A HUMAN-MADE PROBLEM IN THE U.S.  THAT DISCRIMINATES, CONFUSES, STEREOTYPES AND HURTS THE YOUNG AND OLD EVERYDAY!

Today I listen to more news of homicides in the USA...  And I look again at the enormous budget of 'The War on Drugs.' I look at the re-burgeoning federal deficits under military spending now to 'fight the war on terrorism.' And I see again and again that medically ill people ( many of them in wheelchairs ) continue to be arrested - and their lives, or very health, seriously disrupted forsmoking cannabis ( 'marijuana' ).  And I see children buying drugs - very dangerous drugs- on the street after having been exposed, directly or indirectly, to marijuana smoking and learning that, contrary to the government's warnings, those people have not typically been caught in the grips of a values-compromising and a life-compromising trap.  'If it's not true that marijuana is so bad, it's probably also not true about heroin or cocaine or oxycontin!' [-Infamous last words of too many, I am afraid!]

There are at least four flies in the 'public health ointment' offered by the federal government, despite increasingly Herculean budgets and even willingness to resort to terrorist activities against American citizens, to unsuccessfully address 'the drug problem' in this country. 

The first rotten 'bug' is that the federal government continues to incorrectly categorize 'marijuana'( cannabis ) alongside heroin, representing it as so dangerous as to be medically useless and personally and socially very destructive - dangerously and seductively and uncompromisingly so! And then, by keeping tobacco and alcohol off the entire schedule ( bugaboos2 and 3 ), the false implication is that alcohol and tobacco are not as dangerous as marijuana!

This confuses EACH NEW GENERATION OF KIDS GROWING UP INTO ADULTHOOD.  The problem is not our kids.  The problem is the double-talk of the federal government in its seriously flawed scheduling of substances and all laws ( federal and state and local )and attitudes and actions that 'trickle down' from that.  ( Moreover, this 'confused ' scheduling may lead to increased black market activities...  )

To the best of my understanding, the constitution does not even authorize the federal government to make such a scheduling - at least not as the permanent, long-term public health authority in this regard.  Our country's framers left such public health responsibilities to the states...  The current federal stranglehold on the scheduling of dangerous substances represents the fourth bugaboo - especially when interstate commerce is not involved!

Given the lack of consensus around the federal government's scheduling of substances and the illegitimacy of the federal government remaining the one and only authority here, and given the opportunity ( if simply the political clarity and will ) to empower each state to derive their own scheduling, we could have 50 empirical experiments underway.  At present we have one flawed scheduling, to which the feds retrying to make everyone walk lock step - even if it takes ( LITERALLY ) terrorist tactics ( among other tactics ) to try to accomplish. 

Has this subject been something worthy of your interests, abilities and resources?

It certainly is relevant to present-day public health and civil rights and government funding issues.  I think there are many different tragic stories impacting Americans every day that spin off of this central problem. 

If these multiple stories were presented over a period of time, all of them logically tied, each in their own way, to this central problem ( that I presented to you here ), then you might provide further positive contribution to positive movement in the minds of people and in the actions of our leaders and in the laws of this land that could lead to a much healthier America ( and world ) - less at war with itself.  Civil rights could better flourish for all Americans, freeing up many more Americans to contribute openly and without inappropriate human-made roadblocks to our diverse and vibrant society. 

What do you think?

Norman Jentner, Ph.D. 

Director of Public Health

Ohio Patient Network