Contact: Darby Beck For Immediate Release:
darby.beck@leap.cc March 10, 2015
415.823.5496
COMPREHENSIVE MEDICAL
MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION BILL INTRODUCED TO CONGRESS
Senators Rand Paul
(R-KY), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) Introduce Bipartisan CARERS
Act
Today, a comprehensive
bipartisan medical marijuana legalization bill was introduced to Congress that
would prevent federal law enforcement agencies from interfering in state medical
marijuana laws. The Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect
States (CARERS) Act would recognize marijuana’s medical validity by
rescheduling it from Schedule I (no accepted medical use and high potential for
abuse) into Schedule II (some medical value and high potential for abuse). This
would allow banks greater freedom to provide financial services to state-legal
medical dispensaries, improve transportability of the drug, and open doors for
scientific research. Currently, medical marijuana patients, dispensary owners
and cultivators are still in violation of federal law, and could be subject to
federal prosecution. This has remained an obstacle for many other states that
would otherwise be considering similar policies.
“Whether patients have
safe access to medicine is a public health issue, not a criminal justice one,”
said Maj. Neill Franklin (Ret.), executive director of Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition,
a law enforcement group opposed to the war on drugs. “If this bill passes many
patients who could benefit from medical marijuana will no longer have to forego
treatment for fear of arrest, be considered criminals for obtaining necessary
medication, or put themselves in danger by accessing a dangerous unregulated
market. We would never put underground drug dealers in charge of selling
chemotherapy drugs or antidepressants, and we shouldn’t be putting them in
control of marijuana either.”
If passed, the CARERS
Act would adjust banking regulations so that financial institutions could provide
banking services to marijuana businesses operating in accordance with state law.
This has been a major obstacle, forcing dispensaries to operate as cash-only
businesses, creating serious logistical problems and opening them up to all
sorts of security concerns.
The bill would also remove
a requirement that the Department of Health and Human Services do a public health
service review before approving studies and end the National Institute on Drug
Abuse’s current monopoly on marijuana research by allowing for at least three
more research licenses to be granted. Overwhelming anecdotal evidence - and
what little domestic research that has been approved - clearly support the
medical efficacy of marijuana, but because research is rarely permitted for
Schedule I substances, the scientific community has been unable to fully and
accurately assess its effectiveness for specific conditions in controlled
settings. If passed, the bill would also permit VA doctors to recommend
marijuana to their patients who often suffer from combat related depression and
post-traumatic stress disorder. The State of Colorado recently awarded $2
million dollars to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
for research into the effects of marijuana use on veterans with PTSD.
Finally, it would allow
states to import CBD products, which contain a powerful compound found in marijuana
that reduces the incidence and severity of seizures in epileptic patients.
Twelve states currently have laws allowing for some form of access to CBD,
though these laws are not generally considered full “medical marijuana laws” because
CBD as an extracted substance has fewer applications than medications using the
whole plant. They remain attractive to some policymakers, however, because they
exclude THC, a psychoactive but medically useful cannabinoid.
Last year, President
Obama signed into law the federal “Cromnibus” spending bill, which includes a
provision that prevents the Department of Justice from using its money to create barriers for medical marijuana laws and legally operating dispensaries
in those states where it is legal. In addition to the dozen states that allow
CBD use, twenty three states and the District of Columbia allow some degree of
medical marijuana access, and many more state legislatures are considering such
measures as well.
Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition is committed to ending
decades of failed policy that have fueled dangerous underground markets and
gang violence, fostered corruption and racism, and largely ignored the public
health crisis of addiction, all while spending more than a trillion dollars diverting
the penal system's attention away from more important violent crimes.
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