... of what should be a day in history celebrated each year -- for a whole host of reasons -- by people all across America.
"By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of medical care.”
On September 6th, 1988, (DEA) Chief Administrative Law Judge Francis Young, ruled that:
"In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling,”
“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.”
Breathe that in for a moment: Twenty-five years ago, a U.S. federal agency ruled (not suggested, not concluded... RULED.) that indeed marijuana was both safe and beneficial within a supervised routine of medical care.
Young added:
“It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record.”
Someone's got some 'splainin' to do...
NORML (via Alternet) has the story:
In the landmark ruling, Judge Young determined...
“The administrative law judge recommends that the Administrator conclude that the marijuana plant considered as a whole has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, that there is no lack of accepted safety for use of it under medical supervision and that it may lawfully be transferred from Schedule I to Schedule II.”
The ruling was prompted Back in 1972, when the fledgling grassroots organization,
NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) filed an administrative petition with the DEA. The petition was aimed at rescheduling cannabis under federal law. Officially, the petition was refused by federal authorities until finally ordered to respond to it in 1974 by the U.S. Court of Appeals. In turn, the DEA refused to process the petition until the agency was once again forced into action by the same court but not until 1982. Fourteen years after NORML's original petition was filed, the DEA broke down, holding hearings presided over by Judge Young, who then rendered a final decision two years later.
However, then-DEA Administrator John Lawn ultimately rejected Young’s determination, and in 1994, the Court of Appeals allowed Lawn’s reversal to stand – maintaining marijuana’s present classification as a Schedule I prohibited substance with “no accepted medical use,” and a “lack of accepted safety … under medical supervision.”
Seven years later in July 2011, the DEA quietly
rejected a separate rescheduling
petition that was filed in 2002. And back in January of this year, a three-judge-panel appointed by the infamous
US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed the DEA's decision. The
affirmation dictated that insufficient clinical studies exist to warrant a judicial review of cannabis's federally mandated prohibition.
Petitioners have appealed the ruling to the US Supreme Court, which may or may not elect to review the matter.
It's past time for this deliberate and corrupt, decades-long folly to end. A full congressional commission needs to be formed to expose this conspiracy. (a real conspiracy) We will never know just how many lives could have been saved; how much pain could have been alleviated -- how many economic and environmental benefits legalization could have brought about -- or how many alcohol-related deaths could have been averted.
We'll never know.
