Great article and weirdly synchronistic as I made a post about drugs recently too. I think we are seeing authorities reconsidering drug policy in certain regards but it is very slow.
Marijhuana/Cannabis has a lot of momentum but there are a lot of other drugs with medical applications such as LSD and MDMA where they are still dragging their heels and it is slowing down valuable research.
Even a loosening of the laws for medical research purposes would be a great help but there is still little political will for it. Scientists find it very difficult to get approval, obtain and get funding for medical research using "illegal" drugs. Politicians refuse to relax those same rules for research without more scientific evidence and so it can be a Catch-22 situation.
Let's hope the progress with marijhuana has a knock on effect in these other cases too and things change.
Personally, if not for blind incarceration (and gov messing up lives) because of drugs.. there are far more important issues at hand it almost seems to be used as a device to divert from bigger matters..!