The US government is taking comments on marijuana active compounds through April 23rd. Comments will be taken into account at the WHO policy meeting this summer.

Some say that the comments posted on Kratom weighed on the decision to not schedule it last year. This could also be an opportunity to make a difference.

If you submit comments consider the following guidelines (full guidelies attached):

 Feel free to reach out to the agency with questions
 Be concise but support your claims
 Base your justification on sound reasoning, scientific evidence, and/or how you will be
impacted
 Address trade-offs and opposing views in your comment
 There is no minimum or maximum length for an effective comment
 The comment process is not a vote – one well supported comment is often more influential
than a thousand form letters

Thank you!

My comment:

FREE COUNTRY? Whatever happened to that idea? I don't even use weed and I'm for total legalization. Jail cells are for people who have proven by their actions they need to be locked in a box to protect everyone else. It is ludicrous to think that a CAGE should apply to weed users.

I agree Wolf. The situation is simply becoming ridiculous. Let's help the policy makers do the right thing with some good scientific and/or personal input.

thank you for this post!

Oh s###, I just picked myself up from laughing so hard. Tell that to my P.O., please!

Man this is America, the land of the jailed and home of the scared!

Can we post some ideas for an outline of general topics to address that meet those categories so we can all submit intelligent forms?

Can edit it (With a "Last Updated" timestamp) on the original post, adding in anything new anyone posts....

Freedom & Liberty vs Prohibition

Failures of Prohibition
-- How many users, statistics, before legalization
-- People are going to smoke regardless, reduction in public health issues and potential longer term insurance\medicare costs to have regulated lab-test buds free from molds + fungi + chemical pesticides & nutrients. Also legal access to edibles + vapor concentrates reduces health cost outcomes of smoking


Use statistics in more cannabis-liberal countries
-- Use in Amsterdam before\after "Coffee shops"
-- Use in Legal US states before\after legalization

Traffic data from accidents in Colorado post-legalization

Responsible low-dose usage vs pothead-status consumption
-- Anyone can abuse anything, that shouldn't factor into responsible use

Supplement for Life Enhancement + Subsequent Contributions to Society
-- VS living the "Cannabis Lifestyle" in the cannabis culture, as an abuser

Brain Development + Neurotoxicity
-- Laws to make it legal for 25+
-- Studies show that once the brain is developed, cannabis doesn't hurt it

The effects of low-dose cannabis medications
-- Having access to products with known THC and CBD mg content will allow more people to use responsibly and functionally instead of being in a blunt\dab habit
-- The cognitive benefit of stress reduction is greater then the reduction of cognition cannabis may induce, leading to an overall increase in cognitive ability.

Cannabis induced free-thinking mentality & creativity enhancement
-- People in our culture are currently homogenized. Regurgitated skills and knowledge from Universities.
-- Cannabis used properly as enhancement can give us a competitive advantage in the global workforce

Opiate Crisis
-- Statistics or Case Studies on opiate users getting off the dope using Cannabis

Terpenes, CBD, & Marinol vs Cannabis
-- Marinol (pure pharmaceutical THC) is already being prescribed... and i assume has studies proving its effectiveness.
-- Any studies regarding the medicinal and\or pharmacological effects of any of the individual terpenes
-- Synergy between THC, CBD, other Cannabanoids, and Terpenes
-- Synergy known as the "entourage effect" when combining the plants compounds

I could keep going and going, but now its your turn!

Here is a great list of a lot of the pharmacology and medicinal properties of the various terpenes:

https://skunkpharmresearch.com/cannabinoid-info/

Thanks CosmicLion, great template and link . I'll be working on this over the weekend.

Good postive changes are happening at the social level, let's help the bureaucrats connect with nature and stop their suppression of personal freedoms.

Reminder: Comments are due tomorrow. My submission is below. I used Cosmic Lion's template and turned it into a running argument.

Based on my personal experience in life, my understanding of science, my understanding of human history, my understanding of the scheduling effects on society, and my personal spiritual beliefs about nature, I strongly urge that the cannabis plant be unscheduled internationally.

In my personal life I have seen people with health problems get invaluable help from this plant. I have seen first hand how other people have been helped with multiple health issues such as anxiety and joint pain with cannabis. The most striking example was a friend with end of life stomach cancer. After being miserable for months taking synthetic pharmaceuticals to manage his cancer associated health issues, he was able to recover his appetite, control his nausea, and enjoy a new sense of well-being by using the cannabis plant. He was able to enjoy his last few months of life and was very grateful to the plant for this.

The science is clear on cannabis. A recent study published in 2/4/2018 showed that legalized medical cannabis lowers opioid use [1] in the USA. There is also promising research that cannabis may help slow the progression of Alzheimer disease by reducing production of beta-amyloid proteins [2]. All drugs have downsides, but scientific studies are consistently finding that the downsides of cannabis have either been overstated or false [3]. The more we learn about cannabis, the clearer it becomes that scheduling it internationally half a century ago was a grave mistake and has delayed scientific learning and caused unnecessary suffering on patients with treatable symptoms.

Cannabis has been used historically by human societies [4]. It has a history of safe use across different cultures spanning many centuries. Today, it is still used in India as Bhang, an ancient tradition that has thankfully survived the international scheduling of this plant [5]. This history shows that the WHO's decision to schedule the plant is short-sighted.

At a social level, the scheduling itself of the drug has done harm. By scheduling the drug, a lucrative revenue stream was provided to violent cartels. Also, unregulated cannabis substitutes have hurt and killed people [6]. In many countries, sentences and consequences of using cannabis far outweigh any negative consequences the plant may cause on its own. It can be convincingly argued that the scheduling of cannabis has been tremendously counter productive to public health and hurt many people unnecessarily.

At a personal and spiritual level, I believe that no abstract human institution should have the right to limit the personal freedom to access nature. I believe that many problems we have today are due to the fact that humans are growing detached from nature. The idea that a bureaucracy can pass judgment on an natural plant in its entirety is arrogant, egotistical, and cruel. This limitation of freedom is a drastic measure and the burden of proof should be high to schedule any part of nature. In the case of cannabis, the preponderance of scientific, historical, social, and personal evidence shows that the plant must be unscheduled immediately. A philosophical and moral argument along these lines can be found here [7].

Due to the damages caused by scheduling this medicinal plant (such as suppression of research [8], delayed access to life improving medicine, funding violent cartels, etc) the WHO should apologize for scheduling this plant 50 years ago. The statement should include what internal changes the WHO is going implement not make such a sad mistake again.

Those proposing that cannabis remain scheduled point to its downsides. While all drugs have downsides when looking at the complete picture, this point of view is unsustainable. I would ask these people to get to know cannabis patients at a personal level and understand how this plant has helped them.

Thank you for considering my opinion.

REFERENCES

1- Ashley C. Bradford, W. David Bradford, Amanda Abraham, Grace Bagwell Adams. Association Between US State Medical Cannabis Laws and Opioid Prescribing in the Medicare Part D Population. JAMA Internal Medicine, 2018; DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.0266

2- Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 973-984, 2014

3- Scott JC, Slomiak ST, Jones JD, Rosen AFG, Moore TM, Gur RC. Association of Cannabis With Cognitive Functioning in Adolescents and Young AdultsA Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry. Published online April 18, 2018. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.0335

4- Mary Lynn Mathre, R. N., ed. Cannabis in medical practice: A legal, historical and pharmacological overview of the therapeutic use of marijuana. McFarland, 2012.

5- Burnell, Arthur Coke & Tiele, P.A (1885). The voyage of John Huyghen van Linschoten to the East Indies. from the old English translation of 1598: the first book, containing his description of the East. London: The Hakluyt Society. pp. 115–117. Full text at Internet Archive. Chapter on Bangue.

6- News article: "Synthetic marijuana leaves two dead and dozens with severe bleeding", Lindsey Bever, Washington Post, April 3 2018

7- Ostrowski, James (1990) "The Moral and Practical Case for Drug Legalization," Hofstra Law Review: Vol. 18: Iss. 3, Article 5

8- Nutt, David J., Leslie A. King, and David E. Nichols. "Effects of Schedule I drug laws on neuroscience research and treatment innovation." Nature Reviews Neuroscience 14.8 (2013): 577.

Also, I'm reading the opinions posted (over 6000 as of today). It is pretty amazing to see how many people are taking the time to write how much this plant has helped them. A lot of these people have serious medical conditions yet they have taken the time to log in and write a comment down. I am moved by them.

Hopefully love wins the day and the WHO unschedules cannabis internationally this summer. Let nature and personal freedom to access it reign supreme.

Reminder that today is the last day to enter comments (window closing in about 15.5 hours).

Doesn't need to be a dissertation, a few sentences on how marinuanna has affected you or your loved ones is good feedback too. Internationals can also comment.

So far there are over 6500 comments. Reading through a sample of them they are all positive and heartfelt (like this one). If regulators read these with an open mind and there innate humanity I do not understand how they can keep this amazing gift of nature illegal.

Thank you to all who have given direct feedback to our oppressive government. Let's help the WHO make a good decision this summer.

Comment period closed with 6566 total comments. Thanks to those who expressed their experience with this plant. Hopefully, there we be good news out of the WHO meeting this summer

Just for fun here's mine:

[I] work in a [health care facility] that serves a population of about 500,000 people. As such I
have cared for many patients injured from accidents due to alcohol or opiates as well as overdoses on opiates or other drugs.
I have never seen a patient admitted with a Cannabis OD or an accident due to Cannabis use. While any drug can be abused
the actual consequences of Cannabis abuse are benign especially when compared to other commonly used recreational drugs.
Cannabis use/misuse is not associated with things like spousal abuse (alcohol) or death from overdose (opiates.) In my view
Cannabis use is much safer and can be beneficial even taken outside of a medical context. It's medical usefulness appears
promising but with it's prohibition in the US since the 1930s, very little valid scientific research has been possible.
Various Cannabis preparations were in the official US Pharmacopia until that time and as such it was recognized as an
effective remedy for a number of ailments. We need to investigate why this was and reconsider Cannabis as a viable medicine.

By the very act of prohibition the US government has abrogated it's responsibility to the public to promote health and safety
and provide for the common welfare. In fact, prohibition has done more damage to the lives of innumerable individuals than
even the worst possible side effects of Cannabis itself. Indeed the society as a whole has suffered as the cost of enforcement
and incarceration far outweighs any perceived benefit. Consumer's Union in their comprehensive 1972 report "Licit and Illicit
Drugs"* outlines their analysis of the societal costs of Cannabis use and enforcement efforts and came to similar conclusions.
They made seven recommendations regarding Cannabis that included repealing or revoking the federal laws proscribing
Cannabis, taxing it and using the proceeds for research and education. While the publication itself may be dated the methods,
conclusions and recommendations remain relevent.

Changing the status of Cannabis and its associated products from Schedule I to a less restrictive category here in the US
would allow for real science to be applied to it and give us a more clear-eyed view of the benefits and risks of the plant rather
than the fear based, prejudiced attitudes that current laws are based on. Some international restrictions are no doubt
necessary, but I would argue for the least restrictions possible for WHO's aims to be achieved.

*Brecher et. al. Licit and Illicit Drugs:The Consumer's Union Report on Narcotics, Stimulants, Depressants Inhalants, Hallucinogens
and Marijuana. Little, Brown and Co. 1972

Re-reading this now after having posted it last week, I really want to make some edits, but I have left it here as originally presented except for some redaction to maintain anonymity.

*its?

Really, a nicely articulated piece.

Thanks for chipping away to get the weed freed, worldwide!

Enjoyed reading this. As downwardsfromzero said, Thank you!

Thanks guys, I just hope that all the comments do manage to sway the decision making process. The comments seem to be running approxiamtely 200 to 1 for re- or de-scheduling. The people have spoken. Will the government listen?

These points have been argued for decades, but perhaps we've reached a tipping point where reason will finally prevail.

Hi pinkoyd. Have you heard this podcast before?

https://psychedelicsalon...he-truth-about-cannabis/

If no, I think you may like it.

Cheers.

Update: The WHO experts met. Summary letter is attached with international recomendations.

CBD: Recommend international rescheduling. Yes, they are officially proclaiming they have been wrong for over half a century. I applaud this, it takes courage to admit such a damaging mistake.

Plant, resins, and TCH: Sufficient evidence found suggesting that current schedulimg is not consistent with available data. Reccomendations is a critical review November 2018. Esentially they are saying, "this does not seem right, let us get our shit to together and get back to you with a final reccomendations".

Also, in the 2018 meeting they plan to talk about psychedelics. They don't specify which ones, just that it will be on the table. The official statement is oddly vague. A good outcome for those of us who have experienced the benefits of these medices is for them to promote psychedelics to needing critical review, like they just did for the Cannabis plant, resins, and THC.

All in all, this is great news. Could not have gone any better really I believe.

If you find ways to input public comments in your country in preparation for the next WHO scheduling review of THC and psychedelics please post the link.

Thanks for the update Loveall. Glad they considered what the public is saying. Now if they would be so kind as to translate that letter into policy.

LMAO, taking comments from the public....70 years later.

My comment:
Tell them what you (the govt) found out 50 years ago about cannabis' safety. Tell them the federal government still supplies medical marijuana grown on US soil and shipped through the mail to half a dozen patients. Tell them how the intelligence community has been caught dealing hard drugs numerous times. Tell them what law enforcement has been doing to US citizens for decades that have done nothing more than protest drug laws.