Obama Lies to Jake Tapper About His Ability to Reschedule Marijuana

[RainDog]

46. nothing mandates cannabis as a schedule I drug

Last edited Sat Feb 1, 2014, 02:57 PM - Edit history (1)

other than the supposedly temporary scheduling of cannabis as schedule I in the 1970s.

Holder, the DEA or Congress can change marijuana's drug scheduling without conflicting with international treaties - and the Single Convention is often interpreted as a statute dealing with trafficking, not individual use.

We already have three four nations (the U.S. via CO and WA, Uruguay, Canada, and Israel) in violation of the Single Convention in regard to cannabis, and the Single Convention itself is under attack by many European and South American nations that think it is obsolete.

I think Obama wants Congress to address this, but that doesn't mean Holder or the DEA could not do so. The Controlled Substances Act specifically mandated three routes by which scheduling could change - and those are the three.

I think his remarks have more to say about the backward ass nature of Congress and the desire of the DEA to protect its funding since most of the arrests for cannabis in the U.S. are for simple possession. They don't want to lose the gravy train that prohibition has been for them.

So, he's just putting off the issue. I understand this - but he doesn't explicitly say others cannot reschedule - he says Congress needs to do so. He said he wants Congress to do its job and make the schedule reflect the reality that Congress itself has declared marijuana has medical value by funding the law to create medical marijuana shops in DC.

eta: In fact, every nation that currently allows Sativex as a drug on its legal schedule of drugs contradicts the U.S. Controlled Substances Act. Those nations include Canada, Israel, Spain, Germany, Norway, and Great Britain, which was the first nation to legalize cannabis with the approval of Sativex as a prescription drug in 2010/