Politics

Expanding Jeff Sessions’s power to escalate the war on drugs

The new bill extends the temporary scheduling duration to five years for Schedule A substances and eliminates the requirement for analyzing the drug’s abuse record and its potential risk to public health. ​ The SITSA Act create[s] a new schedule, Schedule A, for substances that are chemically similar to already-regulated drugs. The attorney general [will]…

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Politics

Marijuana banking measure rejected by congressional committee

*US Govt. owns patent on Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants​. Current Assignee US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Original Assignee US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Priority date 1998-04-21 HERE After a lengthy and impassioned debate during which at least 19 lawmakers spoke, it was defeated on a voice vote by the House Appropriations Committee … a number…

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Politics

The House just passed a bill that could make kratom illegal

The SITSA Act, which has not yet been approved by the Senate, would expand the Controlled Substances Act to include one additional category of drugs: Schedule A. [The SITSA Act] which is intended to help fight the growing opioid epidemic in the US. Unfortunately [and unnecessarily], it could also have the side effect of giving the Department of Justice…

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Politics

Why SITSA Act will actually move the needle backward on the opioid crisis

The Federal Analogue Act, passed way back in 1986, already created substantial authority for prosecutors to treat synthetic analogs the same way as they would treat the drugs they resemble. Additionally, in November 2017, the Drug Enforcement Administration established a new order that automatically scheduled any fentanyl analog into the same legal category as fentanyl.…

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Politics

Don’t bet on federal marijuana legalization just yet

If passed [STATES Act], it would essentially become a concrete version of the now infamous Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment, which has protected medical marijuana states from the wrath of the Justice Department, on a temporary basis, for the past several years. But with the STATES Act, the recreational marijuana sector would also find protection under a permanent…

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Politics

Human Rights Watch : H.R. 2851 The stop importation and trafficking of synthetic analogues (SITSA) act of 2017

*letter 11/2016 If passed, HR 2851 will broadly expand penalties for drug offenses, concentrate power within the Department of Justice, punish people who lack criminal intent, and overcriminalize certain behavior. The legislation attempts to address the very real problem of synthetic opioid overdoses in the United States, but we believe that its methods are misguided.…

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