FDA is seeking the public's input on marijuana rescheduling

In the last few days, nearly 700 people have submitted comments to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) supporting the rescheduling of marijuana.

The FDA opened the public comment period on Friday to gather input ahead of a United Nations meeting on global drug policy, where the U.S. representative will have the opportunity to cast a vote on World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations to reschedule cannabis, THC and CBD under international drug treaties.

So far, the federal agency has been flooded with comments that overwhelmingly endorse a cannabis reclassification. Support for the policy change has been nearly unanimous, but the reasoning behind those sentiments varied.

Dozens of submissions came from patients, many of whom complained about pharmaceuticals they’d been prescribed and felt cannabis was a more effective treatment option. One person who said he or she is a registered nurse sided with those patients and wrote “in my professional opinion, it is both harmful and unethical to prohibit patients access to this medicinal plant.”

Others pointed out that marijuana is not as harmful as other legal substances like alcohol and tobacco. Several people argued that prohibition is an infringement on civil liberties.

Military veterans were also strongly represented in the comments, with some saying cannabis has helped treat conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain.

“I am a 59 y/o military veteran. I know first hand how effective a pain reliever cannabis can be,” one person wrote. “It is my strong opinion cannabis should be legal and regulated.”

Some brought a political angle to their comment. A self-described straight ticket Republican voter said he voted for Donald Trump in the last election, but that he will “endorse the next candidate who supports marijuana legalization.” Another person suggested that the president should legalize cannabis to troll liberals, delivering on an issue that is increasingly popular on a bipartisan basis.

“It’s draconian that you’re allowing states to arrest and charge people with felonies for a product that’s readily available in stores in other states,” someone wrote. “It also makes the federal government look completely inept because states have fully legalized starting in 2012. It’s been nearly a decade and there’s yet to be any sort of federal action.”

One of the only comments expressing opposition to loosening marijuana laws under international treaties relied on stoner stereotypes: “Cannabis makes you Dumb, Lazy, & Hungry !”

Taken as a whole, though, it’s clear that the public wants the U.S. to back marijuana reform when the issue comes up for a vote, which could happen later this month but might be delayed until a later UN meeting.

If adopted, the WHO recommendations wouldn’t change U.S. law—which classifies marijuana under the most restrictive category of Schedule I—or allow UN member states to legalize the sale of cannabis without violating international treaties. But approving WHO’s recommended changes would likely embolden more countries follow in the footsteps of Canada and Uruguay, which have legalized marijuana regardless of UN policy.

Expect more comments to flow in as the deadline, March 14, approaches. The last time the FDA solicited public input on cannabis rescheduling, more than 20,000 people made their voices heard.

Source

Meet the new boss same as the old boss

The word "exploitation" is thrown around a lot in our society. Exploitation of the workers,of the masses,of various groups. One form of exploitation is when older people entice the younger generation to be their foot soldiers. To do their dirty work for them. We've seen this in the '70's with the establishment exploiting young men through the draft to kill or be killed in the Viet Nam War. A lot of young men also noticed it and brought it forefront for the American people to understand it and combat it. Today it is a different establishment playing the role of puppet master but they are yielding the same bloody results. Back then it was big business tycoons and other corporate elites that were pulling the strings. Pulling the strings in favor of them and their stockholders. Today it is college and university professors and other left wing members of the faculty that are the exploiters. It is very easy to accomplish now that the unions control the educational system and how the left owns the unions. What passes for "education" these days is a mockery of the word and definition. I would use the term "indoctrinate". This indoctrination doesn't start on the first day of their college classes. It starts on the first day of their kindergarten class. From K-12 and beyond the left has brainwashed your children. The left is also creating an army of their own. Of ruthless thugs that use Stalinistic methods of terror to achieve their goals. Their army is called "antifa". They pride themselves on being "anti-fascists". They can take pride in knowing they are just as vicious as those they claim to hate. If not more so. In the U.S. military honor and respect for the law are prized. With antifa they are despised. With the U.S. military the United States Constitution and the American Revolution are the guiding principles. With antifa Das Kapital and the communist revolution are the only things that matter. We've seen that evil intent,regardless of political affiliation,can wreck damage,perhaps extensive,throughout society. IOW the more things change the more they stay the same.

Stand up to Facebook's tyranny

From Demand Progress:

This may be the moment when we finally take back control of the internet from big corporate monopolies.

After nearly a year of scandal, Facebook is on the ropes. The Federal Trade Commission is considering serious penalties for Facebook’s violations of federal laws and court orders regarding our privacy and our data.

The FTC is considering fining Facebook as much as $1 billion.1 That may sound like a lot. But it's not. It's barely a few days' revenue for the company. And it won't produce lasting change.

We can't trust Facebook to regulate itself. There's too much at stake, and they've proven themselves to be bad faith actors over and over again.

This is a critical moment. Add your name: Tell the FTC to break up Facebook. We’ll immediately send your message to all five FTC commissioners.

Facebook owns many other social media apps -- including Instagram and WhatsApp. As long as Facebook has a near monopoly on the way we connect with each other, they will be able to get away with privacy violations, because we’d have nowhere else to go.

Facebook's monopoly led the British Parliament this week to call the company "digital gangsters" for their repeated violations of the law and of users' rights. They also pointed out that Facebook's dominant market position is a serious problem and has to be addressed.2

Facebook has repeatedly sold out users' privacy for shareholder profit, and will keep doing so until they’re broken up.

Sign the petition: It's time to tell the FTC to break up Facebook.

Parliament concluded that the Cambridge Analytica scandal could have been prevented, but Facebook's own internal policies allowed the massive personal data breach to continue unchecked.3 Cambridge Analytica harvested millions of Facebook users' personal data without their permission, in order to build psychological profiles to target users with political disinformation.

Their report also found that Facebook's monopoly on online ads is destroying the media and leading to mass layoffs of journalists.4

That's just the tip of the iceberg. The damage Facebook has done is massive. They even knowingly did things like let kids run up huge credit card bills and refused to issue refunds to parents.5

The FTC is debating what to do about Facebook right now. They can't let Facebook off with a fine. Even a big fine won't be enough to change their behavior. As long as Facebook has a near-monopoly on social media, they won’t have any incentive to change.

Tell the FTC that Facebook is too big to regulate itself. It's time to break it up.

Thanks for taking action,

Robert and the team at Demand Progress

1. Washington Post, "The U.S. government and Facebook are negotiating a record, multibillion-dollar fine for the company’s privacy lapses,"
2.The Guardian, "Facebook labelled 'digital gangsters' by report on fake news,"
3.Ibid.
4.Ibid.
5.The Guardian, "Facebook let children run up huge bills, court papers show,"