Washington — The United States Narcotic Enforcement Administration is considering reclassifying marijuana as a less harmful narcotic. The Justice Department’s proposal would recognize cannabis’ medical purposes but not legalize it for recreational use.

The proposal would shift marijuana from the “Schedule I” category to the less stringent “Schedule III.”

So, what does this mean, and what are the implications?

Technically, nothing has happened. The White House Office of Management and Budget must first examine the idea, followed by a public comment period and an administrative judge’s assessment, which could be a lengthy process.

Nonetheless, the change is considered “paradigm-shifting, and it’s very exciting,” Vince Sliwoski, a Portland, Oregon-based cannabis and psychedelics attorney who runs well-known legal blogs on those topics, told The Associated Press when the federal Health and Human Services Department recommended it.

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What Marijuana Reclassification Means For The United States

“I can’t emphasize enough how big of news it is,” he said.

It came after President Joe Biden last year requested that HHS and the attorney general, who controls the DEA, investigate how marijuana was classified. Schedule I legalized it alongside heroin, LSD, quaaludes, and ecstasy, among other substances.

Biden, a Democrat, is in favor of legalizing medical marijuana “where appropriate, consistent with medical and scientific evidence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Thursday. “That is why it is important for this independent review to go through.”

No. Schedule III medicines, such as ketamine, anabolic steroids, and several acetaminophen-codeine combos, are still considered controlled narcotics.

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What Marijuana Reclassification Means For The United States

They are subject to a variety of restrictions that allow for some medical usage as well as federal criminal punishment of anyone who traffics in the medications illegally.

Medical marijuana programs, which are already regulated in 38 states, and legal recreational cannabis markets in 23 states are expected to remain unchanged, but they are unlikely to meet federal production, record-keeping, prescribing, and other Schedule III drug criteria.

There haven’t been many federal prosecutions for simply possessing marijuana in recent years, even with marijuana’s existing Schedule I designation, but reclassification would have no immediate impact on those currently in the criminal justice system.

“Put simply, this shift from Schedule I to Schedule III is not keeping people out of jail,” said David Culver, senior vice president of public relations of the United States Cannabis Council.

However, rescheduling would have an impact, especially on research and marijuana business taxes.

Because marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance, it has been extremely difficult to undertake permitted clinical trials involving its administration. This has produced a Catch-22 situation: there is a need for further study, but there are hurdles to doing so. (Sometimes, scientists rely on people’s claims of marijuana use.)

Schedule III medications are easier to study, although reclassification would take time to remove all hurdles to research.

“It’s going to be really confusing for a long time,” says Ziva Cooper, director of the University of California, Los Angeles Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids. “When the dust has settled, I don’t know how many years from now, research will be easier.”

Among the unknowns include whether academics will be permitted to study marijuana from state-licensed shops and how the federal Food and Drug Administration would regulate this.

Some researchers remain optimistic.

“Reducing the schedule to schedule 3 will allow us to conduct research with human subjects using cannabis,” said Susan Ferguson, director of the University of Washington’s Addictions, Drug, and Alcohol Institute in Seattle.

Firms involved in “trafficking” marijuana or any other Schedule I or II substance are not allowed to deduct rent, payroll, or other expenses that other firms can. (Yes, despite the federal government’s prohibition on marijuana, at least some cannabis firms, particularly those permitted by states, pay federal taxes.) According to industry associations, tax rates frequently reach 70% or more.

The deduction regulation does not apply to Schedule III medications, so the proposed amendment would significantly reduce cannabis companies’ taxes.

They claim it would treat them like other industries and let them compete with unlawful competitors that frustrate licensees and officials in locations like New York.

“You’re going to make these state-legal programs stronger,” says Adam Goers, an executive at Columbia Care, a medicinal and recreational cannabis provider. He co-chairs a group of corporate and other stakeholders advocating for rescheduling.

According to Beau Kilmer, co-director of the RAND Drug Policy Center, deducting those expenditures could result in greater cannabis marketing and advertising.

Rescheduling would have no direct impact on another marijuana business issue: limited access to banks, particularly for loans, due to federally regulated institutions’ concerns about the drug’s legal status. Instead, the sector has focused on the SAFE Banking Act. It has frequently passed the House but is stuck in the Senate.

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What Marijuana Reclassification Means For The United States

Yes, there are, notably the national anti-legalization organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana. President Kevin Sabet, a former Obama administration drug policy official, said the HHS suggestion “flies in the face of science, reeks of politics” and gives a disappointing nod to an industry “desperately looking for legitimacy.”

Some legalization supporters argue that rescheduling marijuana is too modest. They want to keep the focus on totally removing it from the controlled substances list, which does not include alcohol or tobacco (although they are regulated).

According to Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, simply reclassifying marijuana would be “perpetuating the existing divide between state and federal marijuana policies.” According to Kaliko Castille, President of the Minority Cannabis Business Association, rescheduling simply “re-brands prohibition,” rather than giving state licensees the green light and bringing an end to decades of arrests that disproportionately affected people of color.

“Schedule III is going to leave it in this kind of amorphous, mucky middle where people are not going to understand the danger of it still being federally illegal,” the senator stated.

Peltz reported from New York. Associated Press writers Colleen Long in Washington and Carla K. Johnson in Seattle contributed to this story.

SOURCE – (AP)

Eye balls bugging you after watching the eclispe? The solar eclipse passed over Mexico, the United States, and Canada on Monday, providing a heavenly show. However, in the aftermath, some people may experience eye irritation instead of astonishment.

You may be wondering if your eclipse glasses were bogus. Perhaps you neglected to put them back on as the day’s first rays arrived after totality. Or you spotted your child, friend, or family member looking up at the sun without wearing glasses.

How To Tell If You Have Eye Damage After Viewing The Eclipse

Solar retinopathy, or retinal damage brought on by solar radiation, can result from looking at the sun without using appropriate eye protection, such as certified eclipse glasses or solar viewers. While the highly specialized cells inside our eyes do not experience pain, staring at the sun causes inflammation and damage to the rods, cones, and photochemical reactors, according to Ronald Benner, an optometrist and president of the American Optometric Association.

During the 2017 total solar eclipse, a young woman was diagnosed with solar retinopathy in both eyes after viewing it with eclipse glasses that physicians said were not up to safety standards.

There is no cure for solar retinopathy. It may improve or worsen, but it is a permanent condition.

After-eclipse eye injury symptoms
Symptoms of eye injury from viewing the eclipse without proper protection can take hours or days to appear. They include loss of central vision, changes in color vision, and distorted vision.

How To Tell If You Have Eye Damage After Viewing The Eclipse

“Eclipse damage is unlikely to produce pain or discomfort in your eyes because the retina lacks pain nerves. Instead, visual symptoms might appear within 4-6 hours. However, some people may experience symptoms after 12 hours,” emailed Michelle Andreoli, eye ophthalmologist and clinical representative for the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Doctors advise that if you detect any signs or are experiencing eye discomfort, schedule an appointment with a health care provider or an eye care specialist right away.

“For most people, it’s an alteration of color vision,” he stated. “The next morning, the colors don’t appear right, or they’ve been bleached out or fuzzy all the time. Others may have genuine holes in their vision.

According to Benner, damage to the center of someone’s eyesight can impair their ability to read or recognize faces.

It is comparable to the effect a camera flash has on our eyes, which can distort it for a few minutes before going away. However, the severity of solar retinopathy causes lifelong damage that is not immediately noticeable. Overnight, the cells can perish and will not be replaced.

How To Tell If You Have Eye Damage After Viewing The Eclipse

The injury sustained determines the alterations in a person’s vision, which can occur in one or both eyes.

“The retina is an extension of the brain, so it’s actually neurological tissue, and when you damage that, it doesn’t always come back,” he said. “If you harm one cell, it may never be the same. However, if you damage a group of cells, you will experience blotchy vision, similar to having someone rub oil on your windshield. If you only cause little damage to them and do not kill them, their color vision will be affected. What can you do about this? Nothing else than preventing it.”

Benner also recommends that parents discuss with their children the signs of pain if they watched the eclipse together, especially if they are concerned that their children may have removed or glanced around the eclipse glasses. Children may find it difficult to explain their experiences, such as not being able to properly see

SOURCE – (CNN)

Rescuers are working to save an orca calf stranded in a remote lagoon on Vancouver Island, off Canada’s west coast, for nearly two weeks.

The calf became stranded in the Zeballos lagoon after its mother became trapped on a sandbar in the lagoon’s shallow waters and died on March 23. The mother was pregnant when she died.

Officials have been monitoring the calf regularly and are developing the best plan to move it and reconnect it with its family pod.

Rescuers are working to save an orca calf stranded in a remote lagoon on Vancouver Island, off Canada’s west coast, for nearly two weeks.

The calf became stranded in the Zeballos lagoon after its mother became trapped on a sandbar in the lagoon’s shallow waters and died on March 23. The mother was pregnant when she died.

Officials have been monitoring the calf regularly and are developing the best plan to move it and reconnect it with its family pod.

“We realized that time is not on our side, so we are now working on logistics of a rescue operation,” Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Paul Cottrell said on Thursday.

Cottrell added that staff had tried various methods to convince the calf to leave the lagoon on its own, including “acoustic playbacks”—recordings of other orca whales. So far, nothing has worked.

Officials initially planned to carry the calf by helicopter but have switched to a truck and boat to prevent upsetting the animal. According to Ehattesaht First Nation Chief Simon John, they intend to entice the calf into an area where it can be loaded onto a vehicle, then drive the animal to a boat and place it in a net pod.

The orca, known as “Little Brave Hunter” or “Kʷiisaḥiʔis” in the Ehattesaht First Nation language, will remain in the net enclosure until its family dies. Then, John explained, it will hopefully be liberated and reunited with its family. The net pen is planned for Esperanza, southeast of Zeballos.

Officials expect to implement this approach within the next week. “It’s a huge effort, and we have a long way to go,” Cottrell stated. “We’re hoping for the best possible outcome.”

The orca family pod was last observed on March 30.

Bay Cetology, one of the companies coordinating the rescue, told CNN that the orca is “robust, showing no immediate signs of emaciation.” The group said attempts have been made to feed the calf, but it is unclear whether it has eaten anything.

“This whale’s skin has just started to slough in sizable patches along the top of the head and base of the dorsal fin on each side perhaps due to the freshwater runoff into the lagoon it is in,” according to the company.

Moving the orca calf “will require a lot of patience as well as cooperation from the whale,” according to Bay Cetology.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), orcas, commonly known as killer whales, are widespread across the world’s waters. They are very sociable and live in family pods of 20 or more whales. According to NOAA, calves normally stay with their moms for the first two years of their lives.

This is not the first time Canadian officials have devised a plan to rescue a solitary and trapped orca calf. In 2002, an orca calf named Springer was discovered alone in Puget Sound, prompting an elaborate capture and relocation effort. She is the first orca in history to successfully reintegrate into a wild population following human intervention.

“We realized that time is not on our side, so we are now working on logistics of a rescue operation,” Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Paul Cottrell said on Thursday.

Cottrell added that staff had tried various methods to convince the calf to leave the lagoon on its own, including “acoustic playbacks”—recordings of other orca whales. So far, nothing has worked.

Rescuers are working to save an orca calf stranded in a remote lagoon on Vancouver Island, off Canada’s west coast, for nearly two weeks.

Officials initially planned to carry the calf by helicopter but have switched to a truck and boat to prevent upsetting the animal. According to Ehattesaht First Nation Chief Simon John, they intend to entice the calf into an area where it can be loaded onto a vehicle, then drive the animal to a boat and place it in a net pod.

The orca, known as “Little Brave Hunter” or “Kʷiisaḥiʔis” in the Ehattesaht First Nation language, will remain in the net enclosure until its family dies. Then, John explained, it will hopefully be liberated and reunited with its family. The net pen is planned for Esperanza, southeast of Zeballos.

Officials expect to implement this approach within the next week. “It’s a huge effort, and we have a long way to go,” Cottrell stated. “We’re hoping for the best possible outcome.”

The orca family pod was last observed on March 30.

Bay Cetology, one of the companies coordinating the rescue, told CNN that the orca is “robust, showing no immediate signs of emaciation.” The group said attempts have been made to feed the calf, but it is unclear whether it has eaten anything.

“This whale’s skin has just started to slough in sizable patches along the top of the head and base of the dorsal fin on each side perhaps due to the freshwater runoff into the lagoon it is in,” according to the company.

Moving the orca calf “will require a lot of patience as well as cooperation from the whale,” according to Bay Cetology.

Rescuers are working to save an orca calf stranded in a remote lagoon on Vancouver Island, off Canada’s west coast, for nearly two weeks.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), orcas, commonly known as killer whales, are widespread across the world’s waters. They are very sociable and live in family pods of 20 or more whales. According to NOAA, calves normally stay with their moms for the first two years of their lives.

This is not the first time Canadian officials have devised a plan to rescue a solitary and trapped orca calf. In 2002, an orca calf named Springer was discovered alone in Puget Sound, prompting an elaborate capture and relocation effort. She is the first orca in history to successfully reintegrate into a wild population following human intervention.

SOURCE – (CNN)