Dear Readers: It is time to conceptualize the structure of legal access to psychedelics. I started this blog in 2010 with the intention of laying the foundation for the development of Psychedelic Law, an examination of the unique characteristics of psychedelics, with the goal of extricating them from the antiquated “narcotics control” model to which[…]
In the 1950s and early 1960s, over 1,000 scientific papers were written about LSD, an exciting phenomenon new to Western medicine that offered an unprecedented window into brain function and revolutionary potential in mental health care. By 1970, the status of LSD and other psychedelics had changed dramatically; they were branded a menace to society and were included in Schedule I of the new federal Controlled Substances Act, the category for substances with no currently accepted medical use. Almost 50 years later,[…]
Madmen Rule You: the DEA and the legal logic of permanent cannabis prohibition (It’s insane to try to ban a plant) (© Noah Potter, 2012. Originally published at psychedeliclaw.com on April 19, 2012) The author gratefully acknowledges the conceptual clarity provided by Buford Terrell, who, by identifying Grinspoon v DEA and Gonzales v Oregon, made this article possible. […]
After writing the original version of the text later published as Madmen Rule You, the subject matter crystallized further in my mind. Cannabis prohibition is a question of an evidentiary standard. The DEA rejects “anecdotal evidence,” i.e. reports by patients that they experience relief, as evidence that there is a medical use for cannabis. In[…]
Following, after a brief introduction, are two comments on the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last week in the proceeding captioned Americans for Safe Access v. Drug Enforcement Administration. In its decision the DC Circuit denied a petition by a coalition of drug law reform activists seeking to overturn the DEA’s July 2011[…]
The New York City Cannabis Parade & Rally (NYCCPR) is among the longest running marijuana legalization events in the world. What began as a “Smoke-In” in Washington Square Park organized by the Yippies in 1973 has evolved into a three-part Event: A Parade down Broadway, a Rally in Union Square Park and a celebratory After Party, all on the first Saturday in May. […]
A recent op-ed in the Times Union (Albany) demonstrates the essential logic of the camp arrayed against therapeutic uses of psychedelics: society must be protected from the doctors. Keep control over psychedelics in the hands of the police. The op-ed calls for all reasonable men to oppose the proposed medical marijuana law because of the […]
As the United State of America approached one hundred years of federal drug control, the Committee on Drug and the Law presents a unique and unprecedented examination of the rationale of U.S. drug control policy, the federal statute that governs psychoactive substance from codeine to LSD, and the collateral effects of drug control policy upon the practice of medicine.
Proponents of the gateway theory try to portray a causal relationship between the use of common recreational substances, such as alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana, and the use of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin. To make this point they have to work backwards by finding people who are already hard drug abusers and looking at their substance intake histories.
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