Pubdate: Wed, 11 Mar 2015
Source: Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
Copyright: 2015 The Spokesman-Review
Contact:  http://www.spokesman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/417
Author: Evan Halper, Tribune News Service

MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION GETS A BOOST ON CAPITOL HILL

WASHINGTON - Marijuana legalization got a boost Tuesday on Capitol 
Hill as a trio of rising stars in the Senate launched an effort to 
rewrite federal drug laws.

The push to decriminalize at least the medical use of marijuana came 
from Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Democratic Sens. Cory 
Booker of New Jersey and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

Their move comes as another sign of how rapidly the politics of 
marijuana are shifting on Capitol Hill. Long an issue avoided by 
lawmakers with big political ambitions, marijuana legalization now 
presents opportunities to make inroads with new voters.

More than half of the American electorate now lives in places where 
medical marijuana is legal, and millions of those voters are in 
states where recreational use is also permitted.

Under the proposal by the three senators, the federal prohibition on 
medical marijuana would be lifted. States that allow it would no 
longer be operating in defiance of federal law.

"We as a society are changing our opinions on restricting people's 
choices as far as medical treatments," Paul said. "We don't want 
doctors to be punished for simply trying to help people."

Though the Obama administration has ordered federal agencies to stop 
raiding legitimate medical cannabis enterprises  and Congress last 
year cut off funds for any such busts  federal law continues to 
inhibit the medical marijuana industry.

The senators' legislation aims to end the uncertainty around 
marijuana law, enabling legitimate pot businesses to access loans 
from banks, researchers to explore cannabis as a pharmaceutical and 
physicians to use the drug as part of their treatment regimen.

"My guess is even more tax money will be paid if (marijuana 
businesses) are allowed to put money in banks and not brown bags," Paul said.

The proposal embraces policy ideas from advocacy groups that have 
long been on the sidelines of Congress, including the Drug Policy 
Alliance and the Marijuana Policy Project.

A linchpin of the plan is reclassification of marijuana, which the 
federal government currently places in the most dangerous category of 
narcotics, treating it as more harmful than cocaine. Pot would be 
moved into a less restrictive category, creating a pathway for 
medical research that has long been obstructed by the war on drugs.

"This bill we are introducing seeks to right decades of wrong and end 
unnecessary marijuana laws," Booker said. "Our federal government has 
long overstepped the boundaries of common sense, fiscal prudence and 
compassion with its marijuana laws. These laws must change."

Despite the shifts in many states, the measure could still prove a 
tough sell in Congress, which has been slow to embrace state 
legalization laws. The federal budget bill approved late last year, 
for example, sought to block Washington, D.C., from going forward 
with a voter-approved measure legalizing recreational pot. City 
leaders have ignored the directive and moved forward with legalization.

Opponents of legalization warned that the new proposal goes too far.

"This bill is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut," said Kevin 
Sabet, president of the advocacy group Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

"Yes, we should work with scientists to incentivize research to help 
groups like cancer patients, but we should not open the floodgates to 
Big Marijuana so that businesses can sell pot for profit to people 
with a headache," he said.

The senators pushing the measure vowed they would aggressively lobby 
their colleagues.

"It is outrageous that any parent should be worried about social 
services knocking on their door because they are giving their 
children the medicine the doctor says they need," Gillibrand said, 
while standing alongside families who rely on marijuana to treat 
debilitating child illnesses.

"I dare any senator to meet these patients here and say they don't 
deserve the medicine their doctors prescribed."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom