Reflections ~
Buck Up Little Troopers
The Illusion of Legalization
by Dolores Halbin, RN, BSN, contributing writer
We try extremely hard here at The EVOLUTION Magazine to break things down and walk our readers through the evolution of cannabis, but honestly, this is rough.
The Thursday, April 23, 2026, rescheduling of cannabis from a Schedule I drug of NO medicinal value, next to LSD and heroin, to a Schedule III drug, placing it alongside anabolic steroids and Tylenol # 3, created mixed emotions among advocates. So, I reached out to my old friend and cannabis attorney, Dan Viets, for comment.
The round trip from Columbia, MO, to the Bates County Courthouse in Butler, MO, is 300 miles. Viets made that round trip 27 times from 2015 to 2016 to defend my husband and me on Class B felony charges for growing. He will forever be my great friend.
Viets said,“ Only state-legal medical is being rescheduled, not cannabis in general, not non-medical. This is unprecedented in history. No drug has ever been on two schedules at once.”
Under the new law, if I have my medical card and grow medical marijuana in my garden, and it thrives, I now have more than I need. I offer my neighbor some. My neighbor poo-pooed the medical card and never got one. He says he just likes to“ smoke weed.” This makes him a recreational consumer, despite being a wounded warrior with one leg. So, I cut a huge bud off my medical plant, now a Schedule III plant, and pass it over the fence to him; my bud is now Schedule I again. Why?
This has been a month of kerfuffles in Missouri as well. In addition to the federal laws, the Governor of Missouri signed H. B. 2641, titled the“ Intoxicating Cannabinoid Control Act,” to control illegal intoxicating( over. 4 % THC) hemp products. As I said, we try to break things down, but this 15-page bill is a doozy.
A Little History
1619: All settlers in Jamestown Colony were required to grow hemp to support England and expand its use in the Americas. George Washington grew hemp as one of his main crops. 1 From 1631 to the early 1800s, hemp was used as legal tender, and citizens could use it to pay their taxes. 2 The only thing oil makes that hemp can’ t is global warming.
August 2, 1937: President Roosevelt signed into law the Marijuana Stamp Act, criminalizing cannabis by imposing heavy taxes and strict regulations. The petroleum and paper industries launched the PR campaign against marijuana named“ Refer Madness” in 1938, produced by the Hearst industry. The Stamp Act restricted all forms of cannabis.
Then, people stopped paying attention.
1970: Walter Cronkite announced on the evening news that Richard Nixon signed into law the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, commonly known as the Controlled Substances Act. The stroke of a crooked president’ s pen put the next series of events into play.
1976: Robert Randel and Alice Randel O’ Leary were busted for six plants on Robert’ s patio in Washington, DC. Robert, a diabetic who had glaucoma, took his case to the Supreme Court and won. As a result of the Randal win, once a month, the University of Mississippi sent out tins of 300 joints to anyone in the country with glaucoma. However, the plant remained on Schedule I despite having some medicinal value. 2
1980s: Reagan canceled the program. After lawsuits brought by patients, led by Elvy Muckogee, one of the two patients still alive in the program, the suit was settled with a grandfather clause allowing all currently enrolled patients to continue to receive their monthly tins of cannabis joints, but no one new was allowed in.
The Difference Today
Throughout all these historical changes, the public was neither engaged nor paying attention. The attitude of cops and parents was nonchalant. Everyone had figured out that weed wasn’ t dangerous. If we got caught with any during the 70s and 80s, the cops just took it. If you got caught growing, it was a $ 100 fine and a three-hour drug class. I know, we got busted for growing in 1978.
The First Raid
I was working the 3-11 shift at the hospital. On a rare fall evening, I was home to cook supper. I looked out the kitchen window at my
32 JUNE 2026