“And if the advocacy of legalizing Marijuana is putting forth the idea that a “drug” does not need any federal oversight....” etc.
Thanks for the questions. I’ll do my best if you keep in mind I’m just a musician who uses cannabis as medicine vs being a policy wonk or a lawyer.
I think it’s reasonable to think the FDA could have some oversight as long as they couldn’t maintain the prohibition stance it has maintained these many decades. Do I have a clue as to how much & what would be appropriate? Thats way out of my wheelhouse. I haven’t researched it or given it much thought.
The issue that makes this a really hard question to answer beyond my ignorance of the FDA in general is because under current federal law no one can actually do unbiased, scientific studies on what all the risks/benefits in detail are-—how could the FDA make a scientifically based assessment on whether cannabis falls under their jurisdiction? They don’t have real data from which to operate from currently because the feds won’t allow extensive research for them to be able to come to a scientific determination.
Keep in mind, the commission Nixon appointed determined there was no significant harm to using cannabis. The Nixon administration made it a schedule 1 drug against the commission’s recommendation IIRCC. That’s part of what makes the prohibition of cannabis all the more non-sensical to me. Cannabis was used for 1000’s of years as medicine & was legal to purchase for medicinal use in the early 1900’s. A classic case of the gov’t nanny state over-reach, IMO.
Pretty good point, actually. I’m no FDA pro myself.
Though I would assume that if the Feds will not enforce the marijuana laws as they are then the FDA is going to be forced to get involved in some manner. If a product is being sold for ingestion then it has to be reviewed for “harmful effects, side effects, etc.”
Currently, 1oz. of federally “legal” weed for purely research purposes goes for around $25,000 (if I remember correctly) which is why a good deal of the research into it has gone by the way-side. (Cost / benefit)
Interesting side note; “Bath salts” or synthetic marijuana was created by chemist John Huffman, specifically because of this issue. In order to do research on weed, but be cost-effective, he created a series of molecules that were effectively THC, but legally and chemically different (and legal).
It was only a matter of time before people would use it to get high, but that wasn’t it’s intended purpose.