure), Epilepsy (anti-seizure properties), migraine headaches and other types of pain, and anxiety.”
The Free Thought Project has provided extensive coverage of the healing power of cannabis, with groundbreaking studies such as a study that concluded cannabis can stop HIV from becoming AIDS; a study that confirmed that the majority of cannabis users give up prescription opiate medications; and a study that confirmed that cannabis has a “significant” effect on killing cancer cells.
READ MORE: DEA Agent Speaks Out: We Were Told Not to Enforce Drug Laws In Rich Communities
However, it should be noted that while the U.S. government continues to attempt to limit cannabis by keeping it a “Schedule I” substance, the government actually holds the patent to cannabis as medicine, affirming its value.
In addition to the opportunity for research, California’s joint resolution argued that cannabis should be rescheduled, because its current restrictions under federal law make it so that dispensaries and cannabis businesses “are unable to legally use traditional banking institutions.” As a result, “many vendors resort to the black market and involvement of organized crime making communities less safe.”
“Concerns about the criminality and forfeiture provisions in federal law impede traditional banking institutions from doing business with potential clients cultivating, researching, selling, or utilizing marijuana or cannabis and its derivatives, therefore making marijuana commerce very difficult. … The inability to use traditional banking institutions impedes local and state government from adequately monitoring true marijuana or cannabis utilization and shortchanges the respective taxes owed to taxing agencies, potentially costing state and local governments hundreds of millions of dollars in lost tax income.”
As TFTP reported earlier this month, the inability to use a traditional bank is currently being used as an excuse in Florida, where local lawmakers are pushing back against the public, and looking for reasons to prohibit the medical cannabis dispensaries that were approved by the vast majority of voters.
According to the results from a Harvard-Harris Poll that was published last month, 86 percent of Americans now support some form of cannabis legalization. With the overwhelming majority of Americans viewing cannabis as the plant that it is—instead of the terrifying gateway drug the federal government has made it out to be—it raises the question of whether other states will join California in demanding that Congress finally listen to the American public.
While certain members of the mainstream media are fixated on President Donald Trump’s tweets, one story written by MSM may have flown under the radar. The Free Thought Project has consistently reported the safety of marijuana, its uses, and its benefits. However, the federal government, state governments, and local governments, all continue to lock away otherwise law abiding citizens for using, and sharing marijuana. Now, one member of the mainstream media is starting to sound a lot like The Free Thought Project. Vox, in its article “The 3 Deadliest Drugs in America Are Legal”, written by German Lopez, tells the truth about legal substances which are killing people left and right.
With respect to tobacco, the article states, “Overall, cigarette smoking is linked to one in five deaths in the US each year, according to CDC estimates for average annual fatalities based on deaths between 2005 and 2009. Nearly 42,000 of the total 480,000 deaths from smoking are caused by secondhand smoke.”
It is important to note that the Free Thought Project does not advocate for the prohibition of any substance as it always leads to more death, more crime, and more abuse.
However, for a substance to be linked to 20 percent of the annual deaths, and still remain legal, perplexes us here at TFTP given the state’s claim of ostensibly protecting society. But we understand that the deal the tobacco companies made with the federal government (1997), in what some have called an extortion deal, promised to give the federal government a steady stream of income for generations, so long as the substance remains legal. For example, in 2010, the federal government took in 15.5 billion dollars in tax revenue. So, ending tobacco tax revenue streams would effectively cost the federal government more money than it’s willing to relinquish. If the aforementioned mortality statistics and the deal made with Uncle Sam aren’t enough proof of corruption, collusion, and coercion, we simply do not know what is.
READ MORE: Three Teenagers Facing 5 Years In Prison For Being Caught With Marijuana In a State Where It Is Legal
Moving on to alcohol, the statistics aren’t much better. “Alcohol-induced health problems, such as liver disease, led to more than 33,000 deaths in 2015. But that actually undercounts the number of deaths caused by alcohol: When including other causes of death like drunk driving and homicides, the toll rises to 88,000 per year,” the Vox article concludes.
And the relationship between alcohol and government is one based on monetary value to the tune of 5.6 billion per year. Despite all the PR ads advising consumers to “know how to drink responsibly” and “know when to say when”, for all intents and purposes, the federal government needs everyone to drink up! That way, the revenue stream will keep flowing, despite the nearly 100,000 individuals who lose their lives from drinking the toxins and who die in traffic fatalities.
Last but not least are opiates. Vox writes, “In the 1990s, drug companies, such as Purdue Pharma, pushed opioid painkillers on doctors and patients through an aggressive, misleading marketing campaign. Doctors, who were under pressure from advocates and government agencies to treat pain as a serious medical issue, prescribed the drugs in huge droves, letting them proliferate — not just to patients, but to the patients’ family and friends and the black market. As a result, opioid painkiller deaths skyrocketed.”
As TFTP reported at the end of last year, opioid-related deaths are skyrocketing. All the while, the federal government looks the other way while billions of opiate prescriptions are being filled every year. Last year, the government even approved the use of oxycontin for children.
READ MORE: Obama"s Drug Czar Admits Govt Suppressed Research Showing the Benifits of Cannabis
Unlike alcohol and tobacco, the federal government has not yet been able to capitalize on taxing opiates, but that’s all changing. In June of 2016, under the guise of using the tax funds to “treat” opioid addiction, several U.S. senators introduced a bill that would levy a federal tax on all opioids. Do you see a pattern yet? The Budgeting for Opioid Addiction Treatment Act would apply a one cent per milligram tax on opiates if passed.
Compared to marijuana, which kills practically no one according to the report, the dangers of tobacco, alcohol, and opiates are very real and growing in size and scope. The major difference between cannabis and other big three killers is that the federal government purposefully maintains marijuana as an illegal narcotic which must be eradicated.
Fortunately, states are beginning to redefine the long-standing definition the federal government attempts to impose on the citizens of the United States. Medical marijuana is now a very real option for not only those who suffer from chronic pain, but those who have intractable illnesses, and emotional conditions better treated with cannabis than with prescription drugs. The only real threat the American people have, with respect to marijuana, is that the federal government, under the new Trump administration, will attempt to ban it completely in favor of continuing to addict Americans to the three deadliest substances on the planet: tobacco, alcohol, and opiates. The truth is, the feds are probably just trying to figure out how they’ll get their cut.
