Legalization marijuana is gaining in favorability, with landmark House legislation Friday blocking the DEA from targeting medical marijuana.
Screen capture via Gallup, via Vox.com
“FEDERAL TAX DOLLARS WILL NO LONGER BE WASTED ARRESTING SERIOUSLY ILL MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENTS AND THOSE WHO PROVIDE TO THEM”
[Vox.com]
IN A landmark vote, the House moved to block the Drug Enforcement Agency from targeting medical marijuana, backing state laws. It will protect patients who rely on medical marijuana, including parents of children, from federal intrusion in decisions made in the privacy of our lives.
From Huffington Post:
An appropriations amendment offered by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) prohibiting the DEA from spending funds to arrest state-licensed medical marijuana patients and providers passed 219-189. The Senate will likely consider its own appropriations bill for the DEA, and the House amendment would have to survive a joint conference before it could go into effect.
Rohrabacher said on the House floor that the amendment “should be a no-brainer” for conservatives who support states’ rights and argued passionately against allowing the federal government to interfere with a doctor-patient relationship.
“Some people are suffering, and if a doctor feels that he needs to prescribe something to alleviate that suffering, it is immoral for this government to get in the way,” Rohrabacher said, his voice rising. “And that’s what’s happening.”
There are still those lawmakers who continue to promote that cannabis has no medical properties, but as Dr. Sanjay Gupta was forced to admit, the evidence proving otherwise.
Currently, 22 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use. Five other states — Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Utah, and Wisconsin — have legalized CBD oils, a non-psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that may treat epilepsy.
A number of studies in recent years have shown the medical potential of cannabis. Purified forms may attack some forms of aggressive cancer. Marijuana use also has been tied to better blood sugar control and may help slow the spread of HIV.
Legalization of the plant for medical purposes may lead to lower suicide rates, according to one study.
As a staunch privacy advocate, legalization and medical marijuana are issues that also rub up against my libertarian streak, which can be seen in my writings on gun ownership and responsibility.
The Senate must now act on behalf of parents fighting for their children, cancer patients, and all the people who have found medical marijuana a way to relief of pain.
Compliments of one of my Facebook “friends.”
About Taylor Marsh
Political analyst, cultural voyeur, author. New book out in June 2014, THE SEXUAL EDUCATION OF A BEAUTY QUEEN – RELATIONSHIP SECRETS FROM THE TRENCHES, which you can pre-order now. You’ve never read any book like it! Former Miss Missouri, Broadway performer, & relationship consultant at the LA Weekly, which began a decade-long romp in the trenches of dating, women and men, mating and sex. It’s all in my new book!
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Landmark Legislation in House Blocks DEA from Targeting Medical Marijuana
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