Govs. Chafee, Gregoire lobby for reclassification of marijuana
Carlos Osorio
In their joint letter, governors Lincoln Chafee, the independent governor of Rhode Island (and a former Republican senator), and Christine Gregoire, the Democratic governor of Washington, urge the DEA to change marijuana's classification from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule II drug, which would enable pharmacies to dispense it to patients with a prescription.
Among those drugs classified as Schedule I include heroin, opiates, morphine, and L.S.D.
In a June 21 letter, DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart argued that marijuana has "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States"; "has a high potential for abuse," and "lacks accepted safety for use under medical supervision," according to the Los Angeles Times.
Gregoire and Chafee dispute that characterization of marijuana, citing support from the American Medical Association and The American College of Physicians of the investigation and clinical research of marijuana for medicinal use. The governors also note that the Rhode Island Medical Society, the Washington State Medical Association the Washington State Pharmacy and other institutions also support the reclassification of marijuana.
"Americans' attitudes toward medically prescribed marijuana are changing, and medical organizations throughout the country - including the Rhode Island Medical Society and the American Medical Association - have come to recognize the potential benefits of marijuana for medical use," Chafee said in a Wednesday statement. "Patients across Rhode Island and across the United States, many of whom are in tremendous pain, stand to experience some relief."
"Governor Gregoire and I are taking this step to urge the Federal Government to consider allowing the safe, reliable, regulated use of marijuana for patients who are suffering," Chafee added.
In a statement, Gregoire cited "poll after poll" showing "an overwhelming majority" of Americans who "now see medical marijuana as legitimate."
Poll: Public supports medical marijuana, but not full pot legalization"Sixty percent of voters in our state said yes on a 1998 ballot measure," she said. "An ever-growing number of doctors now tell thousands of suffering patients they may find relief from the unique medicinal qualities of cannabis. There is simply no question that pharmacists could safely and reliably dispense cannabis to patients -- just as they do for other controlled and more problematic drugs."
Washington and Rhode Island are two of 16 U.S. states in which the use of marijuana is legal for medicinal purposes. But according to Gregoire and Chafee, "the divergence in state and federal law creates a situation where there is no regulated and safe system to supply legitimate patients who may need medical cannabis."
"What we have out here on the ground is chaos," Gregoire told the New York Times in an interview. "And in the midst of all the chaos we have patients who really either feel like they're criminals or may be engaged in some criminal activity, and really are legitimate patients who want medicinal marijuana."
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Tell your representatives -> http://pvox.co/CdiFqY
America and especially Michele Leonhart failed to learn the lessons of alcohol prohibition.
Lesson #1: Human appetites cannot be legislated.
Lesson #2: Prohibition promotes graft, corruption and violence.
Lesson #3: Prohibition benefits drug cartels, the prison industry and corrupt bureaucrats.
Lesson #4: Prohibition ruins more lives than the drugs from which the bureaucrats claim to protect us.
Lesson #5: Prohibition does not work.
END THE FAILED, FOOLISH WAR ON DRUGS! LEGALIZE.
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This is the wording of the law against the use of Cannabis; how thought provoking an answer from Michele Leonhart. Do we as taxpayers deserve this type of answer from a well payed public employee? Seems that the DEA has no original thinkers on the Federal pay roll. The Cannabis family of plants should be legalized so society may fully enjoy the benefits.
Mj available = less alcohol consumed = less alcoholics on the road = less traffic death's.
http://www.iza.org/en/webcontent/personnel/photos/index_html?key=4915
Facts are a wonderful thing, no matter how inconvenient they may be to some. No wonder America's alcohol industry, pharmaceutical industry, private prison industry, lobby BILLIONS of dollars to corporate owned federal government to maintain prohibition.
Must be a lot of money to buy the corrupted filth and audacity necessary to then tell Americans that marijuana is worse than alcohol via laws, and worse than cocaine via drug scheduling.