Mike Robinson, The OG Researcher, Said it Well
Why Cannabis Deserves Full Descheduling: Honoring the Legacy of the Movement
I recently came across a powerful and deeply personal reflection from Mike Robinson, widely known as The Researcher OG — a longtime cannabis advocate, multiple cancer survivor, compassion provider, and founder of the Global Cannabinoid Research Center.
His words cut through decades of political spin and remind us what the cannabis movement was truly built on: sacrifice, caregiving, and lived experience — not profit margins.
You can read Mike’s original post here:
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Mike Robinson on Facebook (Original Post)
What consumers have gone through in the US to gain even a sliver of freedom with cannabis is something most will never fully understand. The arrests, the raids, the families torn apart, the patients forced to hide their medicine, the caregivers who risked everything to help someone in pain — that was the cost before a single legal storefront ever opened its doors.
Those early years were built on fear and hope mixed, because we were fighting for access to a plant that never should have been taken from us in the first place. We pushed forward anyway. We voted. We protested. We educated. We kept showing up even when the system refused to listen.
To have cannabis still sitting on Schedule 1 after all that history feels like an insult wrapped in bureaucracy. Schedule 1 was never about science. It was about control.
It claimed the plant had no medical use, even as thousands of patients found relief every day. It claimed danger where decades of lived experience showed otherwise.
It labeled us criminals for trying to heal. Even today, the echoes of that era shape how consumers are treated, from banking restrictions to research barriers to fear-driven policy decisions that ignore the real world.
The idea of moving cannabis to Schedule 3 gets presented as progress, but the truth is more complicated. Schedule 3 hands control to pharmaceutical channels. It invites a level of regulation that pushes out small growers, community caregivers, and legacy operators who built this movement long before it was profitable.
It risks turning a natural plant into a prescription commodity while pushing the culture, the knowledge, and the compassion that defined the early movement to the sidelines.
We fought too hard to hand cannabis over now. The plant brought many of us back to life. It does not belong behind the counters of a system that never believed in it.
— Mike Robinson, The Researcher OG
Why Schedule 3 Isn’t the Win It’s Framed to Be
Rescheduling cannabis to Schedule 3 is often marketed as progress, but as Mike points out, it comes with real risks:
- Shifting control to pharmaceutical interests
- Raising barriers for small farmers and caregivers
- Marginalizing legacy operators who carried patients through prohibition
- Turning a plant into something you need permission to access
True reform means full descheduling — removing cannabis entirely from the Controlled Substances Act and allowing science, patients, and communities to lead.
Why This History Matters
Cannabis didn’t become legal because corporations discovered it. It became legal because patients demanded relief, caregivers took risks, and advocates refused to disappear.
That history deserves respect — not erasure through regulatory capture.
Learn More & Follow-Up Reading
- Researcher OG – Mike Robinson’s Work
- Genevieve’s Dream – Compassion & Cannabinoid Research
- NORML – National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
- Drug Policy Alliance – Cannabis & Drug Policy Reform
What are your thoughts?
Did cannabis help you or someone you love? Share your experience and help keep the real history alive.
#DescheduleCannabis #CannabisMyMedicine #LegacyOperators #PatientFirst
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