It’s difficult to understate our admiration of and appreciation for President Donald J. Trump. We wouldn’t trade him for Hillary or Kamala for any amount of money. Trump is only human, however. He does occasionally make decisions that are disastrous mistakes. Omarosa and Bill Barr come to mind. This week, Trump made what might be one of the most catastrophic blunders of his presidency. He signed an executive order to reclassify cannabis from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 3 drug.
Marijuana is not classified as a Schedule 1 drug alongside heroin, ecstasy, bath salts, and magic mushrooms because it’s a dangerous narcotic. Drugs are placed on Schedule 1 because they have no scientifically proven medical value. That’s definitely the case with marijuana. They’re placed on that schedule because they’re not medicines, and therefore, doctors cannot legally prescribe them.
Name another medicine that people smoke. It doesn’t exist.
THC and the other components of cannabis have been rigorously tested for years to see whether they have beneficial effects on specific diseases. After all these years of research, no medical benefit from marijuana has ever been discovered. They can’t distill any of the components from cannabis down into a pill, an injection, or any other form and successfully treat any ailment, from glaucoma to cancer.
People use marijuana to get high. That’s the only reason. And if anyone tells you that they smoke it because it helps treat their fibromyalgia or another condition, they’re lying. Which is what drug addicts do.
America has a long track record of going through catastrophic waves of drug addiction, based on false claims of miracle cures. Morphine was considered an absolute wonder drug in the 1800s. Doctors prescribed it for pain, menstrual cramps, asthma, and—ironically—as an alcohol withdrawal treatment.
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the introduction of hypodermic needles in the 1870s made morphine even more popular. By 1888, opiates made up 15% of all prescribed medicines in Boston. Doctors “were really impressed by the speedy results” of injecting morphine directly into patients’ veins.
Cocaine was openly sold in medicines for toothaches, the common cold, and fatigue. Nothing like a little cocaine for a burst of energy! Coca-Cola in the early 1900s contained real cocaine. The use of cocaine in products became so widespread that it was included in wines and tonics. Pope Leo XIII endorsed a varietal called Vin Mariani, which contained 7.2 mg of cocaine for every ounce of wine.
By 1895, roughly 1 out of every 200 Americans was addicted to morphine. The addicts were mainly middle- and upper-class American women. To counteract this epidemic, Bayer introduced a “non-addictive” alternative to morphine.
It was a new drug called “heroin!”
Heroin was sold as a cough suppressant and general tonic until 1913. By that point, Bayer’s claims about the non-addictive nature of heroin were too outlandish to ignore, and the government banned it.
Loosening restrictions on marijuana has been a catastrophe in every state that’s legalized it for recreational use. Colorado legalized pot in 2012. Marijuana-related traffic fatalities in the state increased by 151%. Before legalization, marijuana was involved in 11% of traffic fatalities in Colorado. Since legalization, it accounts for 35% of all traffic-related deaths.
Is quality of life better in Colorado after that? Not if you’re a mom picking up your kids from school and some pothead wipes your family out.
Whenever states have loosened restrictions on marijuana—even for non-existent “medicinal” purposes—social problems increase in those states. When the medical community pretends that pot is a “medicine,” it normalizes the use of the drug. The cartels and the marijuana lobby know this. When teenagers hear that doctors prescribe weed as a medicine, they’re more likely to try it for recreational use.
Have you ever spoken to a young adult who’s been smoking weed all day? They’re a smelly, empty shell of the vibrant young person they used to be. They’re not taking “medicine,” and neither is the Baby Boomer or Gen Xer who claims they’re treating their glaucoma.
This was a bad judgment call on President Trump’s part. We hope that he decides to reverse it.
