Pubdate: Sun, 27 Dec 2015 Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI) Copyright: 2015 Star Advertiser Contact: http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154 Author: Andrea Tischler PLEASE TAKE CANNABIS OFF SCHEDULE I LIST Twenty-three states plus the District of Columbia have legalized medical cannabis, and more are coming on board each year. The belief that cannabis has no medicinal efficacy has been disproven in privately funded studies. More clinical trials are critically needed. Yet, those studies cannot be performed as long as the Drug Enforcement Administration classifies cannabis as a Schedule I drug, which places it as having no medical use. This needs to change, and soon. Congress is not moving fast enough, but there is another route: rescheduling cannabis as a Schedule II drug by executive order. Advocates of medical cannabis are hoping President Barack Obama in his last year as president will do just that. Thousands of patients across the country and in Hawaii with illnesses such as cancer and HIV and soldiers returning from the Middle East with PTSD benefit from this non-habit-forming plant medicine. Andrea Tischler Chairwoman, Big Island Americans for Safe Access Hilo - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom