DEA's American Sucker Punch, Marijuana Stays Schedule 1 Drug

With the recent non-reclassification of marijuana off the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) Schedule 1 list, the American legalization movement died a little. Any moral holdouts still possessing faith in the political process from the last 40-plus years of grassroots legalization efforts and campaigning were just taught a lesson in crooked leadership, corrupt regulatory agencies and dirty street fighting. As soon as the DEA announced their decision, the social media and popular culture split away from hope in "authorities" happened immediately like a spring-loaded lock being released. Independent news agencies, writers and blog posts blasted the DEA's decision, that was originally ridiculous in 1970 when the President Richard Nixon signed into law the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 creating the initial drug scheduling. However, in 2106 the DEA’s baseless consensus that marijuana "has no accepted medical use" and "lacks safety" may prove to be enough to spark a revolution. The last thread of hope in government and the slim faith that our regulatory captors exist to help us was revealed with instant sobering clarity. Not even the corporate media machine could make sense of the DEA’s decision and struggled to ease the ugly talking points down the throats of their sparse, dwindling readership and consumers.

Kevin A. Sabet, a former Obama administration drug-policy adviser and president of the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana. “It’s a good day for science.” His Orwellian statement was not to be outdone as confusion and anger begin to set in throughout thinking America. Gaslighting/speaking with the publication The Cannabist from Denver, Colorado, the DEA clarified “People should not get hung up on this idea that the DEA somehow is still a big bad wolf.”

The circle was complete, the public trust in regulatory agencies evaporated once and for all on August 11 2016. Even corporate and government employees had to draw their blinds and turn their phones on airplane mode for the day to avoid uncomfortable questions from their neighbors. The battles will continue in with individual state's rights. 25 (and DC) have already enacted various forms of medical cannabis legalization and more are on the way. The movement was started before most of us were born, and with a little luck, this generation will finally get to wrestle the prize away from the corporate red tape and government regulatory vampires. On the other side of sanity waits a mainstream flood of millions of American people who will benefit from the known and well-documented benefits of cannabis.

Sending a clear message on the same day as the DEA’s sucker punch, Health Canada gave its official press release in response to the Federal Court of Canada's decision in Allard v. Canada stating:

“Canadians who have been authorized by their health care practitioner to access cannabis for medical purposes will be able to produce a limited amount of cannabis for their own medical purposes, or designate someone to produce it for them. They will also continue to have the option of purchasing safe, quality-controlled cannabis from one of the 34 producers licensed by Health Canada.”