The DEA Wants More Marijuana and Less Opioids
It is well known that the Drug Enforcement Administration or DEA, is not a particularly avid backer of the cultivation and legalization of marijuana. However, in a new Federal Register filing set to soon be published, the anti-drug agency is gearing up to increase the total amount of cannabis that can legally be grown in the US for research purposes. The increase is rumored to be more than fives times the amount of what is allowed at the current date, which is approximately 1,000 pounds and will increase to roughly 5,400 pounds by next year.
Meanwhile, the DEA is also planning to lessen the amount of certain opioid drugs-such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, fentanyl and others-that are manufactured in the United States. “We’ve lost too many lives to the opioid epidemic and families and communities suffer tragic consequences every day,” DEA Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon said in a press release. “This significant drop in prescriptions by doctors and DEA’s production quota adjustment will continue to reduce the amount of drugs available for illicit diversion and abuse while ensuring that patients will continue to have access to proper medicine.”
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, an adamant rival of marijuana ratification, added that “the opioid epidemic that we are facing today is the worst drug crisis in American history… Cutting opioid production quotas by an average of ten percent next year will help us continue that progress and make it harder to divert these drugs for abuse.”
The suggested distributions for cannabis and other drugs “reflects the total amount of controlled substances necessary to meet the country’s medical, scientific, research, industrial, and export needs for the year and for the establishment and maintenance of reserve stocks,” the DEA said.
The 2,450,000 grams of marijuana the agency wants the US to grow in 2019 is a significant jump from the 443,680 grams the agency authorized for 2018.
In addition to the surge in marijuana agriculture, the DEA is also proposing to permit the manufacture of 384,460 grams of tetrahydrocannabinols or THC, in 2019, essentially the same amount the agency approved for this year. The DEA’s huge increase in marijuana production quotas for 2019 could be a sign that it anticipates eventual approval of some of the additional grower applications.
“While the drastic increase in requested production of marijuana by the DEA is a positive sign, significant barriers still exist including but not limited to the NIDA monopoly on cultivation and undue hurdles for researchers to qualify for a permit,” NORML Political Director Justin Strekal said in an interview. “It’s time that Congress look at the 28,000 plus peer-reviewed studies currently hosted on the National Institute of Health’s online database and reform federal law by removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act all together.”
Filed under: General Problems
These jackasses who have decided that marijuana can replace pain meds are delusional, and no doubt driven by how much money they can get from DEA control of mj. I hope every one of them develops excruciating, incurable pain.
I believe that weed is being promoted as the new ‘opioid’… I’m against anyone who chooses to smoke, eat or consume marijuana but I do not want to substitute weed for scheduled opiate ANALGESICS. Seems very odd that after many have been icarcerated for having, using and selling/growing this plamt once scheduled I, may become commonplace and LEGAL.
Today, my right side joints from ankle to hip ate excruciatingly PAINFUL. I take 3 ibuprofen immediatly to moderate this pain.
Leave opiate prescribing between patient and doctor. Pain doesn’t get better with age…stop this Insanity and allow those persons who need OPIATE ANALGESICS to legally obtain them. Already some positive push directing doctors not to taper/abandon patients who have utilized successful treatment of chronic pain for their issues. End the prohibition of Opiate ANALGESICS. Many continue to suffer from unrelenting pain. This is not acceptable.
Oops…typo. I’m NOT against consuming marijuana. Sorry for the mistake on previous comment