Marijuana is a Schedule 1 substance according the federal government. Schedule 1 substances are considered to have ‘no medical value.’ Marijuana has medical value, proven by so many scientific research studies that it’s almost impossible to count them all. Many, many doctors have come out in support of medical marijuana after they saw first hand how well it works for some patients. The fact that the federal government’s official stance is that marijuana has no medical value is a slap in the face to science, logic, and compassion.
Because marijuana is a Schedule 1 substance, research is limited. That is something the Parents Coalition for Rescheduling Medical Cannabis is trying hard to change. The group of parents is trying to lobby the federal government to reschedule marijuana to Schedule 3 or lower, which would allow more research to occur. President Obama and Congress both have the ability to reschedule marijuana, however, both branches of our federal government are not budging. The Obama Administration has even gone as far as pretending they don’t have the ability to reschedule marijuana, which is completely false. Per CNN:
“The government believed synthetic THC was okay to schedule in the class with Vicoden, Schedule 3, but when the rest of the plant is added to it, the non-psychoactive components, it gets put with heroin and LSD.”, said Dr. Thomas Minahan, an emergency room physician from Corona, California whose epileptic daughter, Mallory, experiences dramatic seizure reduction on the oil. “As a physician, I know this plant has medicinal value; we need to research it. If the scheduling could be changed, we could do the necessary studies. If the scheduling was changed, thousands of kids’ lives would improve. The financial benefits for insurance companies and parents would be astounding.”
Many states have recently passed CBD-only medical marijuana legislation, however, CBD medicines are hard to find, if not impossible. Marijuana is medicine. There are suffering patients all over the country that would benefit greatly from marijuana research and plant-based medicines. When will the federal government give up it’s harmful prohibition policies? Why can the federal government keep marijuana classified as a Schedule 1 substance, despite the fact that it supplies four patients with medical marijuana grown at the University of Mississippi? The level of hypocrisy involved is frustrating and heartbreaking.
