Politics
Sessions Admits There ‘May Well Be Some Benefits From Medical Marijuana’
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions acknowledged before a key Senate panel on Wednesday that “there may well be some benefits from medical marijuana” and that it is “perfectly appropriate to study” cannabis.
But Sessions was also quick to dismiss a mounting body of evidence that legal marijuana access is associated with reduced opioid issues.
Acknowledging that he has seen some research indicating lower overdose deaths in states that allow cannabis in some form and that “science is very important,” the attorney general said he doesn’t “believe that will be sustained in the long run.”
Sessions also indicated that the federal government would soon take steps to license more entities to legally grow marijuana for research.
“We are moving forward and we will add fairly soon, I believe, the paperwork and reviews will be completed and we will add additional suppliers of marijuana under the controlled circumstances,” he said during an appearance before the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee.
In 2016, the Drug Enforcement Administration enacted a new policy intended to license more research cultivators, and he agency has reportedly since received at least 25 applications to participate in the new program. But it has not yet acted on any of them and, according to the Washington Post, that is because top Justice Department officials have stepped in to prevent DEA from approving any proposals.
In his answers, Sessions indicated that he thought opening up research could put the U.S. at risk of violating international drug treaties.
The “treaty requires certain controls in that process,” he said, adding that in his view, the “previous proposal violated that treaty.”
Sessions was responding to a line of questioning from U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), who said that “we’re all evolving on this issue, some quicker than others.”
There are “good civil rights reasons for decriminalizing and pursing a federalist approach around this,” the senator added.
Sessions did not offer a specific timeline for releasing a revised research cultivation approval process.
And despite acknowledging cannabis’s medical potential, he said he takes issue with the way it is currently consumed.
“Medical marijuana, as one physician told me, ‘whoever heard of taking a medicine when you have no idea how much medicine you’re taking and ingesting it in the fashion that it is, which is in itself unhealthy?'” Sessions said.
Advocates welcomed Session’s admission that marijuana can help patients, but said that the Justice Department needed to act on allowing research as well as make broader policy changes sooner rather than later.
“Over two million registered medical marijuana patients throughout the legal markets can attest to the attorney general’s newfound revelation,” NORML Political Director Justin Strekal told Marijuana Moment in an interview. “What we need is better research on consumer grade marijuana and lawful protections for legal markets, not further deliberation from the DoJ.”
Later in the Senate hearing, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) cited a resolution approved by Alaska state lawmakers urging the federal government to respect local marijuana laws. She also attempted to elicit a commitment from the attorney general not to oppose congressional efforts to reform federal cannabis laws.
“I can’t make a commitment about what position we would take at this time, until we know what’s exactly involved,” he replied.
Sessions said, however, that “our priorities are fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine. People are dying by massive amounts as a result of those drugs. We have very few, almost zero, virtually zero small marijuana cases. But if they are a big deal and illegally acting, and violating federal law, our agents may work that case.”
In a CJS Approps Subcmte hearing I raised the conflicts between state & federal marijuana law, asking AG Jeff Sessions for assurances that the Department of Justice will act as an ally, rather than an obstacle, in considering future legislation respecting states’ rights. pic.twitter.com/UvFiTaW2Sg
— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) April 25, 2018
Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore.
The lead Republican sponsor of a congressional bill to expand marijuana banking services said on Tuesday that lawmakers are “close” to advancing the reform measure.
Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) said that passing the Secure And Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act and allowing cannabis businesses to access financial services would improve overall industry transparency in California, Colorado and other legal cannabis states.
The measure made history this past September when it became the first standalone cannabis reform bill ever to be approved by the House, passing along largely bipartisan lines. But it’s been stalled in the Senate, where Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) has held it up and recommended changes that industry stakeholders view as untenable.
Even so, Gardner said lawmakers are “close to finding common ground to getting everyone signed off to move this forward.”
“We need to get this all-cash economy into the disinfectant of sunlight, out of the shadows and get some transparency so we can put it into our financial system,” the senator said during a speech at the Credit Union National Association’s (CUNA) annual governance meeting in Washington, D.C. “It’s a challenge we have to rise to meet. We can’t ignore it.”
“It’s a challenge we have to rise to meet. We can’t ignore it.” @SenCoryGardner on legalizing cannabis banking. #CUNAGAC #SAFEBankingAct pic.twitter.com/MAWVD0xNu6
— CUNA (@CUNA) February 25, 2020
Gardner’s proposed bill would protect federally regulated financial institutions from being punished for working with state-legal cannabis businesses. Current law forces many marijuana companies to operate in cash because most banks won’t let them open accounts, making them targets for robberies.
.@SenCoryGardner stopped by #CUNAGAC to talk about the importance of the #SAFEBankingAct. Check out his remarks: pic.twitter.com/r1FQL8bLyZ
— CUNA (@CUNA) February 25, 2020
The senator said “sensible regulations for the financial services industry only work if we allow the financial services industry to touch the money in the first place” and that’s “why I believe we need the SAFE Banking Act—to bring the nearly $2 billion of cash from Colorado’s state-legal cannabis industry into the financial system.”
“Every day that Congress continues to ignore reality, unintended consequences pile up for legitimate businesses,” he said. “I sincerely appreciate CUNA’s support for the SAFE Banking Act and their work to pass this commonsense, states-rights approach to the legal cannabis question.”
Earlier this month, 12 Republican members of the House who voted against the bill in that chamber wrote to Crapo, thanking him for proposing a series of restrictive changes to the bill. The letter claims that even relatively low levels of THC can cause “IQ loss, increased risk of serious mental illness, and addiction.”
“We thank you again for your examination and consideration of these important public health topics,” the group wrote. “We remain opposed to liberalizing drug laws (including around banking), and we see these as some of our areas of greatest concern. We must protect our youth by preventing investment into companies that would prey upon them.”
Meanwhile a group of more than 1,300 cannabis industry representatives wrote to Crapo urging him to pass the legislation as written.
Gardner said that he, Crapo and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) have “made great progress on the details of the SAFE Banking Act.”
“We are working through some of the objectives Sen. Crapo has in terms of safety, research, and guidance. We’re doing it in a way that respects state’s rights, that respects the voters of the states, that moves forward on this,” he said. “I believe that in a matter of months we can have a vote on a compromise version in the Senate that will have the support of 60-plus of my colleagues and of the House of Representatives.”
Last week, the American Bar Association (ABA) endorsed the expansion of banking services to the cannabis industry, passing a resolution that “urges Congress to enact legislation to clarify and ensure that it shall not constitute a federal crime for banking and financial institutions to provide services to businesses and individuals, including attorneys, who receive compensation from the sale of state-legalized cannabis or who provide services to cannabis-related legitimate business acting in accordance with state, territorial, and tribal laws.”
Gardner has emerged among Senate Republicans as a leading voice of cannabis reform. In April 2019, he and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) teamed up to file a landmark bill to exempt legal marijuana states from federal interference. He noted at the time that “95 percent of Americans are living in states with laws allowing some form of cannabis.”
Twelve GOP Lawmakers Thank Senate Chairman For Delaying Marijuana Banking Bill
A Republican senator and representatives of a veterans advocacy group discussed the need for alternative treatment options such as medical marijuana at a hearing on Tuesday.
At the joint meeting of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) said he wanted to raise an issue that “a lot of us have been focused on—exploring alternatives to treatment to opioids, whether that’s medical marijuana or other alternative treatments.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) currently blocks its doctors from recommending medical cannabis to their patients, and it has been reluctant to engage in research on marijuana’s potential therapeutic benefits.
Sullivan asked members of the nonprofit Disabled American Veterans (DAV) whether they “have any views on that right now.”
Joy Ilem, DAV’s national legislative director, said that the organization wants “to make sure that veterans have a range of options to choose from, and the VA’s whole health model and their complementary and alternative options are very welcome, especially [as] we hear so much from a younger generation.”
“At the same time, we want to make sure, like medical marijuana, we do have a resolution that indicates we want the research to be done,” she said. “VA should do it. We want to make sure, like any medication or drug, that that research is done and that it would be an effective alternative for veterans dealing with pain.”
DAV also noted its support for “VA research into the efficacy of cannabis for treatment of service-connected veterans” in written testimony.
Sullivan thanked the witnesses and invited them to look at a bipartisan cannabis research bill he introduced that would require VA to to conduct clinical trials on the effectiveness of medical marijuana in the treatment of conditions that commonly afflict military veterans.
Another bipartisan bill in the House that’s designed to promote research into cannabis for veterans has 104 cosponsors, with sponsors recently circulating a letter asking colleagues to join them in support of the legislation.
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Marijuana legalization is “on track” in Mexico, a top senator said on Monday, announcing that several committees are convening to tackle the issue this week.
Sen. Ricardo Monreal of the ruling MORENA party said that four panels have started the process of reviewing comprehensive legislation that deals with medical, recreational and industrial cannabis reform. The committees are set to meet to go over the draft bill on Wednesday.
“There is no limit on the content,” he said, referring to the scope of the legislation, according to a translation. “I think it is worth taking advantage of the political moment to be able to legislate broadly on this cannabis issue.”
Monreal said he has “confidence” that the Justice, Health, Legislative Studies and Public Safety Committees will reach a consensus on the bill.
He also told reporters that he’s spoken to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and that he “expressed his respect” for the legislative process and has “no problem with the Senate carrying out a comprehensive legislative exercise” on cannabis issues.
While Sen. Julio Menchaca, chairman of the Justice Committee, predicted earlier this month that the full Senate would vote on the legalization proposal by the end of February, it does not appear that the chamber will meet that tight deadline. Monreal previously said that lawmakers are positioned to advance it prior to an April deadline imposed by the nation’s Supreme Court, however.
The court, which ruled in 2018 that the country’s ban on marijuana possession and cultivation for personal use was unconstitutional, initially gave Congress a deadline of October 2019 to enact reform. Legislators came close to voting on a committee-approved bill last year, but they ultimately requested a deadline extension that the court granted.
While the court only mandated that legislators remove the prohibition on personal possession and cultivation from the lawbooks, leading officials have expressed a desire add a legal sales component as well.
“I would like broad, unbounded legislation because if we were strict, it would be enough for us to reform the three articles that the Court has declared unconstitutional,” Monreal said. “But I want to go further.”
The senator wants lawmakers to tackle “all items, recreational, medicinal, recreational, sale, cultivation, commercialization, industrialization, everything,” he said.
The legislation as currently drafted would allow adults to possess up to 28 grams of cannabis for personal use and cultivate up to four plants. Individuals could apply for a license to possess more than 28 grams but no more than 200 grams.
A regulatory body called the Mexican Cannabis Institute would be responsible for issuing business licenses and developing rules for the market. The bill also contains provisions to promote social equity, such as prioritizing cultivation licenses for individuals from communities most impacted by the drug war.
That said, reform advocates are hoping to see a greater emphasis on social equity and are imploring senators to make a series of changes before it goes to a vote.
Zara Snapp, a legalization activist with the Instituto RIA and the coalition #RegulacionPorLaPaz, told Marijuana Moment that the number of plants allowed to be cultivated for personal use should be increased, possession-related penalties should be lifted, farmers should be able to access seeds already in Mexico rather than import them and the percentage of cultivation licenses issued to communities most impacted by the drug war should be increased from 40 to 80 percent.
“As civil society, we celebrate that they’re moving ahead with this agenda and that this continues to be a priority of the Senate and of the government,” Snapp said. “However, we see that there are still many problems around guaranteeing the rights of people who consume cannabis and also guaranteeing the rights of communities that cultivate cannabis currently so that they can participate in a commercial market.”
“This is about ensuring and guaranteeing rights that have already been recognized by the Supreme Court as well as ensuring access and creating a market that will really privilege Mexico and cultivating communities,” she said. “Those are our goals.”
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