Thread: Trump and Sessions are ignoring voters' overwhelming support for medical marijuana

Editorial
Trump and Sessions are ignoring voters' overwhelming support for medical marijuana. Will Congress listen?

The Times Editorial Board

Never mind what President Trump said on the campaign trail. His administration and GOP leaders appear determined to eliminate protections for medical marijuana growers, sellers and users.

Every year since 2014, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) has inserted an amendment into a federal spending bill to prevent the Justice Department from prosecuting medical marijuana businesses that comply with their state’s laws. It’s been a temporary but necessary fix to address a fundamental contradiction: that even though 26 states have legalized medical marijuana, the drug is still prohibited under federal law.

The amendment, most recently co-sponsored by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), has provided some measure of security and stability to responsible medical marijuana suppliers by assuring that they won’t be raided, arrested or prosecuted by federal authorities.

But last week, the House Rules Committee killed the amendment at the urging of Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, a hard-line marijuana prohibitionist.

Decades of experience have shown that the U.S. can’t win a war on marijuana.

Sessions sent a letter to members of Congress in May citing “an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime” and urging them to reject the amendment. He wrote that the Justice Department needs to have free rein to use “all laws available” to enforce the Controlled Substances Act, a woefully out-of-date law that says marijuana is as addictive as heroin and has no medical value.

Of course, that’s baloney. In fact, 46 states have authorized the use of cannabis or cannabis compounds for medical use, including controlling seizures in children. Even Trump, prior to his election, recognized the value of medical marijuana, telling a rally in Nevada, “I know people that are very, very sick and for whatever reason the marijuana really helps them.” Nevertheless, the federal government continues to insist that marijuana products should be illegal even for medicinal use, putting its producers and users at risk of criminal enforcement.

Frankly, the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment should be noncontroversial given the overwhelming public support — in excess of 80%, according to several polls — for medical use.

The Senate approved a comparable amendment in July. But if the two houses can’t agree and the language doesn’t make it into the final bill, the protections for medical marijuana will expire in early December.


This would be a huge step backwards in the movement to liberalize marijuana laws. For years states have taken the lead. Many now allow medical marijuana for patients and some even permit recreational marijuana for adults. One argument is that since marijuana is already so widely used, it would be better for public health and public safety to create a legal, regulated and controlled market. That is why the Times supported Proposition 64 last November, which legalized adult recreational use in California. But even as marijuana laws have changed at the state level, the drug has always remained illegal under federal law, sending a mixed message and causing uncertainty.

Rohrabacher, a conservative Republican who is among the most outspoken advocates for liberalizing drug laws, wants to eliminate at least some of that uncertainty. In addition to his annual amendment, he also introduced the Respect State Marijuana Laws Act of 2017, which would protect individuals from federal prosecution if they are adhering to state cannabis laws, whether for medicinal or recreational use. The bill has a couple of dozen co-sponsors, mostly from the newly formed Cannabis Caucus, a bipartisan group that wants to work on legalization and regulation issues. But the bill still faces a steep climb in Congress.

Congressional leaders cannot continue to bury their heads in the sand. Decades of experience have shown that the U.S. can’t win a war on marijuana. Moreover, waging such a war now would hurt the millions of people who rely on medical cannabis for relief and would overrule the many, many voters who have supported medical and recreational use of marijuana.

It seems inevitable that the federal government will follow the states’ lead sooner or later. Despite Trump’s campaign comments, his administration shows no sign of adopting a more pragmatic approach to marijuana policy. It’s up to Congress to show leadership.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/edito...909-story.html

I support ending the war on drugs, especially on marijuana. I would like to see the feds completely out of the marijuana issue. Would like to see legal US grown marijuana, no foreign imports of marijuana, just home-grown USA made marijuana in states that don't object to it. States could still ban it if they want. Feds would be completely out of it except for stopping foreign marijuana at the borders and ports.

I support Jeff Sessions on this.

I don't know about this. I mean...alcohol is legal...but nobody is drinking a Fifth of vodka for breakfast and going to work. Or doing it at lunch time.

So we legalize pot...the stoners gonna smoke when they wake up...have some at lunch. Who wants stoned pot heads showing up at work?

How do you regulate this? Pee test...it stays in your system.

You give an inch on this then what next? I need some Valium to figure all this out

Employers are free to regulate their employees however they want. If they don't want stoned workers in their business, they can give them a warning, fire them or or do whatever they do with the coke heads who own and run the companies.

People do show up at work inebriated, drink at lunch, etc.

There are also many, many 'functioning addicts' of prescription drugs, just as dangerous.

Many show up now stoned on marijuana and sniff coke in the morning and at lunch.

I don't see how making it a legal substance would change anything - except get the government and criminals out of the business.

As for medical marijuana - it is a crime people do not have access to this affordable alternative to expensive medicine.

The lack of support by the government has little to do with it being a drug, and everything to do with the fact it would cut into the huge profits of pharmaecutical companies, who have hundreds, if not thousands of lobbyists in Washington.

Also, imagine how much they could cut the DEA budget if marijuana was not illegal.

Imagine the empty cells in prisons.

Marijuana is too big a cash cow right now.

nntrixie wrote (excerpt):

The lack of support by the government has little to do with it being a drug, and everything to do with the fact it would cut into the huge profits of pharmaecutical companies, who have hundreds, if not thousands of lobbyists in Washington.

I don't believe pharmaecutical company profits have anything to do with AG Jeff Sessions position on this.

Yeah...sorry, but people do not show up drunk at work, and if they do it would be 1 in 500+. They are not stopping at Starbucks and having a cup of Vodka Cappuccino for breakfast...probably more like hangover from night before.

Legalize pot...yeah...that increases 40% or more because they can get away with it now and smoke on the way...you just empowered them to do it in the open.

Yeah, employers can regulate...they do pot test, they all have it in their system and stays there...sure, you can fire them all there would be no workers!

Believe me employers are having a hell of a time just getting people to show up.

Thank you entitlement society of no responsibility, no morals, no communication skills and do not give a shit society and everybody owes me.

I think we need to start recruiting more seniors and veteran's and stop penalizing them and their SS funds if they work and make more money!

Has everybody really been living under a rock to think this is not a massive problem in the workforce?

And to think these corrupt politicians think they are going to make a bazillion dollars off pot tax...to spend on their pet slush funds and then stick it to the tax payers to pay for the unintended consequences of homeless, crime, defecation, theft, violence, police, jail, ER and drug addicts costs is a scum bag. Ask Colorado how that is working out...not so much.

If they get any pot tax then 80% should automatically go into Drug Rehab, ER, Narcon, jails and crime caused by this.

Bada bing...bada bang!

An estimated 2.6 million people are hooked on prescription opioid painkillers like oxycodone and hydrocodone, or on heroin and fentanyl, an extremely potent synthetic opioid.


America’s drug problem now 10 times worse than in 1971 — the year it declared a war on drugs

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/hea...17b0a6fbc0dd37

The War on Drugs is a complete failure. It needs to end starting with ending it on weed. That's 70% of the illegal foreign controlled drub business. End that, let Americans take over their own pot business, run it safe and right with some reasonable regulations, and stop worrying about it.