Did You Know 1 in 5 Americans reside in a state where adult cannabis is legal, and there is growing bipartisan support for legal, taxed cannabis? Yet federally, it is considered a Schedule 1 Drug. We have provided a few talking points to spark the conversation around removing marijuana and its natural derivatives, like THC and CBD, to permanently decriminalize marijuana across America. Learn more in OU’s Federal vs. State Law Class in Business and Horticulture!
Did you know the founders of Oaksterdam were the first to go all the way to the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) to defend the right to provide medical cannabis to qualified patients back in the ’90s? Oaksterdam University is the nation’s first cannabis college, formally founded in 2007 to teach Medical Cannabis patients their rights and safely grow and consume their medicine. Oaksterdam University-sponsored CA’s Prop 19 campaign to control, tax, and regulate cannabis in 2010. Oaksterdam bringing the fight in 2010 forced (then) Gov. Schwarzenegger to sign the most impactful decriminalization bill to date, dropping the arrests in CA 87% as reported by Marijuana Arrests and California’s Drug War.
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Did You Know, if the USA descheduled marijuana, we would legalize research in America, for Americans? Researchers’ limitations are crippling and designed to fail under DEA supervision, which has a legal monopoly on poor-quality samples.
How does the safety profile of cannabis, with established clinical benefits, compared to those of other conventional medications? A popular falsehood is that we don’t yet know enough about the safety and efficacy of cannabis as a medicine. Classified under the US Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule I controlled substance, cannabis has yet to be subjected to adequate scientific study.
“The problem with medical marijuana is …. (that) we haven’t done any research.” – Hillary Clinton November 7, 2015
A cursory review of the available scientific evidence finds this position to be either woefully or willfully ignorant. A keyword search on the PubMed database, the repository for all peer-reviewed scientific research published worldwide, identifies over 30,000 peer-reviewed papers specific to the cannabis plant (or active constituents) and its effects. This totality of evidence is far greater than the total number of studies dedicated to many conventional medications, including Tylenol, ibuprofen, Ritalin, hydrocodone, or Adderall.
Further, unlike many conventional medications, cannabis possesses an extensive history of human use dating back thousands of years, thus providing us with ample empirical evidence as to the plant’s relative safety and efficacy. Moreover, scientists are continuing to study cannabis in various patient populations. A keyword search on the website ClinicalTrials.gov, a repository of all FDA-approved trials worldwide, identifies several hundred human studies involving the cannabis plant in various recruitment stages. Descheduling allows for research to provide a basis for the potential use of cannabis-based therapies.
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Did You Know, if the USA descheduled marijuana, we would finally allow for safe access for Veterans as a proven strategy for TBI, PTSD, neuropathic pain? Veterans would no longer risk their healthcare, GI Bill, and federal benefits for choosing cannabis as medicine in a state that does not allow it.
Additionally, removing marijuana from Schedule 1 would promote Veteran business ownership.
Vets are also concerned with national security and safety. We will fight wars of the future over water and resources. Sustainability and ecological responsibility to impede climate change through hemp farming and substitution of cannabis in other industries like cigarettes will reduce our dependence upon many harmful behaviors, industrialization results, and mono-cropping.
Descheduling is vital to the advancement of an ethical and ecologically sustainable cannabis economy. The twelve-year climate crisis countdown demands outdoor cultivation and hemp as a sustainable alternative to many plastics and consumables.
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Did You Know, if the USA descheduled marijuana, we would finally end geographic-based persecution of qualified medical patients? Families forced to choose; become a medical migrant and move to a medical state (leaving behind family, friends, and their support network) to save their child; or risk getting caught; losing their child, freedom, savings by betting on an illegal and illicit market.
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Did You Know, if the USA descheduled marijuana, we would finally break the stigma, offering seniors respect and choice?
Seniors have so much to give back, and younger generations need their elders to participate – yet they are too embarrassed or scared of the social stigma of cannabis – afraid of what might help them get their groove back. Descheduling is essential for seniors. Most seniors are in pain and need relief to get a better quality of life. Seniors often can’t fathom breaking the laws and will follow the rules; legal cannabis allows seniors the choice to try medical cannabis.
Seniors are increasing in numbers, and we are trying to reduce dependence on opioid painkillers to improve quality of life. Legalize a successful harm reduction exit strategy for our dangerous opiate epidemic. Check out our FREE class on cannabis as the Exit Strategy!
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Did You Know, if we descheduled marijuana, we would allow for small businesses to exist? Creating monopolies by granting limited, competitive, and expensive licenses lock most people out of entrepreneurship. The only way to ensure making money on cannabis is not only “legal” for select people, and for everyone to have access to participate in the new economy, we must remove the penalties invoked for a schedule 1 drug.
- Allowing many entities in the supply chain offers healthy competition, and provides opportunities for women, people of color, and veterans to survive, thrive, and innovate. Otherwise, these groups can only be employees or criminals.
- Small Business is the backbone of the American economy and the primary driver of new jobs. Removing marijuana from the DEA’s Drug Schedule allows all companies to exist without back-breaking IRS 280e tax penalties, allows for banking, and ends merchant services restrictions. A beneficial side effect is allowing credit cards (stopping all-cash transactions) provides transparency and much better tracking for communities to enjoy the tax windfall.
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Did You Know, descheduling cannabis will allow tracking and tracing the money, allow cannabis businesses bank normally, and prevent the highly unfair unequal taxation of cannabis businesses with the 280e rule.
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Did You Know, Descheduling Ends Marijuana Prohibition?
Criminality brings the real threat of prison, property forfeiture, reduced opportunities for employment, education, housing, and compounds historically unfair discrimination. Descheduling ensures equal access and economic empowerment. Equity programs and reinvesting in communities devastated by criminalization is a necessary component of ending prohibition and preventing the “Next Jim Crow” from being incorporated into new cannabis policies.
We must include formerly incarcerated non-violent offenders trying to earn an honest living and invest in education for individuals negatively impacted by the War on Drugs. Youth are still targeted by law enforcement, especially in communities of color, derailing their entire lives over minor discretions. We can create new resources to support schools and teachers, students, and parents, through cannabis tax dollars, by shifting our priorities and funding.
Consumption amongst youth has not increased in legal states. Legalization for adults, without decriminalization, has created an increase in criminalizing 18-21 year-olds. Descheduling would solve both issues. Safer communities and better peace officer relationships result from cannabis policy reform. Law enforcement can better utilize their limited resources to focus on trafficking, violent crime, and crimes against others.
The private criminal justice complex has created quotas to fill beds with heads and promoted laws designed to incarcerate many non-violent drug offenders, costing taxpayers billions. Legalization and regulation would help eliminate the need for fiscally irresponsible and morally reprehensible programs.
Finally, descheduling is both national decriminalization and state by state because all 50 states adopted the failed federal policy.
Did you know Oaksterdam forged the blueprint for moms and cops discussing cannabis legalization and taxation, criminal justice reforms, and equity? We were ahead of our time. We have educated over 50,000 people from 40 countries to change the world. Now we have an Office of Government & Public Affairs (OGPA) to specifically meet the needs of regulators and policy wonks as they grapple with the control, taxation, and compliance of a “new” industry. Dale Sky Jones led a coalition to Congress in 2019 to detail these crucial points in a briefing for both the US Senate and the House of Representatives. Our goal was to show lawmakers and lobbyists that when crafting and examining Federal-level cannabis access legislation, they need to make sure bills include the descheduling of cannabis. Descheduling cannabis best serves our veterans, older citizens, and persons of color – from both a patient, career advancement, and business ownership perspective.
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