The United States, a pioneering country in leading the fight against smoking, currently surrenders to the consumption of marijuana, which is growing every day.
The joint and the trinkets in the matter have become a cult object. It is not necessary for two tennis players participating in the US Open to say that the New York courts of Flushing Meadows smell the smell of grass. That is something that any tourist who lands in the Big Apple certifies, especially those who have already been and haven't come for a few years: New York smells of marijuana.
And it is not a trend exclusive to the city of skyscrapers. So the laws that regulate one substance and the other also move in opposite directions. As tobacco stigma grows and restrictions tighten, cannabis is getting a thumbs up from health officials, despite dissenting opinions.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommends relaxing federal restrictions on marijuana, the use of which is permitted to varying degrees in 40 states, but remains illegal nationwide.
This may be the step prior to its general legalization.
The highest US health authority requests the DEA (drug control agency) to reclassify this product in category three, "with a moderate or low potential for physical and psychological dependence." Today it is in group one, along with heroin or LSD for its potential for abuse and with little or no accepted medical use. The DEA, which is responsible for the decision to classify a drug under federal law, confirmed that it has received the request and will begin the review.
If it were to accept the new classification, marijuana would fall into the same category as anabolic steroids and ketamine, which are available with a prescription.
President Joe Biden is committed to ending the war on cannabis that one of his predecessors, Richard Nixon, declared, with unsuccessful results in the opinion of weed advocates. In reality, the request is nothing more than compliance with Biden's request last year to the department's secretary, Xavier Becerra, and Attorney General Merrick Garland to review how marijuana is classified under federal law. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre explained Wednesday that the two agencies are engaged in an independent process that she, she stressed, "is guided by evidence."
