In what was certainly an unexpected move, U.S.\u00a0Attorney General Jeff Sessions stated before a Senate panel on April 25 that \u201cthere may well be some benefits from medical marijuana,\u201d and added that it is \u201cperfectly appropriate to study\u201d cannabis.<\/p>\n
The proverbial bombshell came in testimony before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies,\u00a0one of 12 subcommittees of the Senate Committee on Appropriations. The\u00a0hearing<\/a>\u00a0was called to review spending requests for the Justice Department. Sessions\u2019 uncharacteristic comment was initially reported by\u00a0Tom Angell of the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group\u00a0Marijuana Majority<\/a>\u00a0on his\u00a0Marijuana Moment<\/a>\u00a0blog.<\/p>\n Sessions prefaced his acknowledgement of medical potential with a dismissal of smoking herbaceous cannabis (at least) for medical purposes: \u201cMedical marijuana, as one physician told me, \u2018whoever heard of taking a medicine when you have no idea how much medicine you\u2019re taking and ingesting it in the fashion that it is, which is in itself unhealthy?’\u201d<\/p>\n Sessions was responding to questioning by Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, who noted\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0indicating a reduction prescription drug use \u2014 and\u00a0in fatal opioid overdoses<\/a> \u2014 in states that have legalized medical marijuana. Sessions was also dismissive of this idea. He called for more study of this trend, conceding that \u201cscience is very important,\u201d but quickly added, \u201cI don\u2019t believe that [trend] will be sustained in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeff Sessions is still skeptical of medical marijuana and of studies that show a negative correlation between medical marijuana availability and an opioid overdose. pic.twitter.com\/27ItC1K9Dv<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 HuffPost Politics (@HuffPostPol) April 25, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n When pressed by Schatz about DEA approval of applications from universities and companies for cannabis research, Sessions\u00a0responded: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n And as the Washington Times\u00a0noted<\/a>, Sessions punted when he was queried by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, about whether he would continue to honor Obama-era Justice Department memos<\/a> calling for a hands-off policy on medical marijuana in states where it is legal. Sessions basically passed the buck back to Congress and challenged them to change the law, saying, \u201cThe federal government has passed some laws on marijuana that I\u2019m not able to remove from the books. Congress \u2014 you \u2014 have passed them. They are on the books.\u201d<\/p>\n Pressed for clarification on whether his Justice Department would prioritize cannabis enforcement in medical-marijuana states, he continued to equivocate.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cOur priorities are fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine,\u201d Sessions said. \u201cPeople are dying by massive amounts as a result of those drugs. We have very few \u2014 almost zero, virtually zero \u2014 small marijuana cases. But if they are a big deal and illegally acting and violating federal law, our agents may work that case.\u201d<\/p>\n So Sessions\u2019 seeming bombshell may ultimately prove something of a dud. As Marijuana Moment noted in its report, in 2016 the Drug Enforcement Administration enacted a\u00a0new policy<\/a>\u00a0intended to license more research cultivators, and the DEA has\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0since received at least 25 applications to participate in the expanded program. But it has not acted on any of them \u2014 apparently because of\u00a0interference from the Justice Department<\/a>.<\/p>\n Still, Sessions\u2019 comments may prove useful in pressing the Department of Justice on the issue.\u00a0NORML political director Justin Strekal told Marijuana Moment:\u00a0\u201cOver two million registered medical marijuana patients throughout the legal markets can attest to the attorney general\u2019s newfound revelation. What we need is better research on consumer grade marijuana and lawful protections for legal markets, not further deliberation from the DoJ.\u201d<\/p>\n And such pressure may be coming from Congress. A bipartisan group of House lawmakers this week introduced legislation to expand medical marijuana research,\u00a0The Hill reports<\/a>. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, would require the attorney general to annually assess whether there\u2019s an adequate supply of research-grade cannabis for universities and other institutions to study its medical uses. Gaetz said that 25 House members have signed on to the bill.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the reasons I\u2019m so enthusiastic is that we really do have a broad base of support from this bill from Republicans and Democrats, from moderates, conservatives, liberals, libertarians,\u201d Gaetz said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m hopeful that by finding the area with the common ground, the theory that we ought to create protections for research, that we\u2019ll be able to make some progress on this very important issue.\u201d<\/p>\n But all the signs from Trump\u2019s Department of Justice have heretofore been bad. Sessions in January\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that the prior policy of non-interference with states that have legalized medical marijuana is \u201cunnecessary,\u201d and called on U.S. attorneys to enforce the Controlled Substances Act nationwide. Effectively, this rescinded\u00a0the Justice Department\u2019s 2009 Ogden Memo and 2011 Cole Memo, which established this policy.<\/p>\n And last month, Sessions issued a\u00a0memo<\/a>\u00a0urging prosecutors to seek the death penalty for those \u201cdealing in extremely large quantities of drugs,\u201d\u00a0raising fears<\/a>\u00a0that this could actually be used against large-scale legal cannabis cultivators in places like California.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> do you trust Jeff Sessions\u2019 change of heart on medical marijuana?<\/p>\n The post Sessions Acknowledges \u2018Some Benefits from Medical Marijuana\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In what was certainly an unexpected move, U.S.\u00a0Attorney General Jeff Sessions stated before a Senate panel on April 25 that \u201cthere may well be some benefits from medical marijuana,\u201d and added that it is \u201cperfectly appropriate to study\u201d cannabis. The proverbial bombshell came in testimony before the Subcommittee on Commerce,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,50,4081,897,83,1203,139,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25762,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25761\/revisions\/25762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Sessions Acknowledges \u2018Some Benefits from Medical Marijuana\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"