Measure to Reschedule Marijuana-Federal

[jump /injack]

Federal: Measure Introduced To Reschedule Marijuana
Virginia Republican Morgan Griffin has introduced legislation, HR 4498, in Congress to reclassify cannabis under federal law from a schedule I to a schedule II controlled substance.
The Act seeks to prohibit the federal government from interfering in the possession and distribution of marijuana in states where physicians are permitted to authorized cannabis therapy.
The measure awaits action from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Rescheduling marijuana will loosen existing restrictions on medical marijuana research. It was also allow physicians greater freedom to authorize marijuana as a therapy. It would also clear the way for financial institutions to begin partnering with state-authorized marijuana establishments.
By any objective analysis, cannabis does not meet the criteria of a schedule I controlled substance — a classification that equates the potential harms of marijuana with those of heroin. Further, with 21 states and the District of Columbia now permitting for the physician-authorized use of cannabis, it is not accurate for federal law to maintain that the plant “has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”
HR 4498 falls short of NORML’s ultimate goal of removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act altogether. However, it is one of a growing number of legislative measures pending in Congress to significantly amend federal marijuana laws, including:
HR 499: the Ending Marijuana Prohibition Act
HR 689: the States' Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act
HR 1523: Respect State Marijuana Laws Act
NORML will keep you updated when/if these measures move forward.

http://energycommerce.house.gov/about/membership
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• These are some of the Congressional Members who will vote on HR 4498, it has to get out of Committee first, a well reasoned letter to one of these Congressmen or women can make a difference. If your Congressman is on the list you can click on their name if you have gone to the above site and a provision for a personal letter can be obtained. Letters work, less than 5% of the electorate even know who their Congress People are and they will figure you actually represent a block of voters who just might vote for them and you are politically aware of them. Let Congressman Morgan Griffin know that you appreciate his bill and won’t forget it, strokes work.
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E&C Membership
Republican Members
Democratic Members
Fred Upton (MI)- Chairman
Henry Waxman (CA) - Ranking Member
Ralph Hall (TX)
John D. Dingell (MI)
Joe Barton (TX)*- Chairman Emeritus
Frank Pallone Jr. (NJ)
Ed Whitfield (KY)
Bobby L. Rush (IL)
John Shimkus (IL)
Anna G. Eshoo (CA)
Joseph R. Pitts (PA)
Eliot L. Engel (NY)
Greg Walden (OR)
Gene Green (TX)
Lee Terry (NE)
Diana DeGette (CO)
Mike Rogers (MI)
Lois Capps (CA)
Tim Murphy (PA)
Michael F. Doyle (PA)
Michael C. Burgess (TX)
Jan Schakowsky (IL)
Marsha Blackburn (TN)*- Vice Chairman
Jim Matheson (UT)
Phil Gingrey (GA)
G. K. Butterfield (NC)
Steve Scalise (LA)
John Barrow (GA)
Bob Latta (OH)
Doris O. Matsui (CA)
Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA)
Donna Christensen (VI)
Gregg Harper (MS)
Kathy Castor (FL)
Leonard Lance (NJ)
John Sarbanes (MD)
Bill Cassidy (LA)
Jerry McNerney (CA)
Brett Guthrie (KY)
Bruce Braley (IA)
Pete Olson (TX)
Peter Welch (VT)
David McKinley (WV)
Ben Ray Lujan (NM)
Cory Gardner (CO)
Paul Tonko (NY)
Mike Pompeo (KS)
John Yarmuth (KY)
Adam Kinzinger (IL)
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Morgan Griffith (VA)
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Gus Bilirakis (FL)
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Bill Johnson (OH)
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Billy Long (MO)
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Renee Ellmers (NC)
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[catbuds]

Thank you so much for this post! Please keep posting this kind of info whenever you find it. Keeping us informed is just one of many ways to help win the fight to free our herb! THANKS AGAIN!

 

[Soulrebel239]

More great news for us people who live by the herb.

 

[Skip]

Excellent! The good news on cannabis just keeps on coming!

 

[mojave green]

would love to see this one make it!
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr4498

 

[paper thorn]

I'd like for someone to tell me just how making MJ schedule II would help.

Meth is schedule II. Most of the stuff behind the counter at a pharmacy is schedule II. Some evil people are using our 'movement' to pull the rug out from underneath us.

 

[one.sixoneeight]

I'd like for someone to tell me just how making MJ schedule II would help.

Meth is schedule II. Most of the stuff behind the counter at a pharmacy is schedule II. Some evil people are using our 'movement' to pull the rug out from underneath us.

Because the law says schedule I drugs have NO medicinal value. Meaning nobody is allowed to possess them. Some of the Drugs on Schedule II may seem bad, but they have a clinical use at the least.
Very little in a US pharmacy is sched.II, perhaps 5% of the total of all the drugs in a pharmacy behind the counter. Hospital pharmacy will have more of those types.

 

[mojave green]

would also make it so employers couldn't fire u for positive pee test.

 

[bigAl25]

Let's see if this Republican controlled congress can pass this law, much less any law that requires compromise and votes from both sides of the aisle.

 

[Jhhnn]

I'd like for someone to tell me just how making MJ schedule II would help.

Meth is schedule II. Most of the stuff behind the counter at a pharmacy is schedule II. Some evil people are using our 'movement' to pull the rug out from underneath us.

Yep. rescheduling cannabis to schedule 2 is prohibitionists' fallback position. It rules out recreational cannabis & attempts to split the community, only allowing a few to pass through the portal of legality. We need to move past that, not allow them to fortify that new position at all.

Cannabis needs to be rescheduled as OTC or redefined entirely as with alcohol & tobacco. States & Munis can deal with it after that.

 

[paper thorn]

All the oxycodone, hydrocodone that millions take is 2, schedule 3 is probably the majority of the behind the counter, still no place we want to be. Pot is just not the same as these chemical drugs. it needs to come off the schedule, or just pass the 'leave the states alone' bill.

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

Schedule 3 should be the goal, OTC is way better with me but I suspect we will have to walk before we swim? Schedule 3 would be a lot of good change especially for researchers.
-SamS

 

[Jhhnn]

Schedule 3 should be the goal, OTC is way better with me but I suspect we will have to walk before we swim? Schedule 3 would be a lot of good change especially for researchers.
-SamS

Meh. They're on the run & there's no point in letting them dig in again anywhere. What they propose leaves CO & WA legalization on the wrong side of the law. Once they regroup, they'll try to eliminate those pockets of resistance in their rear areas, then return to the offensive. We need to understand the relentless nature of authoritarian control, deal with it as it is, not as we'd like for it to be.

Figuratively speaking, we need to push on, take Berlin, raise our flag above the Reichstag. Only then can we achieve Peace in the Marijuana War.

MMJ is great, no doubt, but that's never been more than a way to crack the wall of prohibition, open a path to the real objective of legal cannabis for everybody. We need to protect & expand on what we've won, accept no "concessions" that attempt to take it away.

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

Meh. They're on the run & there's no point in letting them dig in again anywhere. What they propose leaves CO & WA legalization on the wrong side of the law. Once they regroup, they'll try to eliminate those pockets of resistance in their rear areas, then return to the offensive. We need to understand the relentless nature of authoritarian control, deal with it as it is, not as we'd like for it to be.

Figuratively speaking, we need to push on, take Berlin, raise our flag above the Reichstag. Only then can we achieve Peace in the Marijuana War.

MMJ is great, no doubt, but that's never been more than a way to crack the wall of prohibition, open a path to the real objective of legal cannabis for everybody. We need to protect & expand on what we've won, accept no "concessions" that attempt to take it away.

Either "they are on the run", or "they are regrouping, and they'll try to eliminate those pockets of resistance", which is it?
It has been the slow and gradual re-education process of the voter and masses that allowed the changes we have seen in the last decade, it was slowly earned bit by bit.
Medical use led in the re-education, but in the end the changes will positively affect all Cannabis uses.
And BTW, rescheduling to Schedule 3 is not accepting concessions, it would be a major victory, something I have fought to obtain for more then 40 years.
Also what do you think is "the real objective of legal Cannabis for everybody"?
I thought the real objective of legal Cannabis for everybody, was self evident?
-SamS

 

[Morcheeba*]

...MMJ is great, no doubt, but that's never been more than a way to crack the wall of prohibition, open a path to the real objective of legal cannabis for everybody. We need to protect & expand on what we've won, accept no "concessions" that attempt to take it away.

good thing you don't speak for those in real medical need of Cannabis who live in non med states that face the false accusation that all sick needing safe access to life saving medicine, Cannabis, are only attempting to push for full legalization.

any rescheduling of Cannabis is a positive move ahead.......an all or nothing attitude served cali well w/regards to a failed prop19. didn't it.


peace

 

[Jhhnn]

Either "they are on the run", or "they are regrouping, and they'll try to eliminate those pockets of resistance", which is it?
It has been the slow and gradual re-education process of the voter and masses that allowed the changes we have seen in the last decade, it was slowly earned bit by bit.
Medical use led in the re-education, but in the end the changes will positively affect all Cannabis uses.
And BTW, rescheduling to Schedule 3 is not accepting concessions, it would be a major victory, something I have fought to obtain for more then 40 years.
Also what do you think is "the real objective of legal Cannabis for everybody"?
I thought the real objective of legal Cannabis for everybody, was self evident?
-SamS

Please, Sam. We're really on the same side. Any rescheduling above OTC keeps legalization in CO & WA on the wrong side of the law & therefore subject to attack & attempted eradication at some future date.

As it is, schedule 1 classification is unsupportable, which is why prohibitionists are attempting to abandon it in favor of what they see as a stronger position that still prohibits cannabis to the vast, vast majority of those who use it. It's a strategic retreat.

That legal position has yet to be created & I'd prefer they never get the chance to man it. Better to leave them trying to hold their current impossible position, a la Stalingrad, undermine their efforts with more state level MMJ & CO style legalization with the obvious complicity of the Obama Admin.

We need to get more states blocking their line of retreat before attempting reform at the federal level. The right of legalization at the state level needs to be part of any reform at the federal level. Otherwise, we play right into their hand which is to stall legalization hoping it'll just go away, or until the political will to crush it can be found.

Once they recognize MMJ as valid, they can then move to narrowly define acceptable reasons for its therapeutic use through a variety of mechanisms. Patients can easily find themselves w/o the prescriptions & recommendations they currently enjoy. I don't believe that they're thinking this through to the end using proper regard for the dishonest & devious forces against us all. Stepping it up to the federal level creates a whole new game, a whole new set of possibilities, not all of them good. Hell, the only reason the opposition is taking it there is because they're losing badly at the state level.

As you can see from Morcheeba's reply, they're already creating schisms within the community, trying to get med users to sell out recreational users in return for what I see as false recognition of their needs among federal lawmakers. I didn't say that Morcheeba has done so- I said they're trying to convince med users to set aside broader interests & old friends with deception.

State level activists are the people who need to get their shit together, create legal frameworks where current federal guidelines prohibit federal intervention in their affairs. That's particularly true of CA where their regulatory mess invites the DEA to break balls whenever they feel like it.

Should CA do that, it would absolutely force legalization at the federal level, carry us well past all the frantic work currently undertaken to build concessionary MMJ defenses.

CA is 12% of the US population. Federal enforcement there has rightfully been compared to sharks coming in & eating a few bathers at a very crowded beach. It's already impossible from any honest perspective. Legalized personal growing in CA would devastate any illusions that prohibitionists still project, cut them out of the discussion entirely.

 

[Morcheeba*]

im for every person to have the right to grow their own regardless if its for medicinal or recreational but your statement i quoted is the very arguments used to suppress a comprehensive cannabis law here in fl........we have a 'Low THC' law and those wanting a broader law are only out for full legalization, its not for the sick.

i dont expect you to see that a step forward is positive for all and you cant expect me to see an all or nothing approach is the way to go.


peace

 

[paper thorn]

the future

the future

Marijuana becomes schedule 3 because it's a step forward right?

Now it can be as tightly controlled as amphetamines. Sure, your doctor can prescribe, not recommend, prescribe, you cannabis if he thinks it will help you. Just like right now, your doctor can prescribe you amphetamines. Asking the doc for it, will flag you as an abuser, and you won't get shit. 'Pot docs' will go the way of those old script docs of the late 60s early 70s. So if your doctor prescribes you cannabis, you'll go to the pharmacy, not the dispensary, the pharmacy, and get a bag of diesel right?

Wrong, the pharmaceutical companies would never send out raw plant matter, nope, nor would a doc prescribe something to smoke, even though you can titrate your dose more effectively. They don't know that or care, doses should be the exact same size every time. No you won't be getting decarboxalated oil in a capsule, you be getting a pill, just like all the other pills at the pharmacy that are schedule 3. Yep, that 'research' will get you more Marinol, Sativex; don't worry, there'll be lots more thc/cbd type pills. maybe even patches.

Maybe we can get together then and stick on a patch and chill.

This schedule 3 or even 4 or 5 is the death of our movement and all the little steps and victories we've had for all these years. Right when we have the brass ring in reach, we reach for a fake.

Removal from the schedule, or even WAY better than that would be to get behind the 'LEAVE THE STATES THE FUCK ALONE BILL', which seems to get nothing more than a yawn from our own 'activists.'

edit; you are all for every one being able to grow their own? What a laugh. Just like it's OK to grow your own coca plants right??
This is our overlords getting us to vote for our own destruction.

 

[Jhhnn]

im for every person to have the right to grow their own regardless if its for medicinal or recreational but your statement i quoted is the very arguments used to suppress a comprehensive cannabis law here in fl........we have a 'Low THC' law and those wanting a broader law are only out for full legalization, its not for the sick.

i dont expect you to see that a step forward is positive for all and you cant expect me to see an all or nothing approach is the way to go.


peace

I made a strong distinction between state level issues & federal level.

Current federal guidelines from the Obama Admin wrt enforcement apply to both med & rec legalization at the state level, prohibiting DEA interference with activities that are demonstrably state legal. Notice the careful wording on my part.

That very, very likely won't change prior to 2017, if ever. That favors legalization in ways that moving cannabis to schedule 2 does not. MMJ patients make no real & practical gains from its adoption. States are already free to pursue greater levels of legalization than the proposed statute allows, with both CO & WA having done so.

Look a little deeper to see what our mutual opponents are really trying to accomplish with this. As a practical matter, they can't stop MMJ in some form or another but they will attempt to turn back recreational MJ if they can. They need a more rational platform than schedule 1 marijuana to work from, and this is it. There's no real reason to let them have it. None of us gain anything we don't already have.

 

[igrowone]

i see the original post was back in May, any recent activity?
tend to think of this as DOA, originators know this but stir the pot a little
there is not much enthusiasm to touch this at the federal level until they have to
which is more Colorado's and Washington's
but how many more? 1 more? the right state could trigger it