The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is acknowledging the fact that racially discriminatory drug laws are partly responsible for the agency\u2019s own founding.<\/p>\n
During the latest edition of its \u201cStories from the Collection\u201d video series, DEA Museum officials talked about the origins of federal drug prohibition and explained how the agency was ultimately created in conjunction with punitive policies that were enacted in the early 20th century.<\/p>\n
As the government started taking steps to regulate certain substances like opium, \u201cthe public\u2019s view of addiction changed,\u201d the museum\u2019s historian said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncreased non-medical use\u2014as well as racial, ethnic and class prejudice\u2014affected public opinion,\u201d they said. \u201cWhat had been a medical condition became deviant or criminal. This shift led to a wave of laws against heroin, marijuana and cocaine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nTo enforce the new laws, a new agency called the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) was established under the Treasury Department. FBN was the predecessor of DEA.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s well-established that the drug war\u2019s launch\u2014and the way it has been continued to be carried out\u2014was and is largely racially and politically motivated. The Library of Congress has documented how racist and stigmatizing media depictions of marijuana<\/a> were used to reinforce prohibition, for example.<\/p>\n National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow separately said last year that research has firmly demonstrated that drug criminalization has disproportionately impacted communities of color<\/a>.<\/p>\n But in this case, the history is being recounted<\/a> by the archival arm of DEA itself, even as the agency continues to enforce criminalization<\/a> in line with prohibitionist policy.<\/p>\n DEA has taken steps to at least support research into controlled substances like cannabis and psilocybin, increasing yearly cultivation quotas<\/a> to meet study demands and authorizing new marijuana growers<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, scientists and advocates say more needs to be done, and DEA remains as an access barrier.<\/p>\n The agency has repeatedly found itself in court over drug scheduling issues and administrative policy. For instance, DEA is actively being sued<\/a> for refusing to permit a Seattle-based doctor to access psilocybin to treat terminally ill patients under federal \u201cRight to Try\u201d statute.<\/p>\n To that end, bipartisan lawmakers recently moved to provide additional congressional clarification<\/a> by filing companion bills in the House and Senate in July to reaffirm that the scope of Right to Try policy should include Schedule I drugs.<\/p>\n The bills were filed about six months after\u00a0bipartisan members of Congress sent a letter<\/a>, led by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), requesting that DEA allow terminally ill patients to use psilocybin as an investigational treatment without the fear of federal prosecution.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, DEA recently retreated on a proposed ban on psychedelic compounds<\/a> that scientists say have research value.<\/p>\n That marked another win for scientific community, coming just one month after DEA abandoned separate plans to place five tryptamine psychedelics in Schedule I<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite federal prohibition and historical fear-mongering about drugs, public attitudes toward substance misuse have continued to evolve, with a growing public recognition that addiction should be treated as a public health, rather that criminal legal, matter.<\/p>\n A survey released last week also found that most Americans don\u2019t view cannabis as dangerous<\/a>, regardless of attempts to cast the plant in a negative light.<\/p>\n Reform Groups Say Bipartisan Marijuana Research Bill Could Cause \u2018Dire Unintended Consequences\u2019 For Industry<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post DEA Admits \u2018Racial, Ethnic and Class Prejudice\u2019 Led To Drug Criminalization And The Agency\u2019s Own Founding<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is acknowledging the fact that racially discriminatory drug laws are partly responsible for the agency\u2019s own founding. During the latest edition of its \u201cStories from the Collection\u201d video series, DEA Museum officials talked about the origins of federal drug prohibition and explained how the agencyContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57380"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57381,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57380\/revisions\/57381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: DEA Admits \u2018Racial, Ethnic and Class Prejudice\u2019 Led To Drug Criminalization And The Agency\u2019s Own Founding<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"