Relief for medical marijuana patients

I've discussed this before, but this Register editorial makes the case a little more comprehensively. Attorney General Eric Holder (who may or may not be personally enthusiastic) has announced that the DEA will stop doing raids on medical marijuana patients in states that have medical marijuana laws. This is only sensible in that the government has limited resources and going after sick people and those who provide them their medicine is a huge misprioritization (is that a word?) of resources.

The next step we should hope for (indeed, demand) is "rescheduling" of marijuana so doctors nationwide can prescribe it legally. Marijuana does not meet any of the criteria required to put a drug or substance on Schedule I, the most restrictive schedule under the (unconstitutional) Controlled Substances Act, so keeping it there is actually a violation of that law. (In fact a strong scientific case can be made that it shouldn't be part of the CSA at all, but I'll take whatever tiny piece of reform we can get.) Keeping an efficacious medicine from sick people who could benefit from using it is incredibly cruel. The whole War on (some) Drugs is cruel, of course, but punishing sick people is downright vicious.

Holder: medical marijuana raids to end

I did this post for the Register's Orange Punch blog and am cross-posting it here because it says most of what I wanted to say. I'm still skeptical to some extent, given Holder's past as an unthinking drug warrior. The logical next step, of course, is to take marijuana off Schedule I of the unconstitutional Controlled Substances Act so doctors can prescribe it nationwide. If the politicians really followed public sentiment, this would have been done at least a decade ago. But the Drug Abuse Industrial Complex may still be too powerful.

"He didn’t sound very enthusiastic about it which might not be amazing considering his record as something of a mindless drug warrior when he was US Attorney for DC in the ’90s, but US Atty. Gen. Eric Holder affirmed Wednesday, in response to a question, that his department will keep Obama’s campaign promise and stop medical marijuana raids in California and other states with medical marijuana laws. That was the second time in a week an administration spokesman had affirmed that the raids will stop. “The president’s my boss” is less than gung-ho, but I’ll take it.
"The raids conducted just after the inauguration seem to have been the last hurrah of Bush holdovers who figured policy might change and this was the last chance to demonstrate their commitment to persecuting patients in the name of an unconstitutional (my view, but I’m not sure I’d trust a current court to adjudicate it) law. Now we need to pay attention to whom Obama appoints to head the DEA. His “drug czar,” Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowseke, looks a lot less worse than any of the Bushies. Perhaps the best signal would be a willingness to revisit keeping marijuana on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, which the science and any common-sense understanding of the law as written would seem to dictate."