{"id":90106,"date":"2014-07-07T17:41:29","date_gmt":"2014-07-08T00:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hempfarm.org\/blog\/?p=894"},"modified":"2014-07-07T17:41:29","modified_gmt":"2014-07-08T00:41:29","slug":"speed-and-weed-the-story-of-two-schedules-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hempfarm.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/07\/speed-and-weed-the-story-of-two-schedules-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Speed and Weed: The Story of Two Schedules"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Speed of Hypocrisy: How America Got Hooked on Legal Meth<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Most people understand that heroin and Oxycontin are both hard, addictive drugs. Not so with speed. When it comes to amphetamine, we\u2019ve chosen a national split-screen in which doctors airily put millions of healthy children and adults on daily speed regimens while SWAT teams throw concussion bombs in baby cribs<\/a> in pursuit of small-fry meth dealers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I generally\u00a0stay away from the medical marijuana debate because almost\u00a080 years of Drug War propaganda has turned the\u00a0\u201cdebate\u201d into a chaotic mess of ignorance, racism, and police state inertia that has little to do with the\u00a0facts, and\u00a0this article is a great example of how ridiculous the \u201cWar on (Some) Drugs\u201d has become.<\/p>\n

Hemp has been banned for decades because the DEA declared that it is\u00a0the\u00a0same thing as the demon weed marijuana and therefore\u00a0a Schedule I Drug\u00a0(which are considered\u00a0\u201cthe most dangerous of all drugs\u201d).<\/p>\n

So, what drugs does the DEA consider to be safer than marijuana? Cocaine, meth, and oxycodone, to name a few.<\/p>\n

From the DEA:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Schedule I<\/strong><\/p>\n

Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule I drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence. Some examples of Schedule I drugs are:<\/p>\n

heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana (cannabis), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy), methaqualone, and peyote<\/p>\n

Schedule II<\/strong><\/p>\n

Schedule II drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with a high potential for abuse, less abuse potential than Schedule I drugs, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence. These drugs are also considered dangerous. Some examples of Schedule II drugs are:<\/p>\n

cocaine, methamphetamine, methadone, hydromorphone (Dilaudid), meperidine (Demerol), oxycodone (OxyContin), fentanyl, Dexedrine, Adderall, and Ritalin<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This policy was upheld without a second thought when the Obama White House answered a petition to allow farmers to once again grow hemp by declaring that since it was the same thing as\u00a0marijuana it should remain\u00a0illegal \u201cto protect public health and\u00a0safety<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

While\u00a0there is little debate outside the DEA whether marijuana or crystal meth is more dangerous to society at large, the truly amazing thing is how the federal government, mainstream media, and Wall Street have given a big thumbs-up to drugs like crystal meth and heroin as long as they are marketed under a patented tradename by the world\u2019s largest pharmaceutical companies (who not-coincidentally give lots of money to politicians and the media while raking in the profits for Wall Street).<\/p>\n

Much like\u00a0the disparity in news reports and police interest based on the imaginary difference between cocaine and crack, OxyContin and Adderall are\u00a0simply the patented time-released versions of heroin and crystal meth, and sales are through the roof!<\/p>\n

\n

Across all demographics, national spending on speed has nearly doubled since 2008. It is now a $10 billion market accounting for more than four-fifths of the world\u2019s pharmaceutical speed. America\u2019s speed consumption is projected to rise another quarter by the end of 2015. The Express Scripts report concludes with a rhetorical question: \u201cAre we over-diagnosing and overmedicating the adult population?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMedicating\u201d isn\u2019t the word they\u2019re looking for, but the query is a good start.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

In Orlando, ADDA [the Attention Deficit Disorder Association, a front group for Johnson and Johnson\u2019s Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, the makers of Concerta] will officially celebrate 25 years in existence. The group will unofficially celebrate much more. After decades in suspended animation, the adult speed market is finally back on its feet, feeling pepped, and ready to go. A long-term strategy of cultivating professional societies, primary care doctors, the media, and political allies has paid off. From the beginning, the secret weapon of this strategy has been women like Quinn: pseudo-scientific quiz givers who talk like Oprah, who claim to suffer from ADHD and \u201cget\u201d you, and who have a little something that just might help you shed those pounds, manage house, and keep the blues at bay.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While the DEA\u2019s Drug War targeted poor people for possession of pot, they have ignored a\u00a0true epidemic of Neo-American speed freaks that will do far more damage to our country,\u00a0but acknowledging the glaring hypocrisy at the heart of their \u201cWar on Drugs to protect public health and\u00a0safety\u201d would bring down their whole house of cards.<\/p>\n

If you ask me, its time to burn that house of lies to the ground and put our tax money into something that actually helps the American people, instead of continuing to destroy countless lives to protect corporate profits and the DEA\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Speed of Hypocrisy: How America Got Hooked on Legal Meth Most people understand that heroin and Oxycontin are both hard, addictive drugs. Not so with speed. When it comes to amphetamine, we\u2019ve chosen a national split-screen in which doctors … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medicine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hempfarm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hempfarm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hempfarm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hempfarm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hempfarm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hempfarm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hempfarm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hempfarm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hempfarm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}