| If Nicotine were scheduled and put into Schedule 1 where it belongs, this would have two drastic but ultimately beneficial effects. One would be that buy cigarettes online would suddenly become illegal, as their main ingredient (and reason for existing and addicting so many people) would be outlawed as much as heroin or other Schedule 1 counterparts would. This way, smoking would drop drastically, as the biggest problem with quitting is that cigarettes online are available everywhere, making it too easy to get your fix. The second effect would be the restructuring of some of the other drugs on the Scheduling list. I guarantee you that if you put THC (the active ingredient in marijuana, currently and quite unfairly a Schedule 1 listing) against the same criteria as Nicotine, they would not be in the same category at all. But the illegality of marijuana (the most widely used "illegal" drug in America) would be in certain question when judged solely by medical and scientific criteria and not politics, business & societal norms. Indeed, back in 1972, then-President Nixon completely ignored his self-appointed Shafer commission's advice that "Neither the marihuana user nor the drug itself can be said to constitute a danger to public safety" and started the long and destructive War on Drugs anyway. And if you think this is just about marijuana and nicotene, look at Schedule IV where the popular sleep aid Ambien shares a category with Valium, Xanax, Darvocet and Rohypnol. |
