U.S. DEA denies petition to reclassify marijuana

[Eugene]

LBN thread: U.S. will affirm its prohibition on medical marijuana

Source: Reuters

World | Thu Aug 11, 2016 10:36am EDT

U.S. DEA denies petition to reclassify marijuana

WASHINGTON | BY REUTERS STAFF

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Thursday denied requests to loosen the classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no medical use.

The decision is the DEA's response to a 2011 petition by two former state governors who had urged federal agencies to re-classify marijuana as a drug with accepted medical uses.

In a letter to the petitioners, the DEA said it had asked the Department of Health and Human Services for a scientific and medical evaluation of the issue.

"HHS concluded that marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no accepted medical use in the United States, and lacks an acceptable level of safety for use even under medical supervision," the letter said.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-marijuana-idUSKCN10M1IV

[Warren DeMontague]

1. I'm shocked, shocked I say!

In other news, Gravy Train votes not to tear up 80% of their own gravy tracks.

[Warren DeMontague]

2. "lacks an acceptable level of safety"- excuse me for asking, but are they high?

it doesn't have a 'safety level' because NO ONE EVER DIES FROM IT.

the safety level is nonexistent since it's not dangerous at all.

Don't take my word for it, ask DEA Judge Francis Young, 1988:

http://www.ccguide.org/young88.php

Point 3. The most obvious concern when dealing with drug safety is the possibility of lethal effects. Can the drug cause death?

4. Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality.

5. This is a remarkable statement. First, the record on marijuana encompasses 5,000 years of human experience. Second, marijuana is now used daily by enormous numbers of people throughout the world. Estimates suggest that from twenty million to fifty million Americans routinely, albeit illegally, smoke marijuana without the benefit of direct medical supervision. Yet, despite this long history of use and the extraordinarily high numbers of social smokers, there are simply no credible medical reports to suggest that consuming marijuana has caused a single death.

6. By contrast aspirin, a commonly used, over-the-counter medicine, causes hundreds of deaths each year.

7. Drugs used in medicine are routinely given what is called an LD-50. The LD-50 rating indicates at what dosage fifty percent of test animals receiving a drug will die as a result of drug induced toxicity. A number of researchers have attempted to determine marijuana's LD-50 rating in test animals, without success. Simply stated, researchers have been unable to give animals enough marijuana to induce death.

8. At present it is estimated that marijuana's LD-50 is around

1:20,000 or 1:40,000. In layman terms this means that in order to induce death a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times as much marijuana as is contained in onemarijuana cigarette. NIDA-supplied marijuana cigarettes weigh approximately .9 grams. A smoker would theoretically have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana within about fifteen minutes to induce a lethal response.

9. In practical terms, marijuana cannot induce a lethal response as a result of drug-related toxicity.

10. Another common medical way to determine drug safety is called the therapeutic ratio. This ratio defines the difference between a therapeutically effective dose and a dose which is capable of inducing adverse effects.

11. A commonly used over-the-counter product like aspirin has a therapeutic ratio of around 1:20. Two aspirins are the recommended dose for adult patients. Twenty times this dose, forty aspirins, may cause a lethal reaction in some patients, and will almost certainly cause gross injury to the digestive system, including extensive internal bleeding.

12. The therapeutic ratio for prescribed drugs is commonly around 1:10 or lower. Valium, a commonly used prescriptive drug, may cause very serious biological damage if patients use ten times the recommended (therapeutic) dose.

13. There are, of course, prescriptive drugs which have much lower therapeutic ratios. Many of the drugs used to treat patients with cancer, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis are highly toxic. The therapeutic ratio of some of the drugs used in antineoplastic therapies, for example, are regarded as extremely toxic poisons with therapeutic ratios that may fall below 1:1.5. These drugs also have very low LD-50 ratios and can result in toxic, even lethal reactions, while being properly employed.



14. By contrast, marijuana's therapeutic ratio, like its LD-50, is impossible to quantify because it is so high.

15. In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating ten raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death.

16. Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of medical care."

[DreamSmoker]

3. This is about absolute Power

Just like the IRS...
Both have become bigger than God almost with their authority...
So you have to ask yourself why would the DEA give up on the tight restrictions on Cannabis when it pays so well and it keeps 85% of them in a Job...

This certainly is not at all based on the Facts for the DEAs decision... Its never has been either...
Obviously when All we get is a news report that's weeks late... Nothing at all from the DEA why that could be questioned...
Its their way of saying let the States do work....
THIS IS ONE BIG REASON FOLKS HATE GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS....
GOVERNMENT LOOKS OUT FOR ITSELF... NOT THE FOLKS IT WAS DESIGNED FOR....