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Showing Original Post only (View all)What is the best regulatory framework for legalized marijuana? (Baker Institute Series) [View all]
http://blog.chron.com/bakerblog/2013/01/what-is-the-best-regulatory-framework-for-legalized-marijuana/Gary J. Hale, the nonresident fellow in drug policy at the Baker Institute, authors the second of a three-part Baker Institute Viewpoints series on the regulatory framework for legalized marijuana. Hale is the former chief of intelligence for the Houston Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The best manner by which to deal with the issue of legal marijuana is to provide context to the meaning of legal. The legality of marijuana must be addressed in terms that define the movement of the drug from the source to the street, or in this case, from the land to the lip.
In the case of persons who choose to become wholesalers of the drug, and there will be many, there is a business model that will be followed to commercialize the production, transportation, sale and profits made from marijuana. First, the plant had to be cultivated, then, in some cases moved from its place of origin to market for distribution. As a result, new rules, regulations and/or laws will have to take into account the profits that will be generated from the sale of marijuana. The difference between whether an individual becomes a wholesaler, or is characterized as a personal user, will determine whether the federal government steps in to enforce laws that several states have chosen to liberalize through legislative change, or whether the federal government decides to not enforce the laws at all.
...It is also likely that the U.S. attorney generals office is waiting to see what Congress does in the wake of state laws legalizing personal use of marijuana before it develops policy at the Department of Justice. Full legalization of the possession and use of user-quantities of marijuana will only be reached if and when the Congress changes marijuana from its current designation as a prohibited substance under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
...Congress will have to carefully examine whether these criteria (the CSA Schedule I definitions that are currently used to classify cannabis) as well as the definitions and application of verbiage such as high potential for abuse, and no currently accepted medical use in treatment and lack of accepted safety for the use of the drug are terms that have become obsolete, or overcome by events or whether they still apply to marijuana as a drug when alcohol abuse could easily be defined with these same criteria. These definitions are certainly open for discussion by Congress, especially because they can easily be argued by both proponents and opponents of legalization, depending on which side of the debate they may take.
In the case of persons who choose to become wholesalers of the drug, and there will be many, there is a business model that will be followed to commercialize the production, transportation, sale and profits made from marijuana. First, the plant had to be cultivated, then, in some cases moved from its place of origin to market for distribution. As a result, new rules, regulations and/or laws will have to take into account the profits that will be generated from the sale of marijuana. The difference between whether an individual becomes a wholesaler, or is characterized as a personal user, will determine whether the federal government steps in to enforce laws that several states have chosen to liberalize through legislative change, or whether the federal government decides to not enforce the laws at all.
...It is also likely that the U.S. attorney generals office is waiting to see what Congress does in the wake of state laws legalizing personal use of marijuana before it develops policy at the Department of Justice. Full legalization of the possession and use of user-quantities of marijuana will only be reached if and when the Congress changes marijuana from its current designation as a prohibited substance under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
...Congress will have to carefully examine whether these criteria (the CSA Schedule I definitions that are currently used to classify cannabis) as well as the definitions and application of verbiage such as high potential for abuse, and no currently accepted medical use in treatment and lack of accepted safety for the use of the drug are terms that have become obsolete, or overcome by events or whether they still apply to marijuana as a drug when alcohol abuse could easily be defined with these same criteria. These definitions are certainly open for discussion by Congress, especially because they can easily be argued by both proponents and opponents of legalization, depending on which side of the debate they may take.
...more at the link.
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What is the best regulatory framework for legalized marijuana? (Baker Institute Series) [View all]
RainDog
Feb 2013
OP
N. Dakota, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Oregon, California, Montana, West Virginia and Vermont
RainDog
Feb 2013
#2
grow your own. period. unless you want government taking the place of the drug gangs nt
msongs
Feb 2013
#3
Follow the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board policy, it makes money and everyone hates it
happyslug
Feb 2013
#4
But the previous PHASE was "if Management asks them to do something that MAY not be legal"
happyslug
Feb 2013
#8
I do a lot of custody work, Marijuana almost never comes up, unless tied in with another drug
happyslug
Feb 2013
#10
The best regulatory framework would be no regulations for adult use in private
slackmaster
Feb 2013
#12