Miguel Martinez
Professor Karbowiak
Writing Composition 001
9 November 2018
Your Brain on Drugs vs Your Body on Meds: The Difference?
As time goes on, human knowledge of different substance, or "drugs," for medical and recreational use has changed for the better. Sadly, advancement in this field now faces hurdles such as politically skewed drug scheduling. The perception, definition, and usage of drugs has generally shifted to reflect a fairly reasonable balance between the known severity and risk of side effects, the benefits of responsible dosages, and pre-existing social norms. Drugs, which are defined as "a medicine or other substance which has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body," include everything from caffeine to MDMA (Merriam Webster); However, the big-picture social and political views on certain, general recreation-based substances have sadly denied scientists the ability to freely explore their respective medical benefits. Perhaps, given the recent surge of support in the public opinion, the policies, and procedures that are currently under practice by the government should be reassessed and re-structured. After all, alternative medicinal uses such as MDMA being repurposed from a serotonin-wave inducing party pill by creating and administering a much lower dosage to treat anxiety, PTSD, or depression already exist and have been studied in a laboratory environment. These rebrandings, so to speak, of drugs like molly and marijuana could be held up as a shining example of the kind of repurposing and rebranding of certain chemical compounds that are currently listed on the Drug Enforcement Agency’s published list of Schedule 1 drugs–defined by the federal government and courts as recreational substances with “no medical benefit” and a “high potential for abuse” (DOJ/DEA 3).
Another example of the jarring and disturbing nature of the federal government’s ignorance and misstepping in their drug scheduling procedures is the massive gap between the majority of the country’s institutions embracing and accepting the medical benefits of marijuana, especially the cannabinoid substrain of CBD, or cannabidiol. Per the consequences of the so called “War on Drugs” spearheaded by the Reagan administration and continued since, marijuana in any form remains fully illegal in fifteen states across the country and is only decriminalized in three states (Vice 2). Interestingly, most of these states happen to be in the American Midwest or the American South; However, this data is countered by the hope-inspiring fact that the majority of the United States of America is now marked by some form of legal protections for marijuana usage in both medical and recreational capacities (NCSL). This promise is shaky only because marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, and that means that at any time the preponderance of individual states who support and endorse the use of marijuana or at the very least can recognize its medical benefits, even though it fits accordingly with the public opinion and scientific data. It is highly likely that the action to end state protected marijuana use by the federal government has not been exercised is because of one of two things: either the expectation of social and financial upheaval in response to potential sanctions and reversal of policies, or the clear economic benefits to both the private sector and the tax revenue of the state. Although this remains speculation, it is lauded and corroborated my multiple sources of varying degrees of authority.
In fact, many of the more well known drugs that our culture has an understanding and pre-existing notions of already were scheduled by the Federal Government at some point between the early nineteen seventies and the late nineteen eighties (DOJ 1-4). For example, meth and cocaine both earned spots on schedule I for their lack of medical benefits and abundance of addiction related issues by the federal government’s decree. While the whole of the schedule is certainly a misguided and colossal failure overall, placing coke and meth on schedule I is a seemingly fair assessment given the extremely high addiction rates and terribly destructive side effects associated with these two drugs, However, many other drugs on the same schedule truly do not objectively meet the criteria set forth; Furthermore, the whole of psychedelics and psychoactive drugs ranging from so called “magic” mushrooms that contain psilocybin or muscimol to lesser known chemical compounds such as 2C-B to famously popular examples such as acid or marijuana have been placed, unfairly and unreasonably, on schedule I; However, all of these drugs pose some form of medical benefit as we already know, or have not been studied enough to definitively say that they do not possess a great enough benefit compared to the risks of abuse and misuse associated with each respective substance.
In many cases, researchers seem more than able to determine wholly revolutionary applications for these mis-scheduled substances to treat a wide variety of problems, almost as if they belong in their own branch of holistic medicine. Furthermore, there is no possible overdose on LSD despite it being labelled as highly addictive and medically dangerous. The only way one could take too much acid would be to lose touch with reality after a massively irresponsible dosage; however, the vast majority of medicines that we know and accept in today’s world find themselves at a far worse impasse–they are truly dangerous and not so helpful to most. For example, things like Xanax, prescription Heroin replacements called Suboxone, and opiate painkillers are all on Schedule II or lower on the ladder, despite their clear danger and unimpressive medical applications. Each year, thousands die from overdoses on these drugs, and their misuse is glorified in today’s music, movies, and video games. Everyone from the rapper Future to the video-game franchise Grand Theft Auto has glorified and capitalized on the misuse of these drugs without so much as even touching them, at least according to our knowledge. The cultural understanding and misconceptions surrounding most drugs, largely based on the efforts of big pharma lobbies and big government’s misleading of the public for financial and political gain, directly undermine the quality of life and scope of liberties associated with living in America.
One major reason that the majority of drugs are either mis-scheduled or inaccurately represented in our society today is the War on Drugs spearheaded by the Reagan administration and publicly supported and lobbied for by first lady Nancy Reagan. Further yet is the realization that Nixon, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and others also fixated on the persecution of racially diverse or politically radical factions within society, such as the blacks of Harlem, the gays of San Francisco, or the counterculture movement nationwide, and set forth to modify and carefully restructure the drug schedules in this country. In the immortal words of John Ehrlichman, a former Nixon administration aide and chief of domestic policy, “(the government) knew (they) couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin–and then criminalizing both heavily–(they) could disrupt those communities.” (LoBianco 1). This shocking statement says enough to make on question the intention and integrity of our government when regulating substances, but the problem only gets worse as one discovers more of Ehrlichman’s admissions about the dishonesty of the federal government and the War on Drugs: "Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." (Baum 1). The massive changes they made to the system to achieve this undeniably unjust and awful ends will never be forgotten, as heroin gave them the gateway to undermine the leaders and economic interests of the black community as the government continued to be questioned for distributing cocaine themselves in the Los Angeles coke-craze of the early nineteen eighties and mid nineteen nineties. Pop culture reference to these violent and unjust clashes between artists and the police has been extremely marketable and enjoyed for a reason–the people, much like novelty rap supergroup NWA, would like to vehemently and loudly declare their unapproving stance of using forceful authority to persecute, otherwise, peaceful and well-meaning interest groups and factions in our country.
In conclusion, the drug scheduling in this country not only misrepresents the current standing on drugs such as marijuana, but it also defies our ability as a society to use alternative medicines, to study their respective side effects, dosage, and treatment options in a lab environment with government funding. However, the world of Big Pharma and political corruption have easily influenced our cultural and medical understanding of so many substances, as some were made out to be far worse than they truly are, and some have been let off the hook in the spirit of maintaining the lie as a whole. For example, both marijuana and MDMA remain federally illegal and on schedule 1, while Xanax and opiates are placed far lower and have been approved for studies and medical uses. This unfair and unjust system of regulation must be changed in our country as soon as possible. The implied economic, social, and medical benefits of reorganizing and restructuring the official opinion and response to drugs are too great to ignore in the face of maintaining an unjust and unreasonable, skewed drug scheduling system. While it may have reigned supreme in the past, political corruption, pharmaceutical lobbying, and racism can no longer be allowed to control the presentation or perception of truth in our society.
Works Cited
http://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/marijuana-overview.aspx
https://www.dea.gov/drug-scheduling
https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html
https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/8xeqp4/psychedelics-mdma-versus-medicine-anxiety
https://www.vox.com/cards/marijuana-legalization/what-is-medical-marijuana
https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/schedules/orangebook/b_sched_chron.pdf