Why Are Governments, Individuals, Agencies, and Corporations Still Attacking Cannabis When We All Know It Is a Safer Alternative?

I ask myself this regularly because, over the last 20 years, I have seen cannabis help so many in need. Cannabis gives relief to people suffering with disease and chronic ailments, along with relieving stress and a variety of other issues for most.

Seizures, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s (ALS)… If you name it, cannabis can help it. We are even discovering how beneficial cannabis is for certain cancers and autism. I personally have seen younger and older autistic children benefit from CBD and cannabis, and it assisted with their developmental skills—unlike the pharmaceutical medications that left them in a numbing state and lowered the ability to learn and communicate. There are plenty of success stories on the internet to support all these claims.

I have even seen cannabis THC injected directly into cancerous tumors on lab mice and completely kill off the cancerous cells. Maybe now we will finally get some advancements with research with this “rescheduling” talk.

So… if cannabis is so beneficial, why are we still fighting to free the plant? How many people have ever died from over-consuming cannabis? How many people have you ever seen get violently angry while using cannabis? How many heavy cannabis users have you seen age horribly?

I ask these questions because these would be grounds for a scheduled “narcotic,” but cannabis does not meet any qualifications to be scheduled as a controlled substance at all. Alcohol, caffeine, Tylenol, and tobacco have more health-related issues to overuse and consumption than cannabis does. So why are these substances not scheduled as controlled substances, but cannabis is?

I am not a supporter of cannabis being rescheduled to a Schedule 3 substance. I feel this is still going to create difficulties for some and put the plant in the wrong hands. The only good I see coming from this is people in less progressive states having access to the medicine, along with developments in research, available funding, and cannabis for further research to be done. Schedule 1 prevented quality research on the plant for many years.

I do not see any hope for eliminating cannabis-related prosecutions with rescheduling. This is a big issue with me. Nobody should lose years from their life and family from a plant that helps people. Those are some real martyrs.

Now comes the political game… Why is cannabis being rescheduled instead of de-scheduled? Who does this benefit? Where did the money come from to support this move? Why did everything happen so fast? Why did they make changes to the 2018 Farm Bill this year to target THC when there have been talks of rescheduling? What is the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, and why has it not been permanently approved for 2026?

These are some of the questions that started coming up in my circle of cannabis business owners and cannabis advocates. I actually just became familiar with the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment. This bill was enacted in 2001, and it prohibited government funding from the Department of Justice to government agencies for interference with state medical marijuana programs. It is pretty much the reason why dispensaries and other cannabis-related businesses aren’t being raided by the DEA. There has been protection since 2001. I just found out this bill has to be renewed every year, and for the most part it goes through right away, but this year there has been a delay.

I bring this up to shine awareness on some of the things going on behind closed doors that could affect you or a loved one who is currently benefiting from the ease of access to the plant. Now is the time to be aware and voice your concerns for what could shape up from all of this. This is not by accident; it is by design, and there are some key players funding these changes.

Pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, and some well-positioned individuals will be the only ones that benefit from this transition, along with other industries that felt threatened by the progression of the plant. It almost feels like we are back in the 1930s, and Reefer Madness is upon us—except this time they are not prohibiting the plant; they are positioning for profit and prosecution off of her.

Putting the plant into the hands of pharmaceutical companies is the last thing we need. There is no reason for all that technology and manipulation of the plant and her molecules. The simplest ways to use the plant are the most effective. We need the plant in the hands of the people. We need to free the plant.

I apologize if some of this is too deep, and I am not trying to spread any negativity or fear at all. History shows us all we need to know, and look how far we have come in making cannabis accessible all around the world.

I love you, and have a great day!!

I also would like to mention that the alcohol industry has declined over the last few years.

A Bloomberg index tracking approximately 50 publicly listed beer, wine, and spirits producers reported a collective loss of $830 billion in market value from June 2021 to late 2025. This reflects a significant downturn in stock performance for some key alcohol businesses.

It is also worth mentioning that in 2025, Senator Mitch McConnell inserted a provision in a recent government spending bill that effectively bans most intoxicating hemp-derived THC products, a move widely attributed to significant lobbying efforts by the alcohol industry in his home state of Kentucky.

Senator Mitch McConnell was a key champion of the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized industrial hemp and, as an unintended consequence, created an unregulated market for intoxicating, hemp-derived THC products like Delta-8. The provision aims to crack down on these intoxicating products but has drawn significant criticism for potentially banning many popular, non-intoxicating CBD products as well.

Be well!

— David Yrigoyen