The Drug Enforcement Agency Defines A Schedule 1 Substance

Marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug in America (behind only alcohol and tobacco), and has been used by nearly 100 million Americans. According to government surveys, some 25 million Americans have smoked marijuana in the past year, and more than 14 million do so regularly despite harsh laws against its use. Our public policies should reflect this reality, not deny it.(keith stroepe). Marijuana should be legalized for medical use across the country. Marijuana has been used medically, recreationally and spiritually for about 5,000 years. Under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, marijuana was classified as a Schedule I drug because it was considered to have no “accepted medical use in treatment in the United

Background: The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 established the federal prohibition of marijuana. Dr. William C. Woodward of the American Medical Association testified against the Act, arguing that it would ultimately prevent any medicinal use of marijuana. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 established five categories, or "schedules," into which all illicit and

Since the 1970’s marijuana has been considered a schedule 1 drug by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Schedule 1 drugs are drugs that serve no medical purposes at all, has high potential for abuse and has lack of accepted safety use. Among marijuana, other schedule 1 drugs include heroin, LSD, ecstasy, and etc. Marijuana should not be in listed among these drugs for many reasons. Marijuana is much safer than the drugs list and does not have a high abuse rate like the other drugs. It also have many medical properties to contradict one of the schedule 1 safety guidelines.

Drug policy is a crucial topic in the country today. Substance abuse, as well as drug-related crime rates, are a huge problem. This is a fact. The way to fix the problem of substance abuse, however, is widely disagreed upon. Some think that stricter laws regarding drug possession and use would solve the problem, while others believe that loosening the restrictions would be a better option. The issue of legalizing drugs, especially marijuana, is one that is debated all the time. In fact, in 1995, a survey was conducted on the most important policy issues and eighty five percent of the country placed drugs at the top of the list (Falco 1996). Many states are actually beginning to decriminalize, and even

There is one big problem about the testing of marijuana; the government still classifies it as illegal. They refuse to put it down to a schedule two drug along with cocaine and morphine which they classify as having medical value. Maia Szalavitz of Time magazine compared the addiction rate of marijuana users against tobacco and other hard drugs. She stated, “Marijuana is much less addictive, coming in at 9% to 10%. In contrast, 23% to 25% of heroin users get addicted, along with 15% of alcohol users and 15% to 20% of those who use cocaine.” Nicotine in cigarettes addicts about up to 30% of those who smoke, along with being more harmful to the body according to Robert Melamede. Marijuana seems like it would be a legitimate candidate for medicinal use country wide when compared to alcohol which is legal, cocaine, and morphine which have accepted medical use but also can be more harmful to the user.

For the sake of building off the previous entry, I would like to incorporate a couple of marijuana related legal statistics from Steven Nelson’s article Police Made One Marijuana Arrest Every 42 Seconds in 2012. The Federal Bureau of Investigation released data on the crime figures for drug-related crimes in 2012 and it showed that a staggering 749,825 people were arrested for marijuana related offenses; that is one arrest every 42 seconds. It also accounted for 48.3 percent of all drug arrests. Even with the recent upsurge in public support for the liberation of the drug policy, police arrested the same number of people in 2012 on pot-related charges as they did in 2011. These numbers have led many people to begin forming advocacy groups geared to decriminalize the drug. Dan Riffle, the director of

The federal government considers marijuana an illegal Schedule I drug. Because the federal government deems the drug illegal and it is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the drug cannot legally be prescribed.

Later the Act was ruled unconstitutional and was replaced with the Control Substance Act in 1970. The new Act settled schedules for ranking different substances based off their potency (Reiman, Amanda, and Malik Burnett). Marijuana was placed in the most restrictive of the categories known as schedule I. According to the (DEA) the classifications consist of five categories: Schedule I being the most serious and having the highest potential for addiction and abuse. Schedule II, III, IV, and V drugs have less potential risk for addiction and

Back in June the marijuana community anticipated a DEA decision on rescheduling marijuana from a Schedule I controlled substance to some other scheduling. For political or other reasons the DEA simply made no decision at all. The outcome being that marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance alongside heroin, LSD, and mescaline.

Another important detail to remember is that marijuana is not proven to lead to the consumption of other drugs. “...the vast majority of people who use

Marijuana is classified as a schedule I controlled substance because there are studies that suggest that it has a high potential for abuse and that there is no solid evidence that it has medical benefits. Medical institutes like the British Medical Association (BMA) state that marijuana has been linked to health issues such as heart disease, lung cancer, bronchitis, and emphysema. Most importantly the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is in charge of approving and rejecting drugs for safe medical uses, has not approved smoked marijuana as a medical treatment. The FDA has stated that there is not enough reliable evidence showing that marijuana is a safe and an effective treatment. There is more evidence supporting that smoked marijuana

Marijuana has become one of the most controversial drugs in America. Ever since its cultivation began around 1611, marijuana has puzzled people with its effects. Many question marijuana?s classification as a schedule one drug. A schedule one drug is one that has a high potential for abuse and no medicinal value. Some argue that the war on drugs, in particular marijuana, has cost taxpayers billions and is wasting funds that could be used on more important tasks such as improving transportation or education. As drug arrests rise, so do the populations in state prisons. This has become an immediate problem with no real solution. The legalization of possessing small amounts of marijuana can contribute positively to the medical and

Prohibition hasn 't stopped the use and domestic production of marijuana so it 's time everyone faced the facts. Marijuana should be legal because punishment such as prohibition or incarceration does not help the country in any way shape or form but in return causes a lot of problems. There is no true good evidence that prohibition or even incarceration decreases the use of drugs or drug dealing. Actually there are many theories that suggest prohibition might actually increase drug use i.e. the "forbidden fruit" effect, and easier accessibility for the youth. Prohibition and incarceration has failed to control the use and domestic production of marijuana. The government has tried to use criminal penalties to prevent marijuana use for more than 75 years and yet marijuana is now being used by over 25 million people every year. Marijuana is currently the largest cash crop in the United States, and marijuana is grown all over the world whether it is grown legal or illegal. Claims that marijuana prohibition is a successful policy are outrageous and very much so unsupported by the facts. Arrests for marijuana possession mostly affect blacks and Hispanics and reinforce many people’s perception that law enforcement is biased and prejudiced against minorities. Blacks account for approximately 13% of the population of the United States and about 13.5%

It should seem odd to most that a plant with so many resources is also classified as a Schedule 1 drug. Drugs are classified within five different categories that are based on the drugs acceptable medical use and its potential for abuse or dependency (www.justice.gov). The official DEA website defines Schedule 1 drugs as, “The most dangerous class of drugs with a high potential for abuse and potentially severe psychological and/or physical dependence (www.justice.gov).” Schedule 2 drugs are defined as, “Drugs with a high potential for abuse, less abuse potential than Schedule I drugs, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence. These drugs are also considered dangerous (www.justice.gov)” Schedule 2 drugs include substances such as: cocaine, methamphetamine, methadone, hydromorphone (Dilaudid), meperidine (Demerol), oxycodone (OxyContin), fentanyl, Dexedrine, Adderall, and Ritalin (www.justice.gov).

Then there is the fact that smoking marijuana does not lead to drug abuse or even the experimentation of other drugs. Again, the Huffington Post states “as Scientific American points out,