I'm not a lawyer, but as far as I can tell, the federal government legally needs to reschedule cannabis. Right now, it's a schedule 1 substance, along with heroin and LSD. The requirements for a substance to be schedule 1 are:

1. The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.
2. The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
3. There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

2 and 3 are obviously right out. I'm not sure about 1. I don't know what the legal definition of abuse is in this context. Since cannabis doesn't meet the legal requirements to be schedule 1, it must be put into whatever schedule it does meet the requirements of. I think that's schedule 4.

Alcohol has a high potential for abuse, so I wouldn't think that should weigh too heavily on a decision. I'll have to look if any recent studies have been done on physical addiction of THC. Last time I bothered to read up on it, they had found only a psychological addiction.

Alcohol and tobacco get a special pass. They aren't included in the Controlled Substances Act, which is interesting because tobacco meets all three requirements to be a schedule 1 controlled substance. Alcohol meets the requirements to be a schedule 2 substance.

No expert, but for pain management you would look at CBD products more than THC. I don't know if that as an isolated product still falls under the same restrictions as run of the mill pot. You can get CBD extracts in (topical / massage) oil, or you could find some Shatter that is mostly CBD.

I'm in Oregon and the world has not collapsed into anarchy because of legal weed. Though Portland has occasional bouts of stupid riot between warring factions of assholes, who *clearly* all need to calm the fuck down and share a peace pipe.