Constant Anslinger
DEA made two decisions this week that are mutually and internally contradictory.

To begin with, the current situation is already an illogical and improper legal structure. Pot is prohibited in the US but allowed in Colo and Wash. Doesn't work**. When the outer unit prohibits X, you can't have inner units that allow X.

A previous arrangement of alcohol laws was inversed. From 1933 to 1959 or so, alcohol was allowed in the US but prohibited in Okla and Miss. When the outer unit is 'loose' about X, inner units are free to prohibit X. This was stupid but logical.

One of the new decisions was an answer to an appeal from Wash and RI. The states wanted DEA to reclassify pot as a pharmaceutical, which would make it easier for federally regulated banks to process business and taxes. DEA said no.

The other decision SEEMINGLY runs in the opposite direction:

Today, researchers can only study the limited quantity of marijuana grown at the University of Mississippi, which has a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse. But in the DEA's August 11 announcement, the agency said that it will finally allow other institutions around the country to obtain licences to grow marijuana for research.

.... but in practice it's meaningless. This absurd Official Research Pot was never used for research, and it still won't be. How do I know? If anyone actually wanted to do research on pot, they can now buy it legally and easily in Wash or Colo, or they could get a license to grow it legally in several states. I don't see anyone actually doing this, which means nobody wants to do research on pot.

DEA hasn't changed since Harry Anslinger. Official Research Pot is the same type of fraud as the original marijuana stamp act, which NOMINALLY allowed you to buy pot as long as you paid the tax and bought the stamps. Unfortunately, the government never got around to printing or selling the stamps, through some purely accidental oversight or error. Presto. Prohibition without a prohibition law.


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**Footnote in case that's not clear: "I'm a strict vegetarian, but if my hand wants to pick up a hamburger and my mouth chooses to chew the burger and my stomach decides to digest the burger, it's okay with me." Well then, you're not a vegetarian. You're a carnivore.
  ¶ 10:59 AM