As one who has advocated for a DEA reclassification of marijuana since the early 1980s I am pleased to hear that finally the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, and the Department of Health and Human Services, HHS, are recommending to the Attorney General that marijuana be listed as a Schedule III drug instead of a much more restrictive Schedule I classification.
Here is my question regarding local councils voting to not allow marijuana dispensaries in their jurisdiction: Are these decisions based on fear or facts? If fear, then by all means why not limit the places where tobacco and alcohol products, both of which are much more dangerous to our teens and others than marijuana, can be sold?
I am not encouraging the use of marijuana at all. It’s just that we as a society have such a uninformed view of marijuana and its harmful effects. Yes, like all drugs, marijuana used unwisely can be harmful to be sure. It’s just that it is really one of the least harmful recreational drugs that people use.
If we were really serious about protecting our youth, yes, we would maintain strict laws regarding its use among our youth but we would also do more to discourage the use of more harmful products like alcohol and tobacco.
In the 80s I did much research into marijuana and came away with the understanding that it is not the harmful drug it has been portrayed as. In fact, I testified on two days before a subcommittee at the Ohio legislature to achieve a more humane approach to marijuana use — to no avail I must add. Their minds just were not open then.
Do these village councils realize or even care if they unduly inconvenience folks who have a medical reason to use marijuana? I can understand how having a marijuana dispensary in a town might be construed as encouraging marijuana use, but do we think that because we allow places where alcohol and tobacco products can be purchased encourages their use? If so, then perhaps such places should be closed.
I am pleased to read just recently that the FDA and the HHS are recommending that marijuana be reclassified from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug. This issue just reveals our hysteria and ignorance about marijuana.
Paul Robinson
Mansfield, Ohio