Right. Here's another branch of the same government that holds a patent for "Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants" from 2003 (filed in '99).

Abstract: Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention. A particular disclosed class of cannabinoids useful as neuroprotective antioxidants is formula (I) wherein the R group is independently selected from the group consisting of H, CH 3 , and COCH 3.

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/patent/US-6630507-B1

Patent showing medical value in one hand, "no accepted medical use" in the other.

The exoteric explanation seems incompetent because it's veiled in racism and xenophobia to protect and promote corporate and national interests. You can see this just in the terminology used in the laws, like using the term "Marihuana" to invoke anti-Mexican sentiment for heavily taxing the use of hemp fibers in 1937 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marihuana_Tax_Act_of_1937

Luckily for us DuPont introduced a wonderful petroleum-based "man-made organic textile fiber" (Nylon) in 1938, featuring it heavily in the 1939 New York World's Fair and 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon#Early_marketing_strategi...

>The fact that it remains in the modern era speaks to how incompetent the US has become

More racist than incompetent. The Nixon era war on weed was driven by hatred of blacks.

Not sure I'd call it "incompetent". Maybe something more like diabolical? Overt government disinformation, giving federal "authorities" the right to raid and plunder any person or organization involved in harboring plant material.

The term is regulatory capture. There are a number of financial motives behind blocking legalization: drug and booze makers protecting their turf, religious wingnuts seeking moral relevance, law enforcement and DEA contractors. At some point the weed industry will grow large enough to have its own lobbyist army.

Point of order: it's not JUST the US, it is most of the world.