Do not think for one second that moving cannabis to Schedule 3 from Schedule 1 has made our favorite plant legal. It’s still anything but. Cannabis IS NOT legal. Yes, medical cannabis might be sort of legal, but that’s not a done deal either. And the DEA is looking at regulations that would make every medical marijuana card holder register with them. Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to work very well.
Nothing new here. For the past 100 or so years, the United States government, at all levels and departments has had a difficult time coming up with a cohesive plan to regulate cannabis and cannabis products. It’s a hot mess. And now that the administration (as of March of 2025) has rescheduled medical cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3, it’s even worse.
First, it’s only for ‘medical cannabis’ which is exactly the same as regular ol’ cannabis. Exactly. Second, it’s not really a ‘legalization’ at all. There’s too much in this bill to go over the nitty gritty details, but enough. It’s subterfuge and bull cookies.
Legalize it Like Alcohol
I’m reading a lot of nay-saying and anti-cannabis people who don’t want pot legalized. Why? I cannot for the life of me think of any logical reason or reasons why it shouldn’t be legalized. Is it harmful? It does have that potential. So does every other drug, legal or illegal, cause some sort of issue. Every article I read about keeping it illegal never mentions two salient facts:
1. Alcohol causes about 178,000 deaths in the US. 178,000. 1 in 8 deaths in the US is caused by excessive drinking and the numbers are going up; over 29% between the years 2016 and 2021. Alcohol related driving deaths went up over 20% in the same time period. And alcohol poisoning causes 2200-2500 deaths annually.
2. Cannabis causes zero deaths. Zero. There are no deaths caused by cannabis poisoning, since there is no such thing. That’s zero. As in de nada. Zilch. Zip. No deaths.
So which drug is more dangerous? Cannabis or alcohol. By these statistics alone, it’s obvious that alcohol is far more dangerous than cannabis. So why isn’t alcohol on the dangerous drugs list? In a word; Racism. And stupidity. OK. Two words. Why can’t the nay-sayers pull their collective head out of their nether regions and get behind regulation the same as alcohol?
The REAL Problem?
The body of scientific and objective evidence shows that there’s no contest between alcohol and cannabis. Alcohol is more dangerous for humans than cannabis. The numbers prove it. Ah, but therein lies the rub. The rub is politics and prejudice. Actually no, the real problem is politicians…who are also prejudiced. Politicians are the animals of governance. Let me explain: Former President Biden had every opportunity to legalize cannabis, a compliant Department of Justice and lots of members of the legislature willing to go along. But a combination of hubris and the fact that he was one of the architects of the 1990s drug laws and his fear for his legacy combined to paralyze him. While hindsight is 20/20, he should have been fearless. Probably his age related dementia came into play here too. Biden is no super-ager when it comes to his thought processes. Neither is our current president who seemingly cannot put a complete sentence together. I’m not a republican nor am I a democrat. I am however, a person who believes in doing what’s right and what’s going on in our government is not right. It hasn’t been right for almost 100 years.
Why is this? America is an alcohol nation. Americans love alcohol. This love started as soon as the first white settlers arrived. People began spreading out and living in different parts of the eastern seaboard. Alcohol was safer than drinking water through the 1800s. Many public water utilities were unsafe as were many wells. Maybe more importantly, alcohol was cheap. Very cheap. There were no taxes on alcohol until after prohibition ended. There were no age restrictions either. People over the age of 15 were drinking an average 7 gallons of alcohol a year. The temperance movement started in the 1800s precisely because American men (the wage earners then), were very dependent on alcohol. So much so that alcoholism in the US was an epidemic. There was no replacement for alcohol as it was a replacement for drinking water. Cannabis, while widely available, just wasn’t right for the job.
So What Can We Do?
So here’s the conundrum; Cannabis isn’t as harmful as alcohol, but it has very different effects. Is cannabis harmless even if it can’t kill you? Absolutely not. It’s not good for kids as it can possibly harm their brain development. Neither is alcohol, but it’s regulated to keep it out of the hands of children. Why not weed? That’s the conundrum; Why can’t we just regulate weed like alcohol. That would remove all the objections other than those voiced by people who aren’t happy unless they can do something to control your life.
There is no answer other than logic. As a society, we don’t seem to operate on that.
