Decriminalize drugs and defund the DEA 👍
this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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Abolish the DEA.
Deschedule cannabis & mushrooms.
DEA: Ok, it's reclassified.
Indiana: Cool. We'll make it 5 years in prison for smoking a joint.
I hate this state.
The states surrounding Indiana:
I go to Illinois to get weed. Most of the cars in the parking lots are from Indiana. I wish I was closer to Michigan. Their weed is super cheap and they don't have a limit for out-of-state purchase quantities like Illinois.
Wisconsin is gonna be the last state to legalize because we're the Alabama of the fucking north. Your 5th DUI probably has lesser consequences than getting caught holding here.
You're the Alabama of the north? Have you ever heard the Hoosier accent? And both Dan Quayle and Mike Pence come from Indiana. Also, we once tried to legislate pi. And not to the correct value of pi.
Lol fair points, tho we do have quite an accent up here dontchyaknow? But I guess you have Gary, IN too and all we have is a bunch of serial killers.
Wisconsin is a purple state that's gerrymandered to hell. Zero movement on any progressive agenda for over a decade. The progressives here have gotten dejected and tend to overexagerate the problem.
Not that it's all great. It's just not "Wississippi".
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Yall might have something akin to fair elections this year. Maybe.
Your purple state may actually be purple soon.
It may be finally happening!
The whole scheduling system is ridiculous, Schedule 1 is for drugs with no medicinal usage and high addiction potential, which isn't true for a lot of them. LSD has therapeutic uses (I've used it myself) and Heroin, while addictive, definitely has medicinal usage as a strong pain killer. IIRC Cocaine is Schedule 2.
“It may finally be happening!”
I’ve heard that every election year since 2008, so I won’t expect to see it until several birthdays from now
In how many of those election years had the DHHS finally asked the DEA to reclassify...?
I've noticed this vein of irrational cynicism before. Bad things happen, and therefore bad things will keep happening. I told people for years that it was already too late for Disney to extend copyright yet again; it takes too long to get anything through Congress. This Congress can barely elect a Speaker, but people were still arguing there'd be a last minute extension in the final weeks of 2023.
Point is, cynicism shouldn't replace clear thinking.
That’s valid, I just don’t know any world other than one manipulated for political gain or profit so I’m solidly in the ‘that would be amazing but I doubt it’ camp. I’d love to be wrong though.
Alcohol is unscheduled.
Cannabis is schedule 1.
These should be reversed to reflect the actual truth of things.
Ethanol does have medical uses. It's the only way to stop poisonings from things like antifreeze, methanol, to name a few
Serious question- with all the alternatives available today, does heroin still have medical uses?
I'm 100% against the moronic drug war, so this is a tangent from the point, I'm just curious.
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It's really bizarre the cops and bureaucrats apparently get to decide law to this extent.
It has some trade-offs, the same rules allow the DEA and ATF to make rules but also allows things like the EPA to function. It really is a double edged sword.
Your comparison is EPA, an agency of environmental subject matter experts, so for drugs, which is a health issue, it should be a health agency. DEA is law enforcement. It’s letting cops decide policy when it should be an agency of subject matter experts writing evidenced-based policy.
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Hey if this happens does anyone know how this will affect drug testing for work? Employers are private entities obviously but a lot only drug test due to federal regulation or contract compliance.
I assume that companies would still drug test for weed. It's still a controlled substance with reclassification. They may be less likely to do so, but this wouldn't stop it from occurring.
This is why it's also important to ensure doctors can prescribed weed as a medicine. It forces companies to accept weed as a medical accommodation for most positions.
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Oh wow, I guess William Randolph Hearst's ghost must have finally run out of bribe money.
Can the DEA even reclassify drugs? All the DEA could do, in theory, is decriminalise and not prosecute - which they're kind of doing already.
It's up to Congress to write laws. Maybe the FDA, in this case.
The FDA and HHS have already made their recommendations to reschedule. Now the DEA gets to weigh in, then there’s a period for public comment. ~~After that, IIRC, the FDA makes a final decision~~. The current recommendation is to Schedule III from Schedule I.
but that’s just for rescheduling on a federal level.
edit: correction-- it's the DEA who makes the ultimate decision.
Unfortunately the DEA is the agency that makes the final decision. I have less faith in them to do the right thing on this than the FDA. Though the new head Biden appointed specifically called for a review of the scheduling, which could be a signal the DEA is receptive to dropping it. Schedule I for marijuana is a joke. I mean, you could make an argument caffeine is more dangerous. Even just lowering it to another level could make a big difference in the states it's legal.
Unfortunately the DEA is the agency that makes the final decision.
ok, i just looked into this, and you're correct. my mistake.
Regarding their stance... i think this could go either way, and it's most likely to be a bit of a compromise, leaning into the FDA and HHS recommendation, as, historically, they've kid of ridden the fence on the issue, often giving a token, "we enforce the law," type of answer when questioned about their stance on the subject.
Thanks, that's a good overview.
Schedule III is still too harsh, imo, though.
agreed. Schedule IV or descheduling altogether would be most fitting. The fact that it's a legitimate medication for many conditions and is still the subject of a great deal of research muddies the waters a bit, however.
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Criminalization is a multi-million dollar industry and greed is more powerful than our laws.
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