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For Republican House Speaker John Boehner announced a surprising shift in focus after his thinking on the application of cannabis has “evolved.”
Now, Boehner will be using his years of experience in the legislative process to make it easier to conduct research on the efficacy of weed’s active ingredients for medical purposes. Aside from helping veteran, Boehner believes that research into the wacky tobaccy will help veterans and help to stem the tide of the opioid epidemic. And there’s a good chance he’s got the right idea.
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John Boehner
Boehner, as a Republican from Ohio was the House Minority Leader from 2007-2011 after a brief stint as Majority Leader starting in 2006. Then, he moved on to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015 before being succeeded by Paul Ryan.
Boehner grew up playing high school football, and was dishonorably discharged from the US Navy for a bad back after enlisting during the Vietnam War.
Acreage Holdings
As one of the country’s biggest cannabis companies, Acreage Holdings was founded in 2014 to pursue the cultivation, processing and dispensing of weed in America and currently has holdings in 11 states. According to their website:
“Our mission is to become the world’s leading cannabis company, bringing safe, affordable cannabis to everyone who needs it. With that in mind, we’re ready to build on the vertically integrated operations (cultivating, processing and dispensing) we’ve established in 11 states and be part of a transformative market potentially worth $40 billion, but worth so much more to the people who find hope and health through this amazing plant.”
Press Release on Boehner from Acreage
“While the Tenth Amendment has allowed much to occur at the state level, there are still many negative implications of the Federal policy to schedule cannabis as a Class 1 drug: most notably the lack of research, the ambiguity around financial services and the refusal of the VA to offer it as an alternative to the harmful opioids that are ravishing our communities.”
The Tenth Amendment
As mentioned above, states are empowered to make their own laws governing weed.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Class 1 Drug
A class 1 (or schedule 1) drug is defined by the DEA as drugs with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Examples of this class of drug are listed as:
- Heroin
- LSD
- Pot
- Ecstasy
- Peyote
Acreage Holdings wants weed to be removed from this classification because they believe that more scientific testing must be permitted to be carried out to find value. Right now, experimenting on the uses of weed fall to other countries. For example, starting in July, weed will be legal for Canadians to purchase and use recreationally, and it will open up the market there for scientists looking to study the drug. But there is a difference: the Canadian government is admitting that it’s for recreation, not for medicine.
Is Medical Pot All That?
Recently, the Journal of the American Medical Association announced that there is only “moderate-quality evidence” that supports any benefits of medical weed, and only for a limited number of conditions. The report states that most weed studies are of “lesser quality” and are more likely to contain bias.
Welfare and Drug Testing for Work
This week, Donald Trump signed a new executive order asking several departments to return a report in the next 90 days asking for ways that they can address welfare abuse issues and shore up the work requirements for people receiving benefits. With the emergence of medical weed and loosened drug laws, this will likely be addressed when Trump authorizes an update on how welfare and SNAP benefits are allotted.
Last month we reported that with the passing of more laws to legalize weed, some companies have phased out drug testing. But other companies, ones that manufacture products or otherwise need to make sure they have an alert workforce because of the level of danger are having trouble filling thousands of positions because they say the opioid crisis means many applicants are turned down due to painkillers in their system.