In Case You Haven't Heard...

If the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reschedules marijuana, as is currently under consideration according to a report in The New York Times last week, there will have to be a lot of questions concerning how this will work. Marijuana is currently Schedule I on the Controlled Substances Act, which means it is illegal. When the Department of Justice declared that they would not enforce this 10 years ago, states, starting with Colorado, embarked on what they hoped would be a commercial enterprise that couldn't fail: A new addictive substance that could be taxed. One thing is clear: Legalization did not work, because the black market is thriving. People would rather buy less expensive marijuana (or what is being sold as marijuana) on the street or in "head shops," the growers aren't getting paid because dispensaries aren't selling the legal stuff, and the states aren't reaping the tax windfalls they expected to get. Oh, and this: Young people are using it more and more, and there are many research studies linking it to psychosis. As the children said when they would utter an unpopular truth at the dinner table: Sorry, not sorry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]