I retract my Nixon statement I was wrong.
apologies
I have posted below the real account of how MJ got placed into schedule 1 of the CSA.
Hope this clears up the confusion.
It started in 1937 with the passing of the Marijuana Tax Act. The Marijuana Tax Act imposed taxes that were so punitive that they effectively outlawed marijuana (which was the goal). The Marijuana Tax Act effectively banned marijuana but it wasn't literally made illegal until the passing of the Controlled Substances Act in the 1970's.
This is why marijuana was put into Schedule I of the CSA and made illegal:
In 1970, Congress placed cannabis into Schedule I on the advice of Assistant Secretary of Health Roger O. Egeberg. His letter to Harley O. Staggers, Chairman of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, indicates that the classification was intended to be provisional:
Dear Mr. Chairman: In a prior communication, comments requested by your committee on the scientific aspects of the drug classification scheme incorporated in H.R. 18583 were provided. This communication is concerned with the proposed classification of marijuana.
It is presently classed in schedule I(C) along with its active constituents, the tetrahydrocannibinols and other psychotropic drugs.
Some question has been raised whether the use of the plant itself produces "severe psychological or physical dependence" as required by a schedule I or even schedule II criterion. Since there is still a considerable void in our knowledge of the plant and effects of the active drug contained in it, our recommendation is that marijuana be retained within schedule I at least until the completion of certain studies now underway to resolve the issue. If those studies make it appropriate for the Attorney General to change the placement of marijuana to a different schedule, he may do so in accordance with the authority provided under section 201 of the bill. . .
Sincerely yours, (signed) Roger O. Egeberg, M.D.[2]
The reference to "certain studies" is to the then-forthcoming National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse. In 1972, the Commission released a report favoring decriminalization of cannabis, it concluded that "while marijuana was not entirely safe, its dangers had been grossly overstated". At this point marijuana should have been decriminalized but that finding didn't suit the political requirements of President Nixon who wanted a report which supported his views and "tough on crime" policies. The report was therefore ignored and marijuana stayed in Schedule I.
Sixteen years later, after two years of public hearings "involving many witnesses and thousands of pages of documentation", DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young ruled that marijuana did not meet the legal criteria of a Schedule I prohibited drug and should be reclassified. He declared that "In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. It is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death. Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man".
Instead of Judge Young's decision leading to the rescheduling of marijuana in 1986, DEA Administrator John Lawn overruled it and marijuana stayed in Schedule I.
In the years since the Shafer Commissions report was released, researchers have conducted thousands of studies of humans, animals, and cell cultures. None have revealed any findings dramatically different from those described by the National Commission in 1972. In 1995, based on thirty years of scientific research, editors of the British medical journal "Lancet" concluded that "the smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health".
AI
