Davis Brightmon Marsh

Ms. Ingram
UWRT 1103
11/6/2015
Marijuana Scheduling and Reform

Everyone has an opinion on the legalization of marijuana. These opinions are

formed from personal experiences, advancements in research, and also just good old
rumors. No matter what your view, there will always be defining factors on the subject
and I hope to hit on them through my research. Marijuana has been misinterpreted and
falsely accused for too long. There is a drug out there that is completely natural and
has a list of medical values yet is still recognized to be as bad as heroin, LSD, MDMA,
etc, according to the FDAs drug scheduling system, The federal Controlled
Substances Act (CSA) classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug one with a high
potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use and criminalizes the acts
of prescribing, dispensing, and possessing marijuana for any purpose.(3.). Marijuana
has actual research that shows its medical value which parts of our country have
recognized and taken charge to legalize marijuana for medicinal use or, in some states,
recreational use. The U.S. legal landscape surrounding medical marijuana is complex
and rapidly changing. Fourteen states California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington,
Maine, Hawaii, Colorado, Nevada, Vermont, Montana, Rhode Island, New Mexico,
Michigan, and most recently, New Jersey have passed laws eliminating criminal
penalties for using marijuana for medical purposes, and at least a dozen others are
considering such legislation.(3.) With parts of the "United" States decriminalizing this
drug, other states continue to give prison sentences that ruin people's lives. All the

state laws allow patients to use and possess small quantities of marijuana for medical
purposes without being subject to state criminal penalties.(3.) To add to this
information, more questions arise as to court cases that could be identical in one Illegal
state and the other legal.I look at our country as one that seems to be split in half and it
seems like some states are recognizing this but others are still learning. How can such
a innovative country seem to be stuck in the past. A drug that has been proven to have
medical value and shown no significant harm to anyone's health should not be labeled
as a schedule I drug.
Schedule I drugs are defined as the following: "Drugs with no current accepted
medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule I drugs are the most dangerous
drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical
dependence."(2.) Marijuana was placed under this schedule in the 1970's. It was
believed to be just as dangerous as all other hard drugs, more or less due to the fact no
research had been done or even been able to be pursued. There was a case study that
was longitudinal to determine addiction and marijuana effects, yet what I found to be
interesting was the lack of control they had over how much their patients used the
substance or did not use. One hundred regular marijuana users volunteered to be
extensively interviewed in 19681970, and 97 were located and reinterviewed 6 to 8
years later. As part of each interview the subjects filled out a checklist review of 105
effects of marijuana.(5.) The study was helpful yet hard to get more than just a little
information from due to the federal ban on marijuana. To this day, Marijuana continues
to be difficult to study and experiment with due to federal restrictions. It is easily
understandable that Marijuana would be placed in this schedule when no studies were

possible and the war on drugs was more prominent than ever. What about now though?
We have states in the U.S that have legalized not only medically, but recreationally.
There are numerous reasons Marijuana needs to be rescheduled, the first being the fact
that the definition of a schedule I drug is having no medical value. According to NORML,
an organization dedicated to the reform of laws regarding Marijuana usage: "Modern
research suggests that cannabis is a valuable aid in the treatment of a wide range of
clinical applications. These include pain relief -- particularly of neuropathic pain (pain
from nerve damage) -- nausea, spasticity, glaucoma, and movement disorders.
Marijuana is also a powerful appetite stimulant, specifically for patients suffering from
HIV, the AIDS wasting syndrome, or dementia."(1.)

With such substantial evidence supporting marijuana's medical value, there is no

reason it should remain under its current classification. Severe and unremitting pain is
a major cause of morbidity in those suffering from human immunodeficiency virus
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV-AIDS). Although anecdotal reports from the
AIDS community have proclaimed the efficacy of smoked marijuana, it was not until
2007 (the long delay in performing adequate studies is discussed in Part V) that these
claims were clearly verified when the efficacy of smoked marijuana in treating such pain
was reported in a scientific peer-reviewed publication by Donald Abrams and
coworkers.(4.) Hopefully, in the time coming, there will be a reform on this drug and
the people around the United States will be able to accept a new classification, so that
we can reap the benefits of medicinal marijuana.

(1.) "NORML.org - Working to Reform Marijuana Laws." Medical Use. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept.
2015.
(2.)"DEA / Drug Scheduling." DEA / Drug Scheduling. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.
(3.)"Medical Marijuana and the Law." The New England Journal of Medicine. N.p., 22 Apr. 2010.
Web.

(4.)Medical Marijuana: The Conflict Between Scientific Evidence and Political

Ideology. Part Two of Two." Taylor & Francis. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
(5.)A Longitudinal Study of Marijuana Effects." Taylor & Francis. N.p., 03 July 2009. Web. 13 Oct.
2015.