Pubdate: Sun, 09 Aug 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

STATES MOVE AHEAD ON MARIJUANA

Even as support for ending marijuana prohibition is building around 
the country, Congress and the Obama administration remain far too 
timid about the need for change.

Last year, residents in Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia 
voted to join Colorado and Washington State in making recreational 
use of marijuana legal. Later this year, residents of Ohio are 
expected to vote on a ballot measure that would legalize it. Nevadans 
will vote on a legalization proposal next year. And Californians 
could vote on several similar measures next year.

Instead of standing by as change sweeps the country, federal 
lawmakers should be more actively debating and changing the nation's 
absurd marijuana policies, policies that have ruined millions of 
lives and wasted billions of dollars. Their inaction is putting 
businesses and individuals in states that have legalized medical and 
recreational marijuana in dubious legal territory - doing something 
that is legal in their state but is considered a federal crime. Many 
growers, retailers and dispensaries also have to operate using only 
cash because many banks will not serve them, citing the federal 
prohibition. Recently, the Federal Reserve denied a master account to 
a credit union in Colorado seeking to provide financial services to 
marijuana businesses.

Lawmakers who hope their colleagues in Congress will act face an 
uphill struggle. For example, a bill introduced in the Senate by Cory 
Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrats of New Jersey and New York, 
respectively, and Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, would allow 
states to legalize marijuana for medical use. It would also allow 
banks and credit unions to provide financial services to 
cannabis-based businesses in states that have legalized the drug. The 
bill has 16 sponsors, including two Republicans, but the Judiciary 
Committee, which is chaired by Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, 
has not scheduled it for a hearing or a vote. An identical bill in 
the House with 17 sponsors, eight of them Republican, is also 
languishing in committee.

Congress has taken a few positive steps, like approving a provision 
that would prevent the Justice Department from using federal funds to 
keep states from carrying out their own medical marijuana laws. And 
some senior Republicans, including Mr. Grassley and Senator Orrin 
Hatch of Utah, have expressed support for the medical use of a 
compound known as cannabidiol, which is found in the cannabis plant 
but is not psychoactive. The Obama administration recently made it 
easier for scientists to study marijuana by removing a requirement 
that studies not funded by the federal government go through an 
additional review process, beyond what is required for researchers 
working with other drugs.

But both Congress and the White House should be doing more. 
Specifically, marijuana should be removed from the Controlled 
Substances Act, where it is classified as a Schedule I drug like 
heroin and LSD, and considered to have no medical value. Removing 
marijuana from the act would not make it legal everywhere, but it 
would make it easier for states to decide how they want to regulate it.

Even as Washington demurs, efforts to legalize marijuana continue in 
the states. In California, several activist groups are trying to get 
legalization measures on the 2016 ballot. The state was the first in 
the country to legalize medical marijuana, in 1996, and a majority of 
residents favor legalizing recreational marijuana, according to a 
recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.

State legalization efforts are not uniformly well thought out, which 
is another reason for Congress and the president to act. For example, 
activists in Ohio are trying to legalize marijuana with a 
constitutional amendment that would allow commercial cultivation of 
the plant on just 10 dedicated sites listed in the measure. This 
would grant a lucrative monopoly to a few businesses. Ohio officials 
will soon decide whether organizers have collected enough signatures 
to put the proposal on the ballot.

Direct democracy can sometimes produce good results. But it would be 
far better for Congress and the president to repeal failed laws and 
enact sensible drug policies.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom