As the federal government pressures the National Cancer Institute to change their too-approving language about cannabis on their website; as the DEA executes raids in state after state with legal medical marijuana; as federal prosecutors attempt to intimidate officials in Rhode Island, Maine, Arizona, Colorado, and Washington – the DEA admits that 55 pharmaceutical companies now hold licenses in the United States to grow cannabis.

That’s right, what many of you do in the privacy of your own home for your own personal use is a crime – but if you’re a pharmaceutical company (and make sure you give plenty of money to political campaigns) you can get a license from the Drug Enforcement Administration to grow cannabis for medical purposes – purposes the same DEA says cannabis doesn’t have.

The blatant and unmitigated hypocrisy of the federal government on this issue is now on full display. If a sick person goes to a dispensary to get marijuana, they are wrong. But if they get a worthless pill like Marinol – with almost all of the chemicals in cannabis with medical properties taken out – from a pharmaceutical company, they are right.

In other words, the DEA conducts raids on collectives and dispensaries to eliminate competition for their “Big Pharma” buddies who give tons of money to politicians who in turn give tons of money to the DEA in their budgets. A tried-and-true Mafia tactic – only it’s coming from our government.

So while advocates would like to see cannabis rescheduled, the DEA makes that decision, and there is no way they are going to bite the hand that feeds them. They will have to be forced by the courts – after all, with the politicians cashing those “Big Pharma” checks, the courts are our only hope of a cannabis rescheduling.

Joe Klare, 420times

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