Pubdate: Mon, 09 Nov 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Abby Phillip, Washington Post

HILLARY CLINTON JOINS CALL TO ALTER MARIJUANA RULE

ORANGEBURG, S.C. - Hillary Clinton, who has long declined to endorse 
legalized medical or recreational marijuana at the federal level, 
said over the weekend that she favors changing the rules to allow 
more research into medical marijuana.

Clinton said she supports removing marijuana from a list of schedule 
1 drugs, a classification that prevents federally sponsored research 
into its effects. As a schedule 1 drug, marijuana is classified among 
the most dangerous drugs that the federal Drug Enforcement Agency regulates.

"We haven't done research, why? Because it's considered a schedule 1 
drug," Clinton said Saturday during a town hall meeting at Claflin 
University in South Carolina. "I'd like to move it from schedule 1 to 
schedule 2."

Her two rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator 
Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former governor Martin O'Malley of 
Maryland, both oppose marijuana's designation as a schedule 1 substance.

Clinton stopped short of advocating decriminalization, as Sanders has 
done. Sanders is the only presidential candidate who has proposed 
removing marijuana altogether from the schedule of controlled 
substances regulated by the DEA.

According to the DEA, schedule 1 drugs are "defined as drugs with no 
currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. 
Schedule 1 drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug 
schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence."

Clinton has repeatedly said that she believes states are the 
"laboratories of democracy" on the marijuana issue and that she would 
like to see more research into the health effects of medical 
marijuana. "I want to see how it works before we do a national plan 
for the federal government," Clinton said.

Specifically, she said that more information is needed to determine 
safe dosages, the efficacy of certain varieties of the drug, and 
potential complications with other drugs.
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