Following up on Attorney General Sessions sending a letter to Congressional leaders about his wanting to remove protection for states with legal medical cannabis programs, the Washington Post has looked further into the matter with coverage extending and deepening our original take:
I.e., that while this remains a matter of great long-term concern, the original story was not a new proposal by the AG, rather the release of a May 1st letter, and that the named Congressional leaders haven’t yet (as far as we know) spoken on the record about his opinion. The article adds that the sponsors of the existing law have reacted strongly against his position and provides a good deal of further context:
“Sessions’s citing of a ‘historic drug epidemic’ to justify a crackdown on medical marijuana is at odds with what researchers know about current drug use and abuse. The epidemic Sessions refers to involves deadly opiate drugs, not marijuana. A growing body of research (acknowledged by the National Institute on Drug Abuse) has shown that opiate deaths and overdoses actually decrease in states with medical marijuana laws on the books.
That research strongly suggests that cracking down on medical marijuana laws, as Sessions requested, could perversely make the opiate epidemic even worse.
In an email, John Hudak of the Brookings Institution characterized the letter’s arguments as a ‘scare tactic’ that ‘could appeal to rank-and-file members or to committee chairs in Congress in ways that could threaten the future of this Amendment’.
The Rohrabacher-Farr amendment has significant bipartisan support in Congress. Medical marijuana is incredibly popular with voters overall. A Quinnipiac poll conducted in April found it was supported by 94 percent of the public. Nearly three-quarters of voters said they disapprove of the government enforcing federal marijuana laws in states that have legalized it either medically or recreationally.”
Meanwhile, the President’s current position on the matter remains unclear.
Highly recommended reading!
#MMJ #USpol #UTpol #GetSerious #TRUCE
http://ift.tt/2tiSROd”
See full article – Jeff Sessions personally asked Congress to let him prosecute medical marijuana providers
