The history between cannabis and the Drug Enforcement Agency added another chapter to its pages. Judging by its recently updated list of cannabis nicknames, the distance between the community and the DEA may somehow be more considerable than we even thought. While this may be subject to laugh at the differences between the two, other reasons make it difficult to simply brush off.
After decades of disconnection and demonization, the DEA and the federal government at large continue to remain out of step with cannabis. With the release of these slang terms for cannabis by the DEA, citizens are once again left scratching their heads wondering how the heck the government thinks its citizens view cannabis.
Ridiculous Slang Terms for Cannabis by the DEA
Looking over the list, some terms may pop out as actual phrases or words you may have previously come across. MMJ and nug stand out, while some strains like Green Crack, Tangy OG, and others made the list. Meanwhile, it is unclear if the DEA is unsure of what terpenes are, or if consumers are the ones mistaken. Either way, it also found its way onto the list.
In other cases, the DEA either found some incredibly niche terms or just outright missed on what they thought was slang for cannabis. Some standouts include:
- Shoes
- Crazy weed
- Dinkie dow
- Queen Ann’s lace
- Righteous bush
- Tigitty
- Young Girls
The DEA has yet to comment further on the list. So, the cannabis community has respectfully left the subject alone until some clarity has been presented.
Kidding, of course.
The list has garnered numerous write-ups in publications from Leafly to the Boston Globe. Most pieces touched on the intricate list the government has put together to cover pot in recent years. The complete list of drug slang has numerous names for cannabis and concentrates, placing them among the same level as cocaine and heroin.
While the list is comical, it once again highlights the disconnect between the government and the actual healing potential of cannabis. If this were just another opportunity to poke fun at Jeff Sessions and his anti-pot acolytes, it would be all fun and games. Unfortunately, however, this highlights just another glaring reason why cannabis and the DEA aren’t on the same page.
Far From the First Incident Between Cannabis and the DEA
Unsurprisingly, a comical list of nicknames and slang terms is far from the worst thing the DEA has done to cannabis through the years. The most egregious offense came during the Nixon administration in the early 70s. The soon to be disgraced President and his cabinet defied marijuana studies and continued framing it as an addictive drug. Instead, they continued forward with the atrocious Schedule I status cannabis continues to have under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act.
Despite assertions from medical professionals that cannabis had medical use, the administration moved forward classifying cannabis just as past prohibition proponents had in the past. In the case of the Nixon administration, they saw placing marijuana as a Schedule I narcotic as a way to suppress the antiwar and civil rights movements of the time.
In 2016, this long-held theory was confirmed by Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell who said in 1994 that:
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course, we did.”
Beyond the terrible actions taken by the Nixon administration, cannabis continued to suffer as the decades wore on. This continues today where federal regulations continue to hinder progress and even valuable studies that could save lives. And when compared to the effects heroin demonization had on the black community, it is tragic and safe to say that cannabis received the lesser of the two outcomes.
Could a Change Be on the Horizon?
At this time, the DEA continues to view cannabis as an abusive drug. On its website, the DEA states that “Marijuana is the only major drug of abuse grown within the U.S. borders. The DEA is aggressively striving to halt the spread of cannabis cultivation in the United States.”
While Attorney General Jeff Sessions has rescinded the Cole Memo at the Department of Justice, legal cannabis markets continue to operate in the United States with little to no interference from federal officials at this time. The current belief is that the federal government would be making an unwise decision wading into the murky waters of states’ rights, especially surrounding a product that generates revenue while saving the lives of everyone from children to veterans.
Meanwhile, recent DEA figures suggest that the illegal cannabis market is shrinking in America. Based on the amount of cannabis the agency seizes, it saw a 35 percent decrease in 2017. While this could be due to legalization efforts, the DEA did not elaborate.
One way to ensure that a change is made would be through rescheduling cannabis. This could come from a series of measures Congress is currently working on. However, at this time, no certain answer is in place. That lack of certainty may not be a cause for alarm. That is at least according to the author of the Cole Memo, former Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole. In July, Cole told MJBizDaily that:
“What I’ve seen from a prosecutorial standpoint so far … is not much. I haven’t seen a spate of prosecutions (since) the Cole Memo…Now you’ve got 93 U.S. attorneys who are all given their own individual discretion. … In the states that have legalized marijuana, those U.S. attorneys are by and large political animals…I don’t expect them to do much, because that political reality is going to be a natural barrier to them taking an aggressive approach and really defying the will of the voters.”
While the country’s cannabis community can likely breathe easy, we’ll still have to wait and see what comes from the federal level. While Cole’s assertion gives some relief, the laughable slang terms for cannabis by the DEA highlights just how far apart the nation and its law enforcement may be at this time.
