Pot Reform Bill Introduced in US Senate
Two multiple sclerosis patients, a
4-year-old who had a seizure in front of reporters, a depression-plagued Navy
veteran and three fired-up senators kicked off a major effort to reform U.S.
marijuana laws at a Capitol Hill press conference Tuesday.
The senators -- Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky.,
Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Corey Booker, D-N.J. -- are proposing
legislation that would legalize state medical marijuana programs under federal
law and reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug under the Controlled
Substances Act.
The legislation would allow for greater
research into the medicinal value of the drug, with the lower schedule opening
the door to eventual health insurance-covered pot at conventional pharmacies
around the country.
Possession of marijuana for any reason outside limited
research currently is a federal crime, even though four states have
voter-approved laws allowing recreational use of the drug and nearly two dozen
allow use of marijuana as medicine.
The Department of Justice generally
turns a blind eye to patients in the 23 states whose laws allow doctors to
“recommend” and dispensaries to sell the drug to patients, but federal
prosecutions do still happen.
A dozen other states allow use of
cannbidiol, a compound used to treat some seizures, and others such as Virginia
have decades-old laws that allow doctors to prescribe marijuana, which is
currently impossible because it’s a Schedule I drug, meaning federal
authorities must deem it to have no accepted medical value.
The new bill -- the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect
States Act -- would allow doctors affiliated with the Veterans Health
Administration to recommend the drug to patients and explicitly allow medical
marijuana businesses access to the banking system.
It’s unclear how the bill will
fare, but momentum is on the side of reformers.
Congress voted last year to ban federal prosecutors and the Drug
Enforcement Administration from spending fiscal year 2015 funds to go after
state medical marijuana laws, but that vote did not change the underlying law.
Legal access to medical marijuana is
overwhelmingly supported by Americans, according to polls, but opponents remain
influential in both major parties. Politicians who oppose legal access to
medical marijuana include hard-line anti-legalization Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md.,
and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., leader of the Democratic National
Committee, that party’s central organization.
Rank-and-file members of Congress appear
more in line with the public on medical pot, with most Democrats and many
Republicans in the House voting last year to protect state medical marijuana
programs. Some of those in the minority on that 219-189 vote, such as
conservative Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., said the measure didn’t go far enough
and they would prefer to change the actual law.
Last year’s medical marijuana measure did not come up
for a vote in the Senate and was rolled into a large spending deal signed into
law in December.
The tone of the senators Tuesday
may hint at the seriousness of the new legislative push.
“Today we join together to say enough is enough,” Booker told a packed
room. “Our federal government has long overstepped the boundaries of common
sense, fiscal prudence and compassion with its marijuana laws. These laws must
change.”
The senators each personalized the issue
by introducing patients. Paul introduced the father of a staff member, who
treated spasms and pain from MS with pot while living in Arizona, before he
moved to Virginia, where he cannot legally acquire the drug.
“I dare any senator to meet with
the patients here and say to them they don’t deserve the medicine their doctors
prescribe,” a fervent Gillibrand said, describing opposition to medical
marijuana as “clearly a case of ideology getting in the way of scientific
progress.”
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/03/10/major-pot-reform-bill-introduced-in-senate
