Politics
GOP Congressional Leader Is ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ Trump Will Reschedule Marijuana—Which He Says Is ‘An Alternative To Highly Addictive Opioids’
A GOP congressional leader says he’s “cautiously optimistic” that President Donald Trump will move forward with marijuana rescheduling, arguing that it aligns with the administration’s “America first” agenda and states’ rights principles touted by Republicans.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA), the House chief deputy whip, also talked about his support for medical marijuana, which he said “serves as an alternative to highly addictive opioids,” including for military veterans who return home with severe pain or other health conditions.
The congressman made the remarks on Sunday at IgniteIt’s Cannabis Capital & Policy Summit, where Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) was also a featured speaker.
Cresco Labs CEO Charlie Bachtel, who led the conversation with Reschenthaler, asked to get the lawmaker’s take on the prospects of federally rescheduling cannabis under the Trump administration. The president endorsed the reform on the campaign trail and said in mid-August that he’d make a decision within weeks, but that hasn’t materialized yet.
“We know the president is interested. He’s made some comments, and if you look at the president’s track record, he has a habit taking what seems like very complex issues—controversial issues—distilling it, getting behind it and then moving forward,” Reschenthaler said, pointing to Trump’s role in relocating the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“When it comes to rescheduling, I think I’m cautiously optimistic with the administration, and as soon as he gets behind it and does it, I think everything’s going to fall into place,” he said. “Ultimately the DEA has the statutory authority to do it, and again I feel cautiously optimistic we’re going to see something on that.”
Part of that optimism comes from the fact that “parties are shifting just in general” on the issue, with more GOP buy-in for reform, the congressman said.
“I mean, the bases are so different than what they were 10 years ago—so just a totally different political landscape. But there’s a lot of reasons why it’s become an issue on the right,” he said. “I think if we look at what happened to global war on terror, a lot of people coming coming back [are] being helped by medical cannabis and other forms of treatment.”
That includes Reschenthaler’s colleague, Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX), who’s been candid about his experience receiving psychedelic therapy that helped him recover from serious brain injuries he incurred in combat as a Navy SEAL.
The point of providing access to medical cannabis is “making sure that veterans get care,” Reschenthaler said. “You also then have the opioid epidemic, where we have an alternative that is not physically addictive [like] opioids.”
“Then you have just the states’ rights position of the Republican party, where it should be up to the states to decide, so I hear a lot of congressmen who may not be supportive of [marijuana reform], but they think that this is really a state issue. The federal government shouldn’t be involved.”
He said that’s why Congress should move forward and advance incremental policy changes, including a bipartisan bill he’s previously sponsored to let U.S. cannabis businesses get listed on stock exchanges at a time when Canadian companies are already able to be listed.
“It’s technically offensive that you can have Canadian companies that are involved in the same exact business activities as American companies that are traded on our stock exchanges,” Reschenthaler said.
Another measure he said is ripe for passage is one that would provide cannabis businesses access to the banking system and other basic financial services. The congressman said, “If you’re engaged in lawful activity, you should be able to have the same access to capital and the same access to banks as of any other business.”
“For all those reasons, I’m feeling we’re turning the corner—and I think it’s very important that you just keep the [issue] bipartisan,” he said, as first noted by Ignite It.
The conversation touched on a variety of marijuana policy topics, and Reschenthaler repeatedly noted his support for providing access to medical cannabis for people with certain health conditions.
“The more we can say, when it comes to medical cannabis, that there’s an alternative to highly addictive opioids, I think that’s going to help too,” he said. “And I think one of the pathways through the veteran community.”
Commenting on the omission of provisions to expand that marijuana access for veterans in a spending bill Trump signed this month, Reschenthaler said he’s “not happy that that fell out of the discussion.”
“We were looking at the [continuing resolution] moving that forward,” he said, adding that there’s “a lot of sausage-making” and, while it may be too late to put the medical cannabis language into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this year, “I think that there’s a way forward.”
“It’s already been moving and very close to being finished, but we might be able to do it on an appropriations bill. That might be possible. We might be able to take another bite in a minibus appropriations package as well moving forward,” the congressman said. “So there’s other ways we can do this.”
He also advised cannabis proponents to try and convince the House Freedom Caucus to get on board with reform—without mentioning the fact that one of the chamber’s most anti-marijuana lawmakers, Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), chairs that caucus.
Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
