Today, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sent a letter to legislators that may finally do what thousands of prison and police reform activists have been trying to do for many years: reconsider marijuana’s current federal classification as substance.
Weed has been labeled a Schedule 1 controlled substance for many years now, placing it on the same level of danger as drugs like heroin and ecstasy. Anyone who has any knowledge of drugs has known for a long time that pot has very little in common with those other drugs, and isn’t nearly as dangerous. Schedule 1 substances are not only the most stringent when it comes to punishment if caught with them, but also are considered to have “no currently accepted medical use” and “a high potential for abuse.” This also puts a huge damper on any research involving Schedule 1 drugs. Meanwhile, the strongest painkillers are listed as Schedule 2 drugs and have killed over 165,000 people over the last 17 years, let alone those who became addicted.
At this point you might asking yourself why HotNewHipHop is covering politics. With rap artists and fans getting arrested left and right for something that has been proven to fairly harmless compared to other Schedule 1 substances, this is something everyone in the United States can get behind. The legal marijuana business is going to be worth billions of dollar soon, so it would behoove the US government to catch up with the rest of the nation on this one by rescheduling marijuana as a controlled substance.
[via WaPo]