DEA Continues to Deny the Medicinal Value of Cannabis

By Rx MaryJane on August 11, 2016 • ( 0 )

I’m not surprised, but I’m still outraged and heartbroken by the DEA’S decision not to reschedule, much less deschedule, cannabis.

Not surprised because… well… it’s the Drug Enforcement Administration. They’ve rejected all previous attempts to change the scheduling of cannabis. Sure, I was hoping that they would somehow see the light and recognize the medicinal benefits that I witness everyday. But I’m fully aware of the resistance from both the medical community and law enforcement to do that. The argument that “we need more research” gives them the cover they want and need to justify sticking with the status quo while patients suffer and die.

And that’s the outrage.

People… real human beings with lives that matter… mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, young, old and in between… are experiencing amazing benefits from this plant while others are denied legal access and left to suffer and die because the DEA, with support from the FDA and NIDA, chooses to turn a blind eye.

The decision to loosen up restrictions on research while at the same time keeping cannabis at schedule 1 gives them all what they want. NIDA gets more research. FDA keeps working for pharma. And the DEA can keep fighting a failed drug war.

And patients? Well, they can wait.

That whole “we need more research” argument falls flat when you realize that cannabis is probably the most researched plant on the planet. And it’s been with us for thousands of years. Patients and families across the country are speaking out about the healing they’ve experienced. But that’s not the research they want.

Why is the DEA, a law enforcement agency, in charge of deciding what has medical value? With the claim that there is still no proof that cannabis has medicinal value, the DEA has spit in the face of every patient who has gotten relief and healing from this plant.

Their truth is ignored.

So doctors who recommend cannabis will continue to be targeted. Families who choose cannabis will continue to be torn apart. Patients trying to save their own lives will continue to be forced to move or risk losing their freedom. And parents of desperately ill children will watch them seize and suffer and die while we continue to wait, not for research, but for compassion.

And that’s the heartbreak.

— Rx MaryJane (Teri Robnett)

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