Still Waiting
It has been said that John Mayer’s popular song, “Waiting on the World to Change”, is an anthem for Millennials. Also known as Gen Y, this generational cohort includes those born between 1980 and 1994. I’m a Boomer, born between 1946 and 1964. I can assure the critics and scholars who pigeon-holed Mr. Mayer’s song that its appeal extends beyond his sociologically defined cohort.
I recently thought of Mayer’s song as I was scanning old newspaper articles from 1976 and came across an Associated Press article from December 1976 with the headline, “Expect removal of marijuana from class of dangerous drugs”. Did you catch the date? December 1976. It could just as easily be from today. Have a look:
Associated Press article from December 22, 1976
In the 47 years since that headline there have been many similar headlines, all suggesting that the big change was about to happen. To this aged cannabis reform pioneer, it seems we have teetered on the brink of change forever.
Of course, a lot has changed in the cannabis world since 2006, when Mayer first released his song. The vast majority of the 38 state laws that now allow medical cannabis happened between 2006 and 2023. Several million patients are now benefiting from the medical use of cannabis, and that is a colossal change from the time in which the Millennials were born. Between 1980 and 1994, there were fewer than 15 patients legally using medical cannabis under the federal government’s compassionate IND program. 15 patients! With 38 state laws and millions of patients using medical cannabis how can it be that cannabis is still a Schedule I drug? How?
The 1976 headline (above) was published about a month after my late husband Robert Randall secured legal access to federal supplies of cannabis, becoming the first individual in modern times allowed to medically use cannabis. What a time of optimism that was! Jimmy Carter was president and had expressed his support for the decriminalization of marijuana. Surely, we thought, President Carter will have compassion for the critically ill and reschedule cannabis.
Alas, Carter’s drug policy was sunk by the actions of his own drug policy advisor, Dr. Peter Bourne, who was caught writing illegal prescriptions and then was accused of snorting cocaine at a party held by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Similarly, in 1992, we thought our very own Boomer president, Bill Clinton, would take action. Especially so when his surgeon general, Jocelyn Elders, publicly supported medical access to cannabis. But then her son was convicted of cocaine possession and she made some controversial statements on sex and masturbation. The resignation of Surgeon General Elders was the end of any possible drug policy change under Clinton. In fact, Bill Clinton has a terrible record with respect to drug policy, enacting strict laws against drug trafficking, increasing law enforcement troops at the border, and transferring funds from public housing to the building of new prisons to house the increase of convicted criminals under Clinton.
Waiting on the world to change ….
And now we have President Biden publicly supporting rescheduling and asking his agencies to effect that change. Will they? The Department of Health and Human Services has done their part, recommending a change for cannabis from Schedule I to III. Now it is up to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). I like to think that having the President of the United States signal his support for change will have some sway with the current DEA administrator. But we have been here before, most notably in 1989 when the DEA overruled its own Chief Administrative Law Judge who had ruled that cannabis does have medical use and should be rescheduled. We made two trips to the U.S. Court Appeals in the early 1990s attempting to reinstate the judge’s decision only to hear that, according to the law and regulations, the DEA administrator does have the final say.
DEA has been shackled by the ghost of Harry Anslinger for decades and generations of anti-cannabis agents have been upholding policy established, almost single-handedly, by Anslinger. The nation’s first drug czar had no formal education in either law or science. Anslinger rode the gravy train of Reefer Madness and schooled his agency well in the benefits of demonizing a plant. He also set the stage for creation of a law enforcement agency that has been given the absolute final say in determining the accepted medical value and abuse potential of drugs.
So, along with the Millennials, I’m waiting on the world to change, or at least my particular corner of the world. I have often said that if the federal government cannot resolve the very obvious fact of cannabis’ medical utility, then what hope is there in solving really hard questions? Perhaps resolving this single, simple question will break the log jam of public policy questions that need resolution.
Perhaps. Me? I’m just waiting…. ❖
