Federal health officials concluded, “The risks to the public health posed by marijuana are low compared to other drugs of abuse,” such as benzodiazepines — a Schedule IV drug, or alcohol, which is unscheduled.
Author: Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
Prohibiting adults from accessing these products from state-licensed retailers will not eliminate consumers’ demand for them. Rather, it will encourage consumers to seek out higher-THC products in the unregulated market.
In a healthy and functioning democracy, elected officials represent the views of the electorate. But, when it comes to the issue of cannabis law reform, Republican lawmakers all too often ignore or seek to undermine their voters.
Numerous studies assessing the long-term health impacts of cannabis smoke exposure belie the myth that marijuana is associated with the same sort of well established, adverse respiratory hazards as tobacco.
Cannabis must be descheduled by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act altogether.
It is misleading at best and disingenuous at worst to imply that cannabis smoke exposure is either equal to or more hazardous to health than tobacco smoking, or to imply that long-term data on its respiratory effects do not exist.
Those who consume alcohol legally and responsibly while away from their jobs aren’t punished by their employers unless their work performance is adversely impacted. Those who legally consume cannabis should be held to a similar standard.
Descheduling cannabis removes the threat of undue federal intrusion in existing state marijuana programs and respects America’s longstanding federalist principles allowing states to serve as “laboratories of Democracy.”