To the best of your knowledge, what is the TRUE reason canibis is still illegal?

I'm hoping to gather the input of law enforcement but all are welcome to respond.





In 1989 the Supreme court ruled that ';Marijuana'; should be reclassified to schedule 2 of the CSA. However, it still remains at schedule 1 (Along with PCP) 19 years later. It's common knowledge that THC has no feasible lethal dose, yet my taxes still pay for the room and board of cannabis consumers. Who really benefits from this questionable policy?To the best of your knowledge, what is the TRUE reason canibis is still illegal?
Social inertia, the longer a law stays on the books the harder it is to get it changed. Canibis was only banned in the first place so Prohibition cops could keep their jobs once alcohol was re-legalized. Nowadays people just dismiss the idea with something like ';What next? Legalize murder?'; In any practical sense the cost to society, financially, in police man hours, in court time, in incarceration costs, not to mention the ruined lives of people who might otherwise have gone on to become valuable members of society, of keeping it illegal so outweigh any benefits that it boggles my mind. Yet we are helpless because conservatives* all over the country oppose change, even for the better, just because it's change.To the best of your knowledge, what is the TRUE reason canibis is still illegal?
1. It is perceived as addictive.


2. It has ';no accepted medical use.';


3. It has been historically linked with narcotics, such as heroin.


(Narcotics Act of 1914, which regulated heroin, cocaine, and marijuana.)


4. It is associated with unfashionable lifestyles.


5. It was once associated with oppressed ethnic groups.


(sad, but true. This is also true for a lot of other illegal narcotics, such as heroin and cocaine).


6. Inertia is a powerful force in public policy.


7. Advocates for marijuana legalization rarely present an appealing case.


8. Marijuana is often seen as a ';gateway drug.';





EDIT (to answer the question about meth)





Meth is schedule 2 because it has medicinal purposes (to treat ADHD, Narcolepsy, and extreme obesity)
don't know this for sure, but I think it is because fighting the drug war keeps a lot of people employed. I think that drugs should be legalized, taxed, and then drug dealers (the big ones) would have to operate just like a company, pay taxes, health insurance, and social security/unemployment benefits. Then switch all the people fighting the drug war to fighting the tax war, and put all of the taxes earned from the sale of drugs back into rehab programs.


Think back to when alcohol was illegal, who benefited???


Just my opinion.
I personally believe its because the government makes more money prosecuting people for growing and shipping and selling marijuana, than they would if they made it legal. Prisons make money.
Marijuana potency has grown steeply over the past decade with serious implications for users with the average amount of THC having more than doubled.





In the same period the number of admissions to psychiatric hospital caused by the drug soared by 85 per cent due to the fact that those who smoke the drug regularly are more than twice as likely to suffer illnesses such as schizophrenia, hallucinations and delusions later in life.





Teens using marijuana to alleviate feelings of depression just compound the problem.





As well as psychotic illness cannabis can cause affective disorders such as depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. Even worse it is linked to cancers.





Cannabis users display neuropsychological dysfunction (relative frontal lobe functioning deficits, cognitive inhibition) and attentional deficits similar to those found in schizotypal or schizophrenia patients.





Regular use can shrink the parts of the brain which control memory, emotion and aggression. The hippocampus, which is thought to govern emotion and memory averages 12 percent smaller and the amygdala, which has a part in controlling fear and aggression, 7 percent smaller. This suggests that heavy daily use may be toxic to human brain tissue.





Blood flow velocity is significantly higher in users and they have higher values on the pulsatility index (PI), which measures the amount of resistance to blood flow. This is thought to be due to narrowing of the blood vessels that occurs when the circulation system's ability to regulate itself is impaired. This leads to abnormalities in the small blood vessels in the brain.





The active chemical in MJ called delta-9-tetrahyrdocannabinol (THC) binds to cannabinoid (CB) receptors located on several cell types in various organs. This greatly increases the risk for heart attacks and strokes in addition to impaired learning and memory.





It can also effect physical health. Three to four cannabis cigarettes a day cause the same amount of damage to the lungs as 20 or more tobacco cigarettes a day. Thus there are rising levels of lung diseases such as emphysema.


In comparison to cigarettes marijuana smoke has significantly higher levels of toxic compounds, including ammonia and hydrogen cyanide. Ammonia levels are 20 times higher while hydrogen cyanide, nitric oxide and certain aromatic amines occurred at levels 3-5 times higher.


It can also effect the unborn child. Scientists have identified that endogenous cannabinoids, molecules naturally produced by our brains are functionally similar to THC from cannabis and play significant roles in establishing how certain nerve cells connect to each other. Maternal cannabis use allows THC to travel through the placenta and impair fetal brain development and impose life-long cognitive, social, and motor deficits in affected offspring.





Low doses of 脛-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), equivalent to that in the bloodstream of an average marijuana smoker facilitate infection of skin cells and can cause these cells to turn into malignant sarcoma.