It’s hard to be more dysfunctional than the federal government and drug policy

Here’s the bad dysfunctional news: Breaking: In Fight Over Marijuana’s Scheduling, Appeals Court Rules in Favor of DEA and Schedule 1

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. ruled today in favor of the DEA’s decision to keep marijuana a Schedule I drug–a classification for substances that are highly addictive and have no widely accepted medical benefits.

“On the merits, the question before the court is not whether marijuana could have some medical benefits,” reads the court’s ruling in Americans for Safe Access v. Drug Enforcement Administration. Rather, the court was tasked with deciding whether the DEA was following its own rules in refusing to initiate reschedule proceedings for marijuana.

That’s right. The decision had absolutely nothing to do with whether marijuana had medical benefits or belonged in Schedule 1, but rather whether the DEA had followed its own rules that it created when it decided to protect its own budget by denying reality.

Here’s the good dysfunctional news: Inslee encouraged by pot talk with AG Holder

Inslee said the 45-minute conversation was “very satisfying” and a “confidence-builder” about the state’s ability to move forward implementing legal marijuana. “We went in thinking we should continue with rule-making and nothing I heard should dissuade us,” Inslee said.

At the same time, he stressed that Holder said nothing dispositive about the federal government’s intentions and whether it would crack down on Washington state or look the other way.

OK. Really? Here’s the Governor of a state meeting with the U.S. Attorney General and he can’t even get a clear answer regarding the law? And yet, that’s still better than he expected!

This is dysfunction brought to the heights.

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71 Responses to It’s hard to be more dysfunctional than the federal government and drug policy

  1. claygooding says:

    You didn’t think they built the drug war machine and all it’s satellite bureaucracies to give up that easily did you? We are talking about thousands of federal employees and rules and regulations woven into their programs to bring any attack against any of those letter gangs to steer the attack back to “catch 22” in the ONDCP policy which means anything they do that stops legalization or removal from schedule 1 is legal.

    I am like allan,,when is the march?

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Umm, had the Court ruled in favor of of its Country’s citizens rather than its bureaucratic stooges, it would have encompassed over 4 decades and at least 3 separate petitions of trying to get this issue settled. NORML filed the first rescheduling petition so frickin’ long ago that the petition was filed with the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous drugs in 1972. Seriously, you’d call that “giving up easily”?

      So what the heck was wrong with DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis Young’s 1988 ruling? Judge Young most certainly ruled that the law requires re-scheduling cannabis. Oh well, I didn’t think this controversy would be settled without being taken to the SCOTUS anyway. Don’t think I’m being too optimistic, if the SCOTUS refuses to grant certiorari that counts.

      • claygooding says:

        The giving up easily was in referring to the DEA,,not the advocates,,hell no,,we will never give up,,as one dies off,three replace us.

  2. allan says:

    I’m not sure the fantastical absurdity of this has comparison… but yeah, Catch-22 indeed

    so… the court was merely making sure the DEA was following its rules… rules which force absolute denial of cannabis’ positive aspects. Rules which give Doc Elsohly down in Missuszippi a very real monopoly (and after reading Radley’s latest piece on the state of criminal autopsy down there it makes perfect sense the US would have their pot farm there).

    A monopoly on the crop (well… on the legal crop), a monopoly on the rules, the courts… yep, it’s in their face time.

    • N.T. Greene says:

      It must be pretty great to have a job where you get to make all the rules and are able to undermine any potential balance changes. If the DEA was in the video game business, no one would buy their shit — it would have terrible issues day one and they would refuse to fix it, citing self-manufactured studies that say the game is just fine, thank you.

      I just enjoy thinking about a CSA that reflected reality, wherein you regulate instead of ban and use taxation and education to discourage problematic use. Because, unlike prohibition, that stuff is proven to work.

      • Matthew Meyer says:

        I like the image of the DEA as shitty game designers…

      • Windy says:

        http://ij.org/
        FTA:
        “Today’s ruling is a victory for hundreds of thousands of tax preparers across the country and the tens of millions of taxpayers who rely on them to prepare their taxes,” said Attorney Dan Alban of the Institute for Justice, the nation’s leading legal advocate for the rights of entrepreneurs. “This was an unlawful power grab by one of the most powerful federal agencies and thankfully the court stopped the IRS dead in its tracks. The court ruled today that Congress never gave the IRS the authority to license tax preparers, and the IRS can’t give itself that power.”

        Just wish that would be applicable to all other federal alphabet agencies, too. It SHOULD be obvious that it does apply to ALL of them (all of which are patently unconstitutional, but that is beside the point), but that will be ignored until someone takes each one of them to court based on this decision.

  3. Servetus says:

    The US Court of Appeals for D.C. in this case has just declared itself scientifically inept by refusing to acknowledge any scientific studies, or to understand the significance of major findings in recent marijuana research. It’s one more example showing the incompetent find it impossible to judge the competent.

    Courts that believe absurdities commit atrocities. The present Appeals Court acts to derail future, independent, cannabinoid research that could someday produce new drugs that keep the errant judges and their loved ones alive. That’s just one result of their decision. They also refuse to look at the legal distinctions between herbs and cannabis because they want to give Big Pharma its cut. But what do they care about justice?

    We might as well ask what the Court’s next atrocity will be. Maybe they’ll derail important climate change legislation because the science is too tough for them to understand, or bother with. Who cares if climate chaos ends life on earth as we know it? Certainly not the DC Court of Appeals. They stand behind the law, no matter how anti-science, corrupt, or destructive it may be.

    Claiming the government agency has the exclusive determination of the meaning of its regulations, and then allowing the agency to warp that meaning into some unrecognizable, perverse form, is the real conflict and question the court should have addressed.

    It’s like the government’s self-serving attempt to redefine torture in a way that makes it look okay to hire some incompetent lawyer to promote it and influence a gullible public. It’s like letting Hitler get away with quoting the Bible, which he often did, to justify his pogrom against the Jews. Abuse of power was the real topic to be decided in this case, and all the Appeals Court would do is let the DEA redefine the word ‘abuse’ to fit its own, unjust, agenda.

    • allan says:

      aye mate, well said…

      Clinton was so right, it does all depends on what your definition of is is.

      I knew Pete would post on this and when I read it I laughed, out loud.

      It sounds like Inslee took the journey down the rabbit hole. Never having had the experience of DMT I still can’t help but think anti-ganjaism truly does cause (often severe) cognitive dysfunction, paranoia…

      • allan says:

        urp…

        Never having had the experience of DMT I still can’t help but think anti-ganjaism is an even stronger drug. It truly does seem to cause (often severe) cognitive dysfunction, paranoia and hallucinations, delusions of grandeur…

    • War Vet says:

      Surely there is another action that can be taken with the courts to disqualify the DEA entirely. It would be a safe bet that a DEA paycheck is a pretty good paycheck. The DEA get a profit by allowing Chinese hemp to be sold in America via not allowing American hemp, which is a violation of the 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Since such an action is deemed unethical in the business world, wouldn’t it be said that the DEA don’t even apply their own standards since they don’t apply to the standards of Federal Law in regards to monopolies and trusts?

  4. N.T. Greene says:

    My .02:

    All aboard the SCOTUS train, fellas.

    Though, if Obama doesn’t start rushing to crack down on the legal states, Hawaii might just do it too, and I don’t forsee them stopping an even bigger bleed.

    All this is, at worst, the thrashing of a wounded animal. So long as the majority of our cause is not crushed underfoot, it will fall. 2016 is the last stand for this round of Prohibition, if it doesn’t end before that.

    I’m still optimistic that there will be federal level action to allow states to implement these laws — though perhaps that should have been built into the CSA in THE FIRST PLACE.

    Or maybe they could have listened to the original DEA judge concerning marijuana. That would have been worked into my oral arguments. Oh, yeah, the DEA says this stuff now, but their original commission said it was the “safest theraputically active substance known to man”. And don’t give me your “but we don’t know what all the cannabinoids do” bullshit. The FDA allows genetically altered foods onto the market without additional labeling in some cases, and we sure as hell don’t know what the long term effects are in that case. You get to have -one- set of standards.

    Unless you’re in the DC Circuit.

  5. Peter says:

    more bad news for reality: biden may run in 2016

  6. Francis says:

    So… the federal government decided that the federal government followed the federal government’s own rules in refusing to reschedule cannabis — rules that were designed to allow the federal government to ignore the overwhelming evidence of cannabis’ medical benefits and unrivaled safety? Seems legit.

    • David L. Marsh Sr. says:

      Yep…. “The scope of review under the ‘arbitrary and capricious’ standard is narrow and a court is not to substitute its judgment for that of the agency.” [Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass’n of the U.S., Inc. v. State Farm Mut. Auto.Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 43 (1983)].

      “On the record before us, we hold that the DEA’s denial of the rescheduling petition survives review under the deferential arbitrary and capricious standard.”

      The ASA made the wrong argument. They argued inside the statute against the Court’s accepted federal definition of “accepted medical use”. “Accepted medical use” requires “adequate and well-controlled studies proving efficacy.” [Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics v. DEA, 15 F.3d 1131 (D.C. Cir. 1994)]. “We defer to the agency’s interpretation of these regulations and find that substantial evidence supports its determination that such studies do not exist.”

      The right argument is a “Federalism” argument against Federal authority to make a definition of medical efficacy.[Gonzales v. Oregon, 546 U.S. 243 (2006)] The CSA is flawed because it uses a medical standard [21 U.S.C. § 812(b)(1)(B)] they do not have the authority to make. Gonzalez says that right is the States.

      • Windy says:

        David, One small correction. States, all levels of government in fact, do not have “rights”, they have powers (in the case of the fed gov strictly limited powers clearly enumerated in the Constitution, which limits and enumerated powers, said gov ignores and violates, constantly). Your final sentence should have read “Gonzalez says that power is the States’.”

    • salalscribe says:

      Okay, so in the U.S., the day following Martin Luther King Day is DEA Omnipotence Day. Got it.

      • allan says:

        it does make it easy to remember…

        Not sure how many here are into the entheogenic realms but there is a relevant tale I’d like to share…

        … in ’92 – ’93 I worked for The Nature Conservancy for a year, rehabing a century old farmhouse on a quarter section of land down in southern Oregon’s high desert. Beautifully isolated, clear skies, mild summers and cold winters. No electricity, had to pump water to the 3,000 gal storage tank using my truck as the power supply, 15 miles from nowhere and ten of that down a very dusty dirt road.

        Since then I go camping out there every couple of years or so and occasionally some fun guys (the teonanacatl gang) go with. Where I camp there’s a hot spring (Oregon’s hottest), relatively unknown (tho’ as more get to know it the more trashed it becomes). (this is the view north just a few hundred yards from the hot springs)

        On one of my ventures, the shroomies and I had a great conversation as I soaked for hours under the stars of a moonless sky. The conversation was about acting upon knowledge and how much responsibility accompanies the having of knowledge. Especially when there are great wrongs occurring and having the knowledge of, why and about those wrongs can – and should – be a force towards stopping them.

        And we talked about Martin. About how his actions became the ultimate acceptance of responsibility’s burdens. It was about invoking righteous speech, words crafted so sharply they stabbed to the heart. And it was about accepting responsibility being the driving force behind personal action… Gandhi, Mother Teresa… MLK… (Crazy Horse too!) I think Bobby Kennedy would have followed the path MLK had laid had he not been killed so soon after Dr King.

        It was an interesting night and led me down paths of thought I’d never before ventured. All with the sky overhead so filled with stars the milky way was full on 3D (4D?) and there actually wasn’t a spot in the sky that didn’t have a star in it… stoned to the gills but cognition firing on all cylinders, clarity and coherence sharpened to a keen edge and all w/ a living universe flowing magnificently all around. And being in a hot mineral bath is so conveniently near sensory deprivation anyway…

        I had no idea the fun guys had an interest in civil disobedience. But that experience did reinforce my agreement w/ Terence McKenna on teonanacatl as a distinct conscious entity.

        • Irie says:

          Allan, I am originally from southern/eastern Oregon, where exactly were you, around Summer Lake?Just curious, made me home sick when I was reading it!

        • allan says:

          I was living east of Lakeview, 15 miles north of Adel in the Warner Basin. 4500′ elevation. Some of the finest country on the planet. Some good folks too. I was a long-haired hippie in buckaroo country – and working for one u’ them thar en-viro-mental groups – and we got along just fine. My cute-as-hell infant daughter and my young and slim, beautiful, bosomous young wife helped normalize things a bit. Would be great country to grow an Afghani strain crop in.

        • darkcycle says:

          Yup. The mushrooms show an interest in all kinds of things us humans do. And they’ll tell you about it, too.

        • Irie says:

          Allen, Lakeview ismy old stompin grounds!! Grew up there,graduated from Lakeview highschool, and have about 100 of timber land there, was hoping that hemp/legalization law was going to pass, was going to move back and start a family business. Maybe in 2016. Lake county is truly God’s country, glad to hear you enjoyed living among the jack rabbits, sagebrush and antelope! I’m homesick just thinking of it!!

        • allan says:

          We were there ’92 – ’93. That winter was the one where the couple heading to Boise (or Salt Lake) tried cutting thru Sheldon Antelope Refuge and got stuck. Had a baby, made an ice cave, toes and fingers lost to frostbite…

          It was so quiet there could hear my neighbor’s cows, across Crump Lake, 5 miles away.

          Used to park the pickup in front of Safeway, windows down and keys in it. Made pretty good friends w/ the Lane family and Jean and Earl Rogers. Had Glenn Perky call us “just reg’lar folks” and that was when I knew all was good.

          God’s country for sure.

          Shows how small the world can be, eh?

  7. claygooding says:

    Our government will bankrupt our nation before releasing hemp to the open market in the US or anywhere in the world because the backbone of the world economy is rooted in corporations that depend on hemp prohibition remaining in place.

    The oil industry,,with bio-fuel produced from renewable hemp crops,,how would they keep their profits and assets secure if they couldn’t have fuel shortages and price control when they cannot control farmers but they can turn off oil wells? And they are a major part of the foundation of our economy.

    And of course the pharmaceutical corporations,,if you are familiar with all the health issues cannabis can treat,,imagine the losses they will suffer from cannabis legalization.

    The arms manufacturers,,imagine no wars over oil or the loss of control when any country can grow enough hemp to fuel their own transportation systems.

    And all the other hemp products from lumber to plastic that our markets depend on selling other countries.

    It is going to take a serious in their face situation to ever change and it may take more patriots blood to cleanse the roots of freedom.

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  9. muggles says:

    They are so entrenched in keeping their jobs……but makes me a bit ill feeling because I have been following the progression of this case for a long time….maybe 15 yrs…and yet this nothingness…Please get real fed govt…all we want is truth, honesty, science, medicine, freedom…It has medical value…the AMA says it does…tens of thousand of doctors say it does…you people are willfully stupid…you don’t see, or hear, or say any good thing in behalf of this herb (editable, medicinal) herb….God given or either evolved along with humanity plant…go find some other cause to bully because you are looking sillier all the time.

  10. divadab says:

    Re: WA Gov Inslee – it seems to me that the State’s attempt to implement a regulatory regime, as the people instructed it to do in passing I-502, will founder. WHy? As long as there are squads of federal employees based in WA State whose job it is to enforce cannabis prohibition, they will attack any regulatory regime. Any self-respecting person, even if he knows his job is to enforce bad law, will try to do his job as best he can.

    President Obama could reschedule cannabis by executive order. That he hasn’t and won’t demonstrate that he is a slave to the current order, not a leader. And Holder is the guy presiding over the prosecution of cannabis dispensaries completely in compliance with CA STate law. Why would he do any different in WA?

    To rely on the feds to be anything but corrupt servants of prohibition is foolhardy.

    • claygooding says:

      If the feds can keep any “legal” market restricted enough to continue the prohibiting hemp,,we may get legalized weed but the minute anyone tries to use outdoor grows,,they will be busting left and right.

      As long as the feds can keep production indoors the prohibition of hemp continues. Keeping it indoors raises production costs enough to keep the black market strong and our drug warriors jobs.

    • darkcycle says:

      As much as I wish it were otherwise, I think we’re destined to be a Grey Market State.
      As to the Appeals decision, I think they will continue to claim it has no medical use, and that the now thousands of peer reviewed studies do not exist as long as they can control what research they will accept. Until a Judge steps up and says “THIS is the research you MUST use to asses the re-scheduling”
      “we shall NOT look through your telescope, for we KNOW what we shall see…” said the Churchmen to Gallileo…

  11. Servetus says:

    Aaron Swartz’s killer, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, has come under the microscope. Scrutiny by writer Christian Stork has revealed Ms. Ortiz’s dishonorable office is also responsible for the ongoing seizure attempt by the DEA of a small, non-chain, family motel located in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, owned by Mr. Russ Caswell, and discussed in earlier postings here on DrugWarRant.

    The Caswell fiasco means the drug law reform movement has a stake in seeing Carmen Ortiz dismissed from her official position, both as it relates to her legitimized extortion attempt against Mr. Caswell to steal his property, and to her use of mandatory minimums to extort guilty pleas from defendants.

    Christian Stork:

    For Carmen Ortiz, Russ Caswell was like the weakest kid on the block who was wearing something she, or the agencies her office represents, coveted. In the cases of Aaron Swartz, Tarek Mehanna and John O’Brien, Ms. Ortiz’s fervency seems to have stemmed from the publicity such cases were sure to generate. All the defendants insisted on their innocence and fought the charges. The jury’s still out on O’Brien and Caswell, but Swartz and Mehanna have paid the price for their defiance.

    If you haven’t already done so, petitions are available here for Carmen Ortiz and her partner in humanitarian crime, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Heymann, to call upon the White House to take action and fire them. Heymann still needs more votes to qualify for the minimum 25K.

    • stlgonzo says:

      I believe they changed that threshold for response to 100K.

      • darkcycle says:

        Of course they did. That whole “petition” thing has turned out to be such a bother.
        I still think it is the functional equivalent to talking to the president on my kid’s “Elmo phone”.

      • Cannabis says:

        Both of these petitions were started before the change in the signature threshold. So, they need 25,000. The Ortiz petition has passed that threshold, but the Heymann petition still needs another 10,000 signatures.

  12. stlgonzo says:

    OT: lighten the mood a little, and oldie but a goodie.

    Cop eat marijuana brownies think they are dying and call 911 Best 911 Call ever

    http://tinyurl.com/aq7sn94

    • Freeman says:

      “you should learn to articulate what you’re fighting for”

      Great advice, and a big part of what we all come here for! RIP David Purchase, you were a real hero.

  13. primus says:

    If you want to see heroes, look in the mirror. Everyone who writes these entries or a letter to the editor takes a chance every time. The Man can find out who we are, can take measures to punish our impunity at speaking up against The Man. Knowing this we all continue. We are heroes. All of us. We are the heroes moving the discourse forward. I bow to the assembled heroes on this and other blogs and LTE’s in newspapers. Major Attaboys all around.

    • claygooding says:

      Then why does reading the article on the court decision leve me feeling beat-up? Shouldn’t we be able to ignore the shame of living in a country touted as the leader of the world in democratic governments when we actually have tyranny in complete control?

      • thelbert says:

        when they have to lie and hide the facts, they are not winning. and we are not beaten, it’s just taking a long time for us to correct the learning deficiencies of our would-be masters. our “democracy” has been selecting stupid ideas for a long time, so it will take a while to dispel the ignorance endemic in the “homeland”. as for the federal court, they have no jurisdiction over my garden. never did, never will. once they lost the psychological high ground, they lost the war.

        • claygooding says:

          I saw some first flowers on a White Widow this am that a friend sent me,,it made a shiver run up my backbone and drool ran from the corner of my mouth,,my friend didn’t give me the estimated ripening period so I am searching several seed banks to estimate it’s ripening week.

          Waiting on the FP he sent me,,I let it green for 10 days longer than the WW because it was 1/2 the height.

          I don’t even care if I get a male,,I will stage an orgy in my cabinet.

      • primus says:

        Self-aggrandizement is not the same as having others feel and speak that way about you. The greatest strength the US has is its ability to sell itself, to BS the world etc. Now, with the interweb and modern communications the screen has been pulled back and everyone is asking “Who says?” and the answer from the US is “We says.” and the rest of the world says “Meh.” End of US influence. WW indoors 56-70 days, outdoors 70-84 days.

        • claygooding says:

          My average from 3 sites wad 60>70 days,,,but I have seen two plants from the same seeds take a week to 10 days longer than the other,,no obvious reason,,they are such fickle bitches.

  14. Dante says:

    So, the feds decided that cannabis cannot be taken off Schedule 1 because it has not gone through medical testing – which the DEA controls and forbids.

    Catch 22!

    But there is more – to be put on Schedule 1, there must be all kinds of medical testing to prove the drug is dangerous, with no medical use. Only cannabis was put on Schedule 1 with no medical testing for harm.

    My question: Has anyone challenged that (you can’t take it off Schedule 1 without medical testing, so how come you can put it on Schedule 1 with no medical testing)?

    Why? I know the answer already.

    Protect & Serve (Themselves!)

  15. Rusty Neil says:

    I only discovered two years ago that I have an adrenal adenoma, but I have lived for 20 years with this disease. It is a non cancerous adrenal tumor, that causes “Conn’s syndrome.” No blood pressure medications kept my blood pressure down, but cannabis has. The doctors did not believe me, until I found a study on pubmed that found that endocannabinoids (which marijuana mimics), lower levels of the hormone aldosterone, reducing blood pressure.
    A description of this study can be found here:
    http://www.scribd.com/doc/121438854/Absolute-Proof-of-Marijuana-s-Critical-Medical-Value-in-the-Treatment-of-Conn-s-Syndrome
    I put this paper together to let everyone know about how beneficial medical marijuana can be. Without it, my blood pressure quickly rises to 200/130, and no blood pressure medications will bring it down. It literally saves my life everyday, and this study explains why.
    This study proves that the recent ruling that refused to remove Marijuana from Schedule I is bogus.

    • claygooding says:

      There is one study done to FDA standards and I have not checked the pdf to see if it is on there.
      It was:
      ‘Gold Standard’ Studies Show That Inhaled Marijuana Is Medically Safe And Effective

      Full text of the CMCR’s report to the California legislature is available at online at: http://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/CMCR_REPORT_FEB17.pdf.

      “”The CMCR program was founded in 2000 following an $8.7 million appropriation from the California state legislature. The studies are some of the first placebo-controlled clinical trials to assess the safety and efficacy of inhaled cannabis as a medicine to take place in over two decades.””

      These studies met the DEA’s supposed criteria of being FDA clinical testing but all we ever heard was that the drug czar had issues with the studies,,never heard what his issues were and it was probably the issue of proving smoked marijuana is medicine.

      • allan says:

        well now… just a thought but when folks like Patrick Kennedy and his Project SAM group start spouting off about schizophrenia and IQ drop studies showing harm, shouldn’t those studies meet DEA standards? Was just reading a story (not badly done) about Kennedy and SAM and if the Oz studies they’re using is the best they can drum up, I pities the foo’s.

  16. allan says:

    it was probably the issue of proving smoked marijuana is medicine

    aye, that’s a sticky wicket awright… best step over it, or walk around. But don’t! touch it. Good lord, the havoc that would ensue…

    • claygooding says:

      And they did it with government grown 4.5%>6% thc weed,,could you imagine the same tests done with Afghan Kush?

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  18. DAMU99 says:

    This has to be seen as akin to slavery , and the states that have legalized as the ” Free States”

    The justification for slavery is the same reason marijuana prohibition began. We must approach this battle on the essential merits of it being unconstitutional.

    The merry go round that the DEA has in place to protect big pharma is criminality in a perpetual state.

    One only has to look at the quotes from Mr. Anslinger himself.

    The case has to be fought on a constitutional basis attacking the root of the implementation of the tax stamp ,and the initial federal ban.

    The President should be made to feel shame as he being a constitutional scholar , and the First African American President has refused to step forward , and correct the disastrous policy.

    Cannabis Prohibition was designed to protect the emerging plastics, and oil industries at its ROOT.

    The side note was to use the law to disenfranchise, and disproportionately target African American Men.

    They want to keep that structure in place by any means necessary.

    The medical fight has been won, and stands to gain more ground in the future.

    Right now the focus should be on full legalization on a state by state basis.

    That will absolutely positively..Break the back of Prohibition…

    48 to go … Lets get moving….

    • Tony Aroma says:

      Actually, prohibition is a lot more like slavery than you might think. By telling us what we can and cannot ingest, the government is essentially telling us we do not control our own bodies. And if someone has ultimate and complete control over your body, I’d say that makes you a slave. Maybe the CSA should be challenged on the basis of the 13th Amendment, which prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude.

  19. primus says:

    Here in Canuckistan, there is a lot of hype about an upcoming petition drive to put a plebiscite on the ballot which would effectively legalize possession in British Columbia. They are setting things up so they can meet the high standards during a brief signature gathering window. Long time activist Dana Larson is crisscrossing the province getting volunteers in place etc. Good Luck folks.

  20. Pingback: Marijuana Legalization Would Promote Drug Use, DEA Contends – Huffington Post | ganjatimes.com

  21. Tony Aroma says:

    I think they’re going about this backwards. Somebody should petition the DEA to add alcohol as a schedule 1 controlled substance. It would be fun to see them defending safety and medicinal uses of alcohol while demonizing cannabis.

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