Marijuana has a lower potential for abuse than other drugs that are subjected to the same restrictions, with scientific support for its use as a medical treatment, researchers from the US Food and Drug Administration say in documents supporting its reclassification as a Schedule III substance.

Marijuana is currently classified as Schedule I, reserved for the most dangerous controlled substances, including heroin and LSD. In 2022, President Joe Biden asked US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and the attorney general to begin the administrative process of reviewing how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Rachel Levine wrote a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration in August in which she supported the reclassification to Schedule III, a list that includes “drugs with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence” such as ketamine, testosterone and Tylenol with codeine.

Rescheduling marijuana could open up more avenues for research, allow cannabis businesses to bank more freely and openly, and have firms no longer subject to a 40-year-old tax code that disallows credits and deductions from income generated by sales of Schedule I and II substances.

      • RuBisCO@slrpnk.net
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        Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behaviour and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.

        Terence McKenna

      • ZeroCool@slrpnk.net
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        I took acid once. I giggled a lot and led my friends on an “adventure” into my backyard where we played hacky sack until it got dark enough to watch the stars. It was awful! You don’t want no part of this shit, Dewey!

        • Jay@lemmy.ca
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          I used to love acid when I was younger. I bought 30 hits of blotter just for my 18th birthday for me and my friends. Never hallucinated like some people claim but had tons of energy and it made everything feel so… real? and vibrant. Shrooms were cool but just not nearly on the same level.

          You definitely want to plan ahead and make sure you’re surrounded by good company and plenty to do beforehand though.

          • Nastybutler@lemmy.world
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            Of all the drugs I’ve done, which isn’t too many, acid is my favorite. Haven’t done it since I was in college over 20 years ago. If I knew how to get my hands on some, I’d consider doing it again occasionally. Best body high I’ve ever had.

            • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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              I loved acid but I would never do it again at my age (50s). Even back in my youth I thought the experience lasted way too long - I was always ready to come back down and sleep and contemplate my experiences long before the drug started to wear off.

            • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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              Apparently the dark/deep web is remarkably reliable. At least it used to be, not sure if that’s still the case. I kinda want to get some Bitcoin or whatever they’re using to get a drone delivery of acid, but that would be way too much acid.

      • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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        Tbf, this is hardly unique to the US, and a handful of states are actually decriminalizing some psychedelics now. Not sure where else in the world is doing that.

  • stinky613@lemmy.sdf.org
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    It’s inherently problematic that the DEA is in charge of scheduling

    Rescheduling marijuana would likely lead to a lower budget for the DEA… No way is the DEA going to voluntarily lower the scheduling of such a widely used drug

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          There is an interesting loophole active right now in the US, a person can buy ‘high THCA hemp flower’, which is identical in composition to bud sold at a recreational dispensary, and it is not regulated and can be shipped across state lines legally through even the USPS. There might be some restrictions in certain states, but you can see an example of this bud here: https://www.luckyelk.com/buy/thca/overview

          So long as the THC content is below 0.3% it is not considered cannabis in the same way federally apparently. But most smokable weed has very low THC and high THCA, which is converted to THC when burned, so this bud that falls in this category is just as good as stuff you can get from a dispensary often.

    • Habahnow@sh.itjust.works
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      They don’t get money based on how many drugs are illegal. Not to mention, they like to go after big dealers which some will continue to import illegally or grow it in illegal ways. The DEA will still come after them.

  • Marxism-Fennekinism@lemmy.ml
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    Reminder that the most dangerous drug in terms of deaths caused per capita is alcohol. Refined sugar and HFCS probably has alcohol’s numbers beat if you consider that a drug though.

    • kromem@lemmy.world
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      When I wasn’t in a position to decide my own client list, I used to hate working for some of the large companies with high sugar products. Felt like consulting for Philip Morris or something. I remember one corporate HQ had giant posters in their cafeteria talking about how scientists didn’t find a causative relationship between sugar and childhood health complications, and it felt just like the classic “nine out of ten doctors recommended XYZ brand cigarettes.”

    • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
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      But let’s be fair, if every bar and liquor store switched to selling meth and kids dad’s brought them their first meth on their twenty first birthday, weddings had a traditional opening the meth moment, etc then things would be a lot worse.

  • MaxPow3r11@lemmy.world
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    It never should have been “classified” or “scheduled”.

    Or alcohol should be schedule 1.

    Cannabis being a “schedule 1” drug (one of the safest drugs we can consume) while alcohol (an extremely dangerous [to society and individuals] drug that is also addictive) is UNSCHEDULED and PROMOTED is beyond absurd.

    Make anything make sense.

  • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    Marijuana is currently classified as Schedule I, reserved for the most dangerous controlled substances, including heroin and LSD.

    Fucking christ lmao.

    • LeadersAtWork@lemmy.world
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      The reason for this has often been thought due to prison and possibly even tobacco lobbyists. Dunno about the second one, though the first certainly has the numbers to back it up, and the history. The history itself is quite the rabbit hole that begins in the U.S. back around the late 1930s. Though the drug itself has been around for hundreds of years, according to study.

      Sadly, due to the times we live in, just ask yourself what the modern Republican party would want to claim. Who uses Marijuana and for what reasons and you’ll probably land on why this became a fiasco in the first place.

      • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
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        The schedule 1 classification of cannabis and LSD is pretty famously linked to Nixon pushing for its criminalization, due to it being primarily used by anti-war “hippies”

        • Tyfud@lemmy.world
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          Agreed. Not even remotely comparable to each other from an addiction/damage potential standpoint. LSD is entirely non-addictive habit forming, while heroin is the polar opposite. In terms of health damage, you can’t die from doing too much LSD, but you can from heroin (easily).

          All in all, it’s like comparing apples to heroin. Or cake to heroin. Or pizza to heroin. Or LSD to heroin.

      • skulblaka@startrek.website
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        Though the drug itself has been around for hundreds of years

        Longer than that. There is credible evidence that humans have been using cannabis for at least about as long as we’ve been brewing alcohol. Ancient religious relics recovered from archeological digs have been tested and shown cannabis residue.

  • Bonehead@kbin.social
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    This is nothing new. Nixon commissioned a report that said the exact same thing 50 years ago.

  • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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    At this point I trust cannabis more than I trust HFC. No one is trying to sneak cannabis in my food and cannabis doesn’t make me fat.

    • squiblet@kbin.social
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      Schedule I means not legal for any purpose, so no. Ketamine is used medically and “lean” is a fairly mild opiate, and also used medically (it’s a cough syrup, where did you think it came from?). Drugs like that are schedule ii-iv.

    • You999@sh.itjust.works
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      Ketamine has medical applications such as being commonly used as an anesthetic in short term procedures and with those who do not respond positively to opioids. Ketamine is classified under low addiction risk as it’s not physically addicting as in its users do not suffer from withdrawal. The problem with ketamine however is that it helps users cope with a plethora of different mental illnesses which in itself is addictive.

  • randon31415@lemmy.world
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    2022, Biden: We need to shore up the youth support. What do youth vote for? Student loan cancelation and Marijuana reform? Let’s try the former for 2022 and save the later for 2024.