United States Drug Schedule Madness

In the United States Drug Schedules are used to determine to what extent certain drugs are federally regulated. Drugs in Schedules I and II have a high potential for abuse. Drugs in Schedule I have no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and there is a lack of accepted safety of the drug under medical supervision.

Given the use of medical marijuana in California, I would have to argue that there is definitely a medical use of this drug. I would also argue that there is not a lack of accepted safety with this drug because it is difficulty to accidentally overdose. Unfortunately marijuana is on the Schedule I drug list. This means that legally marijuana has no accepted medical use and it is illegal to use marijuana medically.

Cocaine is used to some extent nationally in hospitals as a topical anesthetic. Cocaine's usage has decreased over the years, but it is definitely still used. Cocaine is on the Schedule II drug list. This means that by law there is a currently accepted medical use for cocaine. This is certainly true, although decreasingly so.

The thing that greatly bothers me about the United States Drug Schedules is that it is ruled that there is no acceptable medical use for marijuana, but there is an acceptable medical use for cocaine. Marijuana is a fairly effective painkiller that is much less physically shocking and much less addictive than many alternative painkillers that are legally prescribed. Cocaine is much more dangerous recreationally and therefore has a much greater potential for abuse. Why should cocaine be legal to prescribe if marijuana is not?

The Tea Party Begins

I support Dr. Ron Paul for president. The main reason I support him is that he is one of the very few politicians in our country who uses reason and logic to make decisions. His ideas closely resemble the ideas of many of our founding fathers. He believes the basic rulebook of our country, the Constitution, should be regarded and respected as the important document it is.

A few months ago people could have argued that Dr. Paul had no chance at winning and people often made this claim and touted it as fact. At this time it would be very difficult to argue that Ron Paul has no chance of winning the Republican primaries. Paul's support is increasing greatly. His campaign funding is growing immensely and the grassroots efforts of his supporters are never ending.

December 16 is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Many supporters of Ron Paul have decided to celebrate this date by donating money to Paul's campaign. The "tea party" officially began at 12:00am EST. I expect the campaign to have broken their fourth quarter goal of $12 million dollars by 2:00am EST. I wish Paul's campaign the best of luck on this day.