Only a few months into the school year, Dr. Naragon’s politics class has brought in a multitude of respected and influential speakers from all sides of the political spectrum. Patrick Nightingale, a criminal defense attorney practicing in Pittsburgh, recently came in to discuss the implications of medical marijuana in our city and more broadly in the United States.

Mr. Nightingale covered everything from Nixon era to Trump’s policy and with changing public opinion of the drug. Marijuana has been labeled as a Schedule 1 drug since the early 70’s. (For context, cocaine is a Schedule 2 drug, and heroin is a Schedule 1 drug.) It’s classification is the highest, labeling it as dangerous with potential for abuse and no medical benefits. This prevents any research from being conducted on marijuana in the United States, so the government pays foreign scientists millions per year to investigate it. It is also physically impossible to overdose on marijuana unlike more popular drugs like alcohol. Marijuana also has proven medical benefits. In fact, the FDA has released a list of twelve diseases that are approved for use of medical marijuana. The list is expected to grow in the next several years.

Besides the medical potential of this drug, its current treatment in government perpetrates a brutal cycle of mass incarceration. It’s all part of the war on drugs. The decriminalization of marijuana, a goal of NORML, an organization with which Nightingale works, could keep massive amounts of people out of jail. Pittsburgh is currently in the process of this, but it isn’t official. In the future, a fine could be assigned to those in possession of marijuana, but an arrest would not be made. This would dramatically decrease the number jailed for nonviolent crimes.

Marijuana is banned by federal government but legalized in nine states. These conflicting laws blur the lines between legal and illegal. The struggle for power is long from over, and it doesn’t look like Trump intends to legalize its use (medical or otherwise) during his term. Patrick Nightingale’s work has the capability for sweeping judicial changes, but there is still a lot of work to do.

[Sources:

http://patricknightingale.com/about/

http://norml.org/legal/legalization

https://www.compassionatecertificationcenters.com/patrick-nightingale/

https://www.dea.gov/druginfo/ds.shtml   ]