U.S. Surgeon General Says We Need to Reconsider How We Schedule Marijuana
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams says we should look into how we schedule marijuana, and that its current schedule hinders medical research.
Surgeon General Jerome Adams (photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images).
“Just as we need to look at criminal justice laws, rules and regulations, we need to look at health laws, rules and regulations, and that includes the scheduling system,” said Adams during a recent question and answer session at a Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative conference. “I’ll take it somewhere else: marijuana. We need to look at the way we schedule different medications across the board, because one of the concerns that I have with marijuana is the difficulty that the folks have to do research on it, because of the scheduling system.”
Currently marijuana is a schedule 1 drug, meaning it has absolutely no medical value; other schedule 1 drugs include heroin, LSD and MDMA. Marijuana’s status as a schedule 1 drug makes it almost impossible for most researchers to study it in a comprehensive and unbiased manner.
Adams was nominated by President Trump to become the 20th U.S. Surgeon General in June of last year; he was confirmed by the Senate in August, and took over the position the following month. Prior to his current position, Adams served as the Indiana State Health Commissioner.
John tune
Yes cannabis should be rescheduled, it’s non sense how we treat people for possessing a harmless plant that has so many medical benefits
Norman Peters
To whom this concerns… Marijuana grows naturally from a seed and the other “Schedule 1 drugs” are Man Made !!
We are studying dirt from the moon, but we cannot study something that grows naturally here for medicine, seriously something wrong with this picture!
Dan
It is only rational that we look at the big picture of marijuana’s potential health benefits in an unbiased and unrestricted manner. Therefore, I wholeheartedly agree with the new Surgeon General that a reschedule of pot is past due!