Tag: marijuana laws

The FDA Did Send a 252 Page Recommendation to Reschedule Marijuana

Finally, I have found a copy of the FDA recommendation to the DEA to reschedule Marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III. The whole document is in Dropbox and is 252 pages long. The actual recommendation starts on page 62. The basis for the recommendation is three-fold:

  • Marijuana has less abuse potential other drugs in Schedule I and II
  • Marijuana has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the U.S.
  • Abuse of marijuana may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence

The third one sounds like a reason not to reschedule marijuana until you read the clarifying text, which indicates low likelihood of serious outcomes.

On the other hand, the FDA did request feedback from professional organizations on the level of concern that might lead to not recommending marijuana. Only the American Psychiatric Association had reservations against it (pages 27-28):

“FDA also considered position statements from professional organizations relevant to the indications discussed. The vast majority of professional organizations did not recommend the use of marijuana in their respective specialty; however, none specifically recommended against it, with the exception of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), which stated that marijuana is known to worsen certain psychiatric conditions.”

Further, in Iowa which has passed restricted legislation since 2017, there is disagreement about a new bill, House Study Bill 665, which would add more regulation to the sale of some hemp products. Hemp product growers are less than pleased with it. It would restrict minors from access to all hemp products, even those not containing THC. Mental health advocates, while supporting medical marijuana, are understandably concerned about the psychiatric risks attributed to cannabis, especially in adolescents.

There is a recently published paper written by Canadian authors who raise concerns about the emergency room evaluations of children in the context of marijuana exposures. (Crocker CE, Emsley J, Tibbo PG. Mental health adverse events with cannabis use diagnosed in the Emergency Department: what are we finding now and are our findings accurate? Front Psychiatry. 2023 May 25;14:1093081. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1093081. PMID: 37304435; PMCID: PMC10247977.):

“There are more studies on the impact of cannabis on mental health in the adolescent population since our last review. One recent study using sentinel surveillance of self-harm using the electronic Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program from 2011 to 2019 showed an increase of 15.9% per year in self harm with intentional substance-related injuries exceeding unintentional injury cases and 92.3% of the cannabis-related self-harm being in the 10–19 years of age group.”

I’m ambivalent about the FDA recommendation to reschedule marijuana. On the one hand, marijuana is probably less dangerous than alcohol. On the other hand, if it’s your child that has the bad outcome related to marijuana, you’d likely be opposed to making a change.

DEA to Reschedule Marijuana or Not?

I’ve seen an article posted in February of this year on the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) about there being a plan afoot to change marijuana from DEA Schedule I to III or remove it from the Controlled Substances Act. I couldn’t find out anything about it except in in the AVMA article.

I can’t find what the FDA, HHS, or the DEA may or may not be doing as far as taking any action on about this, if any. I think it’s interesting that the AVMA reports the HHS plan to ask the DEA to change the scheduling of marijuana was “leaked” to the news outlets. There is a link to a New York Times story about it. I guess that’s better than nothing, though some might argue the point.

The AVMA article also linked to a letter from several members of congress urging the DEA to change the scheduling of marijuana, remove it from the Controlled Substances Act or risk getting their knuckles rapped with a ruler by Senator Chuck Schumer. Huh, what’s up with that?

I looked at the HHS website and found nothing suggesting that they are going after the DEA with a fire hose to get this done. The DEA is not mentioning anything about the project on their Drug Information web page.

The only ones talking about this publicly so far are the banks, the weed growers, and the AVMA as far as I can tell. The impression I get is that something is going to happen in a matter of months about decriminalizing and rescheduling marijuana. Things usually don’t happen that quickly in government.

I thought I was finished with this post until yesterday when I read U.S. Senator Mitt Romney’s letter to the DEA urging it not to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III because it would violate something I needed to learn more about, which is an international treaty called the Single Convention.

The Single Convention was ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1967 and it’s part of an international treaty which says marijuana must remain classified as either Class I or II—until a congressman can clearly demonstrate the ability to walk heel to toe in a straight line for a distance not less than 10 yards after smoking a standard large bong of high-grade marijuana.

One thing I can gather from Senator Romney’s letter is that it verifies HHS’ did in fact recommend that the DEA reschedule marijuana.

High as a Kite!

We heard about the marketing of a new cannabis product in Iowa. A company called Climbing Kites makes a beverage that contains low concentration THC and it’s legal to buy it as long as the percentage of Delta 9 THC is not above 0.3%. Their website says funny things like “Fly High:  All Buzz, No Booze.” However, it’s not legal to make it in Iowa. So, you just have to make believe you’re drinking it. Just kidding, sort of.

No, seriously, while it’s true it has to be made in Minnesota and shipped back to Iowa, you can buy it in Iowa legally as long as you’re over 21 years old and don’t mind going to prison for 20 years if you’re caught with an open container of the beverage while driving. Relax, that’s a joke. Have another drink! There’s a FAQ web page on the Climbing Kites web site. It’s Iowa’s first THC drink.

That doesn’t mean recreational marijuana is legal in Iowa, at least not yet. Several surrounding states are, though, including Missouri, Illinois, and Minnesota. There’s an interesting article on the future for marijuana legalization in Iowa.

Marijuana is still not legal at the federal level, though. It’s still classified as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act. While there is some conflict between the states that legalize recreational marijuana and the federal government, the federal government is not hustling to prosecute in those states.

It’s been a while since I tried marijuana, which really only caused me to think I could feel every blade of grass (the kind you mow) under my feet. It was before the evolution of the paramecium and, as luck would have it, before the invention of matches. This meant I had to chew the marijuana, leading to a gas attack which attracted a pack of dinosaurs. Of course, my gas attack is what led to the first mass extinction of the large reptiles resulting in the formation of the first mammals, who traded the marijuana for cell phones with the Extraterrestrials. It’s hard to know who got over on that deal because mammals came down with the zombie scrolling fixation while the ETs got a case of the stucks, suddenly becoming unable to remember how to drive their spaceships or make basic decisions about abducting cattle or mutilating soybeans. As you know, that led to all the UFO crashes on the planet, eventually making it necessary to hire the Bigfoot clan to re-educate them about how to traverse multiple dimensions in space-time enabling the collection of massive amounts of beef jerky supplies. History tells us this didn’t work out well for the ETs because their mouths are way too small to eat beef jerky.

There are many ways to get high as a kite; the substance high, the runner’s high, the writer’s high, and more. Weighing the good and the bad about them is a difficult task.