- Regulators and politicians (at all levels) have shown themselves to be woefully ignorant and actively prejudiced toward cannabis and a legal cannabis industry
- We see similar signs of ignorance/prejudice as the reform of psychedelic drug laws commences
There is a Drug Revolution occurring in much of the world.
It is a Revolution in healthcare.
It is a Revolution in drug development.
It is a Revolution in public attitudes toward criminalized “recreational drugs”.
However, where we are still seeing far less signs of “revolution” is with respect to our governments and regulatory bodies.
To be sure, we are seeing slow progress in the international movement to end the War on Drugs. But we would have already seen much more progress if many of our politicians weren’t encumbered by anti-drug phobias which are clearly affecting their capacity to properly discharge their duties.
Cannabis has led the way in this Revolution, so it is the best starting point for this discussion.
Anti-cannabis phobias still impair politicians and regulators
Referring to U.S. laws and regulations on cannabis as “absurd” would be too kind. They are simply perverse.
Officially, cannabis remains a Schedule 1 narcotic in the United States (and much of the Western world). This requires that the drug have “no known medicinal uses” and it is reserved for (supposedly) the most dangerous of recreational drugs.
Really?
No one has ever died from a cannabis overdose. Not even after the potency of cannabis increased by a factor of ten with the introduction of indoor cultivation and genetic modifications.
Not surprising. Cannabis is non-toxic.
Cannabis is not dangerous.
“No known medicinal uses.”
Really?
That became an official legal fraud the day that the FDA approved GW Pharma’s CBD-based Epidiolex for the treatment of epilepsy. It has been an unofficial legal fraud for decades, as millions of people have obtained medicinal relief from cannabis for hundreds of different medical disorders.
Indeed, courts have forced our governments to provide legal access to cannabis (at the national level in Canada, and at the state level in the U.S.) for medicinal purposes.
But the FDA deserves zero credit for Epidiolex.
Based on its “testing” of Epidiolex, the FDA issued a consumer warning that CBD presents potential “consumer risks” from high dosages – specifically liver damage.
Really?
Is CBD ‘Harmful’ to Our Liver? No.
…In fact, test results on Epidiolex roughly conform to the same risk threshold as consuming equal amounts of vitamin C, which has a UL of approximately 2,000 mgs per day.
This is incredible.
Vitamin C is water soluble. This means it is rapidly processed and passed through the body. Typically, water soluble substances are passed through our systems in roughly a day.
CBD is fat soluble. It is stored in the human body (via fat cells). It takes roughly a month for the human body to fully pass fat soluble substances.
Consume 2,000 mgs of vitamin C one day and by the next day it is practically gone.
Consume 1,800 mgs of CBD (via Epidiolex) and much of that CBD is retained in the body for weeks. And the next day’s dosage. And the next. And the next.
…In fact, test results on Epidiolex roughly conform to the same risk threshold as consuming equal amounts of vitamin C, which has a UL of approximately 2,000 mgs per day.
This is incredible.
Vitamin C is water soluble. This means it is rapidly processed and passed through the body. Typically, water soluble substances are passed through our systems in roughly a day.
CBD is fat soluble. It is stored in the human body (via fat cells). It takes roughly a month for the human body to fully pass fat soluble substances.
Consume 2,000 mgs of vitamin C one day and by the next day it is practically gone.
Consume 1,800 mgs of CBD (via Epidiolex) and much of that CBD is retained in the body for weeks. And the next day’s dosage. And the next. And the next.
CBD is roughly 45 times less-toxic than fat soluble minerals like zinc, 40 times less-toxic than iron, and more than 5 times less-toxic than even magnesium (which we need in abundance).
When is the last time that the FDA issued a “consumer warning” about magnesium use?
This isn’t ‘drug regulation’. It’s pure regulatory obstructionism.
The Dinosaurs in Congress remain even more detached from the real world. Support among Americans for legalizing cannabis for medicinal use just reached a new record high: 91%. It’s about the only thing that Democrat and Republican voters agree on.
What’s happening in Washington?
The Trump administration was a brick wall. Since taking office, President Biden occasionally mumbles about “decriminalization”. That’s it.
Cannabis is nationally legal in Canada. But the black market has continued to thrive years after national legalization. This is because cannabis-paranoid politicians and regulators in Canada continue to hamstring the legal cannabis industry with countless absurdly restrictive laws.
Most absurd of all are the local politicians (in the U.S. and Canada) who have continued to obstruct the legal cannabis industry – even in jurisdictions where cannabis is fully legal.
These sages of municipal politics claim to be “voting no” on cannabis in their tiny enclaves.
Ridiculous. They are only preventing commercialization and distribution of legal cannabis. In other words, they are handing 100% of that market to the black market (and organized crime).
Banning legal cannabis locally means uninspected and unregulated cannabis products for their residents – the cause of the U.S. “vaping crisis”. Plus all the other problems that go with black market activities. Including more teenage drug use.
Jurisdictions with full legal access to cannabis report lower levels of teen drug use. The black market is a willing supplier to teens – but the legal cannabis industry isn’t.
Local politicians who outlaw legal cannabis in their jurisdiction are endangering the health of their residents, promoting drug use by teens, and facilitating organized crime.
How idiotic is that?
The need for re-education on psychedelic drugs
Even as the legal cannabis industry continues to fight political obstructionism (and ignorance), the psychedelic drug industry is now being launched.
Surprisingly, despite the fact that these drugs have much stronger psychoactive effects than cannabis, political/regulatory resistance to drug reform seems more muted. Even the media coverage of psychedelic drugs is more fair-and-balanced than what we have come to expect with MSM coverage of cannabis.
Federally, Canada is beginning to relax restrictions on the medicinal use of psilocybin. Several U.S. states have passed drug reform legislation or are in the process of doing so.
The FDA is moving forward on several psychedelics-based clinical trials, including granting its coveted Breakthrough Therapy Designation. It recently authorized several therapists to legally use MDMA, to better prepare them to (some day) administer MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD.
But these are baby steps.
In the real world, a rapidly worsening mental health pandemic is sweeping the planet. As many as 1 in 4 people already suffer from one or more of the stress-related mental health disorders that are the focal point of most psychedelics-based drug R&D.
A recent mental health survey by Field Trip Health (CAN:FTRP / US:FTRPF) reported that in both the United States and Canada, over 80% of the population are now exhibiting symptoms of depression – much of this induced by stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the United States, nearly 1 in 4 (24%) “indicated that they have felt that they would be better off dead or thought of injuring themselves.”
In Canada, more than half of Canadians (56%) reported feeling “down, depressed or hopeless”.
This is not a problem. This is a crisis.
For every person who has contracted COVID-19 (including the 80+% who are cured) there are at least ten people currently suffering from some stress-related mental health disorder. Getting psychedelic drugs developed, approved and distributed to the general population is every bit as much of a healthcare priority as COVID vaccine distribution.
The media is starting to get it.
Coverage of psychedelic drug development and the potential of psychedelic medicine has exploded in recent weeks. Apparently, the politicians and regulators could benefit from more reading – a good starting point in their re-education.
Responding to the Mental Health Crisis
There was an urgent need for our governments to mobilize with respect to COVID vaccine development and distribution. While results have been uneven, virtually every jurisdiction has at least been very active and highly motivated in achieving this goal.
Where is that same sense of urgency with respect to psychedelic drug development, distribution and (even) legalization?
It’s not there. And the apathy at the political/regulatory level can only be explained in one of two ways given the extremely urgent need: negligence or prejudice.
Either our governments and regulatory bodies are failing to move forward quickly enough on drug reform with respect to psychedelics because they aren’t paying attention. Or, they are deliberately dragging their heels on drug reform due to decades of government-sponsored anti-drug propaganda.
Nearly 1 in 8 Americans (12%) are using opioids to cope with COVID-related stress – at least in part because psychedelic drug therapies are still unavailable. At the state level, the government of Texas is actively considering legalizing psychedelics to cope with the “epidemic” of veteran suicides.
The lack of action by politicians and regulators with respect to getting psychedelics-based therapies approved and commercialized is literally killing people.
Worse still, we’re even seeing regressive steps in some jurisdictions.
After the Washington State Supreme Court struck down the state’s drug prohibition laws, “moderates and conservatives” in Washington have re-criminalized these substances – although at least with much lower penalties.
“Moderates and conservatives, however, insisted that the possibility of penalties was necessary to incentivize people to enter treatment.”
Really?
Tobacco (and nicotine addiction) kills approximately 500,000 Americans every year – more than the fatalities from all other legal and illegal drugs combined.
When do Washington’s States “moderates and conservatives” plan to criminalize tobacco, “to incentivize” nicotine addicts to seek treatment?
The answer? Never.
The great irony is that a clinical study has already shown that psilocybin (the psychoactive substance in “magic mushrooms”) has great potential to break nicotine addiction. Which drug should be criminalized?
Psychedelic drugs are medicines with the potential to help 100s of millions of people. Nicotine is just poison. Highly addictive poison.
The solution to such blatantly perverse thinking? Re-education.
Outside of some of the truly dangerous drugs (notably opiates), virtually all of the anti-drug propaganda we have been bombarded with over the years has been exposed as low-grade fiction.
It has clearly affected our politicians and regulators with respect to the legalization of cannabis. It may still be affecting their ability to make sound judgments regarding psychedelic drug reform.
This is too important to just sit and wait to find out. Let’s send these people back to school!