Marijuana is not a drug or even a variety of cannabis plants like hemp.
Why should we bother and work so hard trying to change the classification or the schedule designation of marijuana, pot, grass, or weed? It's a fools errand to seek to change the classification of a slang term. Why don't we just insist on the use of precise language in our legal system instead. Arguably the federal prohibition against the entire genus of cannabis plants ended over two years ago when the FDA authorized both synthetic and organic dronabinol, aka THC, for medical use and the DEA removed it from the most restrictive Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
Only the placement of the slang term, marijuana, with it's rather dubious history in our legal codes is currently maintaining the prohibition. Forcing the removal of slang terms from our laws would end the prohibition today. It's a foolish mistake to try to prove a slang term has medicinal value so that it can be rescheduled. Especially when the actual cannabinoid drug, dronabinol, already has been rescheduled.
Schedule III.
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(gSec. 1308.13) Hallucinogenic substances. (1)(i) Dronabinol in sesame oil and encapsulated in a gelatin capsule in a drug product approved for marketing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)--7369.
(ii) Any drug product in hard or soft gelatin capsule form containing natural dronabinol (derived from the cannabis plant) or synthetic dronabinol (produced from synthetic materials) in sesame oil, for which an abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) has been approved by the FDA under section 505(j) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 355(j)) which references as its listed drug the drug product referred to in the preceding paragraph (g)(1)(i) of this section--7369.
Note to paragraph (g)(1): Some other names for dronabinol: (6a R-trans)-6a,7,8,10a-tetrahydro-6,6,9-trimethyl-3-pentyl-6 H-dibenzo [b,d]pyran-1-ol] or (-)-delta-9-(trans)-tetrahydrocannabinol]
(2) [Reserved]
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Dated: October 19, 2010.
Michele M. Leonhart,
Deputy Administrator.
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