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Marijuana and methamphetamine are both Schedule I drugs. One destroys synapses in the brain, destroys liver and kidney cells and makes people crazy much faster than whiskey. The other one does less damage than beer. Do you know which one is which? Does this DEA policy confuse teenagers? Why confuse them more than necessary when lifelong health of the brain is at stake? Could it possibly be time for Congress to override the DEA and pharmaceutical interests and finally make marijuana a Schedule III drug?

– John Scatchard

This article appears in Jul 14-20, 2011.

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Time for Straight Talk on Pot

by Source Weekly, The Source - Bend, Oregon
July 13, 2011

<h1>Time for Straight Talk on Pot</h1> <p class="byline">by Source Weekly, The Source - Bend, Oregon <br />July 13, 2011</p> <p>Marijuana and methamphetamine are both Schedule I drugs. One destroys synapses in the brain, destroys liver and kidney cells and makes people crazy much faster than whiskey. The other one does less damage than beer. Do you know which one is which? Does this DEA policy confuse teenagers? Why confuse them more than necessary when lifelong health of the brain is at stake? Could it possibly be time for Congress to override the DEA and pharmaceutical interests and finally make marijuana a Schedule III drug?</p> <p align="right"><em><span> - John Scatchard</span></em></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/opinion/time-for-straight-talk-on-pot-2138665/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com&quot;&gt;The Source - Bend, Oregon&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cropped-Untitled-design-4.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=14267&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.bendsource.com/opinion/time-for-straight-talk-on-pot-2138665/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/bendsource.com/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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