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Comment by cthalupa | Hacker News Reader

> As a Schedule 1 drug, marijuana is in the same category as some of the hardest drugs like heroin and LSD, which means it’s classified as being more dangerous than fentanyl and methamphetamine.

LSD is another drug where it is absurd it is on Schedule 1, and reporters likening it specifically to heroin as one of the hardest drugs is equally absurd. Psilocybin/Psilocin also fall in this category.

Obviously not to the extent that marijuana does, but we are seeing real medical research showing promising results around mushrooms, lsd, and similar substances in treating depression, ptsd, alcohol dependency, etc. as well as just general mental wellbeing. Plainly, these do not match the criteria of 'having no recognized medical use.'

Fix our drug laws.

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It's because taking these drugs give people "other ideas" about their life which don't sit well with maintaining the status quo in society we have today.

People might start to become radicalized, see themselves as more connected to things like "the natural world" and then start to demand spooky changes which aren't all about economics.

It's far too much of a risky experiment to run, so it's easier to put it all on some type of banned substances list.

Felonies disenfranchise voters. That's the root of a lot of this stuff, social control is mostly irrelevant by comparison.

And are disproportionately given to minorities to keep the white man (or orange man, or skeleton man) in office preventing them from voting. It’s systemic.

Drugs aren't classified schedule 1 based on the idea that these drugs are more dangerous than schedule 2. Both schedule 1 and schedule 2 are considered to be drugs with high abuse potential. What delineates the two is the notion that schedule 1 have no accepted medical use, while schedule 2 are accepted to have a medical use. Schedule 3, 4 and 5 are also considered to have medical use. If it is concluded that marijuana should be reclassified as having a medical use, then it could be put in category 3,4 or 5. I doubt it would be reclassified as schedule 2.

An absurd classification system that exempts alcohol and tobacco for no particular reason. I think the classification system should be consistent in a way that includes alcohol and tobacco under the same regime.

I think that it may be kept as it is to allow the ATF to continue enforcing the law for alcohol and tobacco. The DEA is responsible for enforcing the law for the substances in the Controlled Substances Act. If alcohol and tobacco were added, that would greatly widen the scope of the DEA. To add to this, the drugs classified under schedule 2-5 are produced by pharmaceutical companies, while producers of consumer alcohol and tobacco are not.

Then you need a schedule 6, "controlled substances that are dual food/drink and medical use".

I think this would still lead to the DEA being responsible for the enforcement of alcohol and tobacco, which I don't think is a desired outcome by the public.

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