Pubdate: Wed, 11 Mar 2015
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2015 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298

A SENSIBLE BILL ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Three senators, two Democrats and a Republican, introduced a bill on 
Tuesday that would allow patients to use marijuana for medical 
purposes in states where it is legal, without fear of federal 
prosecution for violating narcotics laws.

The bill makes a number of important changes to federal marijuana 
policies - and it deserves to be passed by Congress and enacted into 
law. Though this legislation would not repeal the broad and 
destructive federal ban on marijuana, it is a big step in the right direction.

The most important change would reclassify marijuana from a Schedule 
I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, which is intended for 
drugs, like heroin, that have no accepted medical use in the United 
States, and place it instead in Schedule II, the classification for 
drugs that have a legitimate medical use but also have a "high 
potential for abuse."

The Schedule I classification made no sense because there is a 
medical consensus that patients with AIDS, cancer, epilepsy and 
serious degenerative conditions can benefit from marijuana. And 
millions of patients have used marijuana to relieve pain, nausea, 
appetite loss, insomnia and seizures associated with various illnesses.

The bill, sponsored by Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kirsten 
Gillibrand of New York, both Democrats, and Rand Paul, a Republican 
of Kentucky, would not legalize medical marijuana in all 50 states. 
But it would amend federal law to allow states to set their own 
medical marijuana policies and prevent federal law enforcement 
agencies from prosecuting patients, doctors and caregivers in those 
states. Currently 35 states and the District of Columbia permit some 
form of medical marijuana use. States would remain free to ban 
medical marijuana if they wished.

Other important provisions would allow banks and credit unions to 
provide financial services to marijuana-related businesses that 
operate in accord with state law and protect them from federal 
prosecution or investigation. That is a crucial improvement over the 
current situation where marijuana business that is legal under state 
law is conducted in cash because financial institutions fear to step in.

The bill would also allow doctors in the Department of Veterans 
Affairs to prescribe medical marijuana to veterans, which they are 
currently prohibited from doing. And it would ease the overly strict 
procedures for obtaining marijuana for medical research and require 
the Food and Drug Administration to more readily allow the 
manufacture of marijuana for research.

An encouraging development last year may bode well for enactment of 
the legislation this year. A surprisingly strong bipartisan majority 
in the House voted for a one-year provision barring the Justice 
Department from using its funds to prevent states from carrying out 
their own laws authorizing the use, distribution, possession or 
cultivation of medical marijuana.

The provision was approved by a vote of 219 to 189, with 49 
Republicans and 170 Democrats voting in favor. The Senate adopted the 
same provision and President Obama signed it into law.

Polls show a majority of Americans in favor of legalization of 
medical marijuana. It is long past time for Congress to recognize the 
need to change course.

Correction: March 11, 2015

An earlier version of this editorial misstated the day that a bill to 
allow patients to use marijuana for medical purposes was introduced. 
It was on Tuesday, not Monday.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom