Lawmakers clash with DEA officials over reclassifying marijuana

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Agence France-Presse

Lawmakers clash with DEA officials over reclassifying marijuana
By Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, March 4, 2014 20:16 EST

U.S. lawmakers who support steady relaxation of state laws on marijuana sparred Tuesday with Obama administration officials who continue to label the drug in the same high-danger category as heroin.

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s chief deputy said marijuana deserved to remain listed as a “Schedule 1? narcotic — a list which includes severely addictive drugs including LSD and ecstasy — even though he could not identify a single fatal overdose attributable to cannabis last year.

“Marijuana is the most widely available and commonly abused illicit drug in the United States,” the DEA’s Thomas Harrigan told a House panel in a joint statement with John Walsh, the US attorney in Colorado, which along with Washington state legalized recreational marijuana use this year.

They said abuse among young Americans is on the rise, with marijuana’s more potent production methods and increased trafficking by international drug cartels the growing concerns.
But lawmakers were dumbfounded at a multi-billion-dollar anti-drug strategy from Washington that leads to thousands of incarcerations for acts that have already been decriminalized in 20 states.


Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/04/lawmakers-clash-with-dea-officials-over-reclassifying-marijuana/

[JackInGreen]

1. Harrigan is, as per usual amoung the DEA

both purposefully ignorant and a blowhard.
He also made a claim that he speaks for 'Every parent in America' in saying that decrim or legalization is a bad thing.
He was also quote as saying that the DOJs statements on MJ legalization and finance made 'little to no difference' to the DEA. As far as I'm concerned they're a rogue agency and should be disbanded at once.

[ReRe]

7. If there was a rogue agency list in this country....

.... the DEA would be at the top of it. I'm not real keen on the job the DOJ has done, what with the Wall Street debacle, but the DEA needs to be abolished, plain and simple. And I dare say that the reason they want to keep it criminalized is the lucrative money and kickbacks that are made in our PIC (Prison Industrial Complex.)

[WhiteTara]

17. True! The money is overwhelming and

they don't want it to stop. They wouldn't have jobs!

[AnneD]

34. Bingo.....

ding ding ding ding. And banks would have to close their laundry operations.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

2. And yet, when I said the Obama Administration has been one of the harshest pro-drug war

administrations in recent memory, I was almost vilified.

Again, Obama's DEA Chief. . .Obama's stamp of approval.

[Ikonoklast]

11. People revile Holder for not upholding the laws of the land.

Holder upholds the laws of the land, gets reviled.


You cannot have it both ways.


Don't like it? Change the laws.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

13. I've been working to end the drug war since before i could legally vote.

[Ikonoklast]

15. Demographic shift has more to do with decriminalization than any other other factor.

It has always been a matter of time before people realized that all they were told about marijuana when growing up was a lie, and sooner or later became the majority with enough political power to do something out it.

The DEA is still fighting marijuana battles, but it is a foregone conclusion they have already lost the war.

It's a win/win for taxpayers. Prisons will not be filled with those convicted of using or growing, saving money and making room for actual criminals, and it will become a taxed and regulated commodity.

I am fairly certain that right now states are watching with keen interest the amounts of tax revenue pulled in by those states that have decriminalized.

Wait until hemp cultivation and processing gets ramped up, and the agriculture sector gets on board.


Consumers, profits, commerce, taxation. Winners all around.

[GliderGuider]

22. Growing up through the 60's I saw the effect of the official lies about MJ

We figured out pretty fast that they were lying to us about pot. Then we noticed that the language they used about pot was identical to their language about speed, heroin etc. We drew the logical inference - that they were lying about them all. That erroneous assumption got a lot of kids into very deep trouble. If they had told the truth about pot it would have saved a lot of lives.

Legalize pot, and for god sake start telling the truth about things.

[Ikonoklast]

23. When you personally know people that are high achievers who have used marijuana their entire lives

you soon realize that the argument against prohibition is all based on lies.

[bemildred]

24. Yep. It is all bullshit. And it always was too. nt

[marlakay]

38. I know a lot of people like me

Who used pot when they were younger, gave it up while raising kids and now that they moved out went back to it and let adult kids decide for themselves.

I have 2 daughters, 1 who is married to military and raising young kids, totally straight, in fact any pot could hurt husbands career, other daughter makes good money manager of large car company uses pot to relax sometimes but doesn't do it around teens ever.

And both her teens are very anti drugs and smoking.

My husband had medical card before it became legal here in WA, it helps him a lot. We have vaporizer so doesn't hurt lungs.

[Feral Child]

31. I had a dream once:

in that dream, I was the "Johnny Appleseed" of cannabis. I would purchase feminized seeds for my home garden and would take the promo free seeds sent by the distributos to sunny glens throughout the area and plant them. I'd never go back, of course. In my dream I wasn't a dealer, I just wanted to establish the plant firmly in the ecosystem.

It was a sweet dream.

[frylock]

33. no, people revile holder for sucking the banking industry's ass..

who can blame him though? why fuck around with banksters when you have low-lying fruit like MMJ dispensaries to pad your stats?

[jtuck004]

3. What a ridiculous group of people. It's still the stupidest idea ever.

Decriminalize it and treat it like like the benign drug that it is, and invest part of the savings from the ill-conceived war on people into our infrastructure.

Specifically, potato chip plants.

And we will all be happier.

[Feral Child]

4. You're talking about coppers, jtuck.

"Too lazy to work, too scared to steal."

You don't expect them to give up their confiscated cars for a shovel, do you?
That's peasant work!

[jtuck004]

6. Call me loopy, but I think there are plenty of bad guys out there for them to

find. And I know they aren't as easy to bust as pot smokers, but if we take away their incentive for picking the low-hanging fruit, perhaps they can go find terrorists or something.

Heck, just criminalize pot for terrorists, open it up for everyone else. There's a whole career right there, and there might be a terrorist or two who might just decide that the reward here is better than waiting for pie in the sky.

[Feral Child]

27. I didn't mean that literally,

but the fact is, there's a bureaucratic empire based on cannabis that reaches all the way down to the beat cop.

Each level depends on the network; the "Czar", of course for the power and the vast sums of money he controls, which comes not only from tax allocations, but also huge amounts from the houses, cars, boats, planes and currency confiscated.

The beat cop benefits from the LEAP grants that pay for special equipment and career-enhancing training. He/she also gains leverage: it's a convenient way to punish and harass the people that a cop might hate, but that won't conveniently commit crimes.

The top echelon will fight change to the death.Their entire careers, their "expertise" is based on the drug trade. The overwhelming majority of drug consumers are cannabis users, take away that venue and their river slows to a spring.

The loss of "income" would probably amount to billions. Bureaucrats won't give up that wealth, that power and prestige, easily. They probably collectively peed themselves when the states began legalizing recreational use.

[Feral Child]

28. "Specifically, potato chip plants."

[raven mad]

5. Oh, crap. Here we go again..........

Sigh. Pardon the language, but back in the day Matanuska Thunderfuck would kick your butt for at least hours......... and it's probably Monsanto behind the "kick it up" anyway. Damn. Marijuana, used legally (THAT word galls me), sustainably and sensibly is WAY better than...... alcohol.

I hope the idiots don't ratchet this up to Palin crap before our vote here comes up. Really.

Science is a lot better than preachers.

[Vinnie From Indy]

8. Where do they find these jackasses?

I wish I could ask this man to justify the hundreds of thousands of lives that have been absolutely lost to the war on marijuana from incarceration and the breaking up of families. Enforcement of weed laws has destroyed far more lives than the drug has ever done.

[Lenomsky]

9. a list which includes severely addictive drugs including LSD and ecstasy

Maybe read wrong but neither LSD nor MDMA are addictive the can be abused naturally and in some cases habit forming.

I assume he needs to protect his budget.

[Feral Child]

30. Correct, Lenomsky

Neither LSD nor MDMA are physically addictive.

In fact, they are very unlikely to be used as a substitute drug by addicts; the effects are too different.

[The Wizard]

10. The DEA is a dumping ground

where politicians send friends for do nothing jobs. After they get there they have but one purpose, expand the bureaucracy, facts be damned. It's a bureaucratic crap hole that has outlived its usefulness, and as such should be streamlined to work in coordination with scientific fact, not superstition that has been ruining the lives of innocent people since William Randolph Hearst saw hemp cultivation as a threat to his profits from wood pulp paper production of which he cornered the market for newsprint.
If our elected officials can't rein in this rogue agency, then maybe it's time for them to go.
And for the knickers in a twist bunch that gets the vapors at the mention of the words legalized marijuana, here's your gateway, right here (Use your imagination to envision "here.".

[Jackpine Radical]

16. The DEA is a price support mehanism for the drug cartels.

Ya wanna hurt the cartels? Legalize their products.

[Bluenorthwest]

12. It does not serve our nation when DEA officials sound like idiots and speak nonsense.

This Thomas Harrigan is a fool. The majority of Americans know he's just raving and ranting to preserve his status and income.
This fucker harms the DEA, the USA and our ability to build trust among the young people for our country's leadership.

[illachick]

14. They need all the reasons they can find

To justify their existence. If this world were mine, all drugs would be legal. I don't know if that might be too far left for some here. If all drugs were legal, I guess we wouldnt need a DEA now would we? Or am I oversimplifying?

[MindMover]

18. Not really ... you are absolutely correct about legalization and bye, bye dea ... nt

[Moral Compass]

20. Amen

I've lived in a place where drugs were essentially legal. All of them. When I say "essentially" it is because many drugs were technically legal but the laws were unenforced.

The group I ran with did a lot of drugs. It was the 60s and 70s after all.

What I saw is that 1) becoming an addict was really frowned on 2) the group would go through phases where we binged on a specific drug and then would drop it and never come back to it and 3) would figure out very quickly if the drug was a "bad" drug. For example, a guy showed up with pharmaceutical grade PCP. One pinhead snorted would send you to the moon. Problem was, every time we partied on the stuff something bad would happen with someone. I had to keep a girl from jumping off a cliff one night for example. I did too much and ended up comatose for about eight hours. And that was the end of that. No one wanted it any longer.

At the end of this three year experiment the death toll stood at zero. The instances of serious harm stood at zero. Everyone was functional and, for the most part, happy.

I will freely admit that this was risky behavior. But think of the impact that a nice long jail sentence would have had on any of us. Would that have been better?

Of course not.

Here is the truth. People have always done drugs. People will always do drugs. Criminalizing that behavior only creates criminals of people that are not criminals.

Our drug policy is terrible policy and should be shelved immediately. It is counterproductive and extremely harmful to our society.

Yes, all drugs should be legal.

[GliderGuider]

32. "Yes, all drugs should be legal."

I agree. 100%
It's the only morally, ethically and compassionately consistent position.

[Moral Compass]

19. Even this report has disinformation contained in it...

I love stories about illegal drugs. There is always something in them that represents the complete hysteria and superstition with which Western society approaches drug policy...

This story, has a calm tone to it and does accurately portray the statements by senior DEA officials as official lunacy.

But it still has a line in it that characterizes Schedule 1 drugs completely wrong.

Schedule 1 drugs are drugs with a very high abuse potential that have no known and accepted medical use. Specifically, a Schedule 1 classification is for drugs that authorities have deemed to be drugs that:



The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.
The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

The addictiveness of a drug isn't the main consideration for inclusion in Schedule 1.

LSD and ecstasy are not addictive. In fact, none of the psychedelics have been shown to be addictive.

The DEA should be dissolved. It is peopled with crazed zealots who refuse all facts.

[GliderGuider]

29. I was about to mention that howler about LSD and X.

In fact, LSD use has been shown to be self-limiting - the exact opposite of addiction.

[mike_c]

21. the WOD is their pension plan, for crying out loud....

The DEA has zero objectivity-- or credibility-- when it comes to cannabis.

[freebrew]

26. The DEA has zero credibility...

when it comes to ANYTHING.

Don't forget the influence of big pharma. Just listen to all of the overdoses of codeine on the news.
Just more propaganda to force doctors to prescribe shit that doesn't work or that is more harmful.

[seveneyes]

25. Just more CHANGE for the DEA's pockets when they confiscate citizens assets

Yet another case of government corruption that sucks.

[noiretextatique]

35. just finished making a batch of cannabis coconut oil

I make topical and edibles. I have chronic pain in my shoulder and neck from too many years hunched over a computer. I rubbed some of the oil on my shoulder last night, and I have been free from pain all day! It is the only thing that works for more than a few hours. I got the cannabis free, and the coconut oil was $6.00. I made enough to last about two months. Way cheaper and way more effective than any conventional medication. DEA works for the cartels...drug and BIG pharma.

[marlakay]

39. Happy it works for you

Does so many things. My husband fights depression and the drugs all have bad side affects and don't work for him. After he got his pot card here he started using pot again and a few hits makes him happy for many hours, we are retired so no worries about working or driving.

I think DEA doesn't want to lose their power and I think in order to get healthcare going Obama made some deals with big pharma and I bet pot was one of them.

[RainDog]

36. The DEA is full of liars on this subject

Or else they're too fucking stupid to be in their jobs if they cannot admit that the FDA has a cannabis medicine available to children with Dravet's Syndrome at this time.

They DISGUST ME. They do breed disrespect for govt. and any other so-called authority when they blatantly lie and GET AWAY WITH IT BECAUSE NO ONE FORCES THEM TO STOP.

Harrigan insisted that “there are no sound scientific, economic or social reasons to change our nation’s marijuana policy.”

[wildbilln864]

37. k & r! n/t