Pubdate: Tue, 09 Aug 2016
Source: Mercury, The (South Africa)
Copyright: 2016 The Mercury.
Contact:  http://www.themercury.co.za/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2940
Note: From The Denver Post

LEGALISING CANNABIS

COLORADO'S now years-long experiment with legal medical and 
recreational cannabis markets has been mostly positive and 
fascinating, and yet the federal government has been slow to rethink 
its decades-long prohibitionist position.

We hope the Obama administration takes advantage of its historic 
opportunity to end or take steps towards dismantling the destructive 
war on pot. What an irony it would be if Obama, who has openly 
admitted to pot use in his early years, and who has shown great 
tolerance towards local legalisation laws, left office without having 
moved the nation away from the antiquated reefer-madness enforcement 
of past presidencies.

The problem appears to be entrenchment at the US Drug Enforcement 
Administration, which missed the July 1 deadline it set for itself to 
reach a determination on whether to reclassify marijuana from its 
current laughable position as a Schedule I substance. Like heroin, 
the classification is reserved for the most dangerous drugs with 
which the DEA concerns itself.

Meanwhile, families trust medical marijuana to help children with 
seizures and other ailments.

Patients with serious conditions seek medical marijuana for a range 
of treatments. They do so largely without significant scientific 
study to guide them.

We get it that ending marijuana prohibition would be difficult. 
Perhaps more debate is needed before the feds can get behind 
full-scale legalisation.

The DEA should step up and look past its ridiculous hardline approach.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom