States with Marijuana laws on the books.
On May 9, 2014 Rep. Rohrabacher of California asked for and was granted a few minutes to address the United States House of Representatives regarding the issue of medical Marijuana. What follows is a copy of his entire speech (unedited):
“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss an issue that currently affects more than half the States in our Nation, and that is the inconsistency between Federal and State laws pertaining medical marijuana. Yes, Mr. Speaker, a majority of our Nation’s States–Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia–all have some form of medical marijuana law on the books. Of course this means that these States allow their residents to engage in activities that are expressly prohibited by the Federal Government. To be exact, there are already 26 States that allow doctors to recommend the medical use of marijuana or its derivatives, and many more States are expected to take the step and do the same thing in the near future.
Importantly, the States listed are not dominated by conservatives or liberals. This isn’t a Republican or a Democrat issue. Massachusetts, Alaska, Mississippi, and Oregon are hardly the same, politically speaking, in their legislature. Politically speaking, they are not the same. But their legislators and their residents all have recognized the same reality, and that is the potential medical benefits of marijuana and marijuana’s derivatives, and they believe that these derivatives and the benefits of marijuana should not be denied to their people.
Unfortunately, however, the Federal Government continues to list marijuana and its derivatives as a schedule I substance, putting it in the same category as heroin, LSD, and other hard drugs.
I have long supported rescheduling marijuana so that it can be researched, prescribed, and used by legitimate health care professionals. But multi-administrations, both Republican and Democrat alike, have refused to seriously talk about this topic. Instead, a heavy-handed, emotion-based policy continues.
Evidence suggesting that the Federal Government ought to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes has never had the serious discussion that it deserves. Many desperate patients have defied the Federal Government’s blanket ban on the use of marijuana as a remedy for numerous ailments.
The absurdity of this ban was brought home to me over a decade ago when my mother, depressed after undergoing surgery, lost her appetite and was requiring me to spoon-feed her. When I learned that medical marijuana might give her the appetite she needed and, yes, raise her spirits, the illegality of this herb was abundantly clear to me as I was there seeing my mother in the hospital bed, seeing how my mother had lost her appetite and seeing how her spirits were so low, knowing that perhaps marijuana, if the doctor had so ordered, would have been something that could have helped her and helped other people’s mothers and children who were suffering the same situation.
The significance of changing–or at least altering–this prohibition could no longer be ignored by me when I was confronted by this over a decade ago. Since that time, the public’s interest and support for medical marijuana has increased dramatically. As I mentioned, over half the States allow people with serious illnesses to use marijuana and/or its derivatives for medical purposes.
Recent polls show that the vast majority of the American people support the medical efficacy and use of marijuana for medical purposes: 77 percent according to Pew, 81 percent according to the ABC News poll, and a whopping 85 percent according to a FOX News poll last year. Just as interesting, 60 percent of the American people believe that the Federal Government should not prosecute people who are acting in accordance with State medical marijuana laws, and 72 percent think government efforts to enforce marijuana laws cost more than they are worth. Surprise, surprise, almost three-quarters of Americans believe that the cost of enforcing marijuana laws is far heavier than the benefits of having those laws enforced or having those laws on the books. All those numbers include majorities of both Republicans, Democrats, and, yes, it includes a majority of Independents, as well.
What is the driving force behind this surge of support for a change in Federal policy? It is the realization by patients, researchers, and physicians that marijuana and its derivatives may offer enormous relief to numerous patients. For example, last year, the famous physician, Sanjay Gupta, released–who is a very prominent physician–released a documentary film in which he explored many of the benefits of medical marijuana. Like so many Americans, he is a relatively new convert to this position. I quote:
We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.
This is what the doctor said in his documentary.
His documentary explores a number of cases in which patients who have various environmental neurological disabilities were helped by marijuana. Anyone who watches this documentary will see the positive effect that marijuana and its derivatives can have on ailing patients. Dr. Gupta is not alone in his belief that it may prove beneficial to some patients.
The New England Journal of Medicine recently found that a majority of clinicians–a majority of the clinicians surveyed responded that they “would recommend the use of medicinal marijuana in certain situations.”
We have all heard anecdotes of the ability of marijuana to improve patients’ appetites, calm those with anxiety, and reduce the nausea for those who are extremely sick. Most recently, there has been an increased attention on the potential impacts of marijuana on patients who suffer from seizures, as well as those with PTSD.
Some particularly conservative States in our country–Utah, Alabama, Kentucky, and Mississippi, for instance–have recently passed laws allowing patients to access medical marijuana products such as oils that are rich in what they call the Cannibis oil, which is CBD, which has been very helpful with so many patients who are looking for relief for children with seizure disorders. They have found that the CBD helps these children meet this challenge in the families that are suffering across the country watching their children go through this suffering with this type of seizures and disorders.
These laws vary somewhat as to how patients are able to gain access to these products in various States, they differ, the laws differ, but they generally show that patients to be treated with this CBD-rich marijuana product, when administered by a physician and in the course of a State-approved medical study, have proved to be helpful to many people’s health. Under current law, however, CBD, because it is derived from marijuana, is considered a Schedule I drug, and therefore it is prohibited to do the kind of research that is necessary to put that into the service for our people and to make sure that they have this available for their children and for other people who are suffering.
We can’t even do the fundamental research as long as the Federal Government continues to label it the same as heroin or the same as other types of drugs, cocaine and the rest.
Well, we know from what I have said so far that there are numerous people in our country who understand that there are people who can benefit medically, and the people who understand this are not just civilians but medical professionals, as well as scientists.
Also, of particular and growing interest are the benefits that marijuana has for those who suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder, that is PTSD. This is one of the most commonly diagnosed disorders for our military veterans who are returning from overseas duty. Those suffering from PTSD often experience debilitating nightmares, depression, and anxiety; and, according to many of these patients, marijuana is the only thing that helps them alleviate these awful, awful symptoms.
Yet, because of our decades-old policy of not allowing the legitimate use–or even research into the legitimate use–of the medical benefits of marijuana, many individuals that we are talking about, many of these veterans, feel they have no choice but to break the law. Our Nation’s heroes who are trying to escape the hellish nightmares of the war that we sent them off to fight are forced into the compromising position of illegal activity just to receive some relief from the pain they are suffering.
Parents who want to treat their children with nonpsychoactive extracts of the marijuana plant are forced to engage in activities that, if caught and convicted under Federal law, would make these parents who are just trying to help their children, it makes them felons–felons.
I would submit that this scenario undermines every legal and moral institution that we want every citizen–we want every citizen–of the United States to respect.
It puts our people in an impossible position. It requires them to choose between providing relief for a loved one or breaking the law. In many cases, that behavior is in compliance–we are talking about offering medical marijuana–it is in compliance with State law; but these people who need it, whose family may need it, whose veteran coming home from the war may need it, whose mother is in the hospital who has lost her appetite and is depressed may need it, well, even if it is in compliance with State law, what we have got now is they are still a violation of Federal law, so we end up condemning these people to a crisis in which their loved ones must either suffer or they must break the law. It is cruel nonsense to put our people through this.
Patients and providers currently run the risk of having a Federal SWAT team-like police force raid their homes or their place of business because of the consumption of a plant which could be growing right in their backyard. The militarization of the police force in order to prevent Grandma from using a medical herb that will ease her pain during her last days on Earth is the type of thing that ought to make every person who believes in liberty and freedom–it should make them shudder, as well as, of course, responsible conservatives who understand we should be making every dollar our government spends count and be doing something that absolutely needs to be done.
The harassment from the Drug Enforcement Agency is something that should not be tolerated in the land of the free. Businesspeople who are licensed and certified to provide doctor-recommended medicine within their own States have seen their businesses locked down, their assets seized, their customers driven away, and their financial lives ruined by very, very aggressive and energetic Federal law enforcers enforcing a law in which we are preventing something that doctors would recommend for the health of their patients that now some way distributing that material would result in the total destruction of that medical professional and his life.
Instead of continuing to finance this repressive and expensive approach, we should be willing to allow patients and small businesses to follow their doctor’s advice under the watchful eye of State law enforcement and regulators rather than treating it like something that ought to be eradicated from our society. And, yes, I am sure there are plenty of people around who would love to just continue building our police forces, spending the money; but having them target people who are engaged not in rape or murder or some type of aggressive action on the population but instead have them focus on a doctor who is trying to alleviate the pain of someone who has just gone through an operation or one of our veterans who is suffering some sort of posttrauma from his being overseas, no. To say it is a total waste of money is just an understatement.
The 26 States that I have named have gotten this message. They have been making great strides toward compassion and, yes, towards freedom and, yes, towards a responsible use of limited government money in our country.
Now, after the States have done their job, we need the Federal Government to do its part. In the near future, I, along with several of my colleagues in both parties, will introduce an amendment to the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill to bring an end to this disruptive, ill-advised, and wasteful policy that we have pushed on our people and oppressed our people with for far too long. Specifically, our amendment would prohibit the Department of Justice from using any of the funds in this bill to prevent States from implementing their own State medical marijuana laws.
I think my conservative friends could benefit from hearing what some of their idols have to say about this. Milton Friedman stated that it is “disgraceful to deny marijuana for medical purposes.” Dr. Friedman, whom I knew personally, a personal friend of mine, spent a great deal of time talking about this very issue. He and George Schultz, former Secretary–Dr. Friedman, of course, advised Ronald Reagan when I worked with Ronald Reagan in the White House. As you know, I was a special assistant to President Reagan as well as a Presidential speechwriter for President Reagan for 7 years. There with us was, of course, Dr. Milton Friedman; and he advised us of the nonsense of making marijuana illegal, especially for medical purposes.
Then we have William F. Buckley–another man who advised conservatives like Ronald Reagan–who I read as a young person. In the pages of National Review, which he edited, he wrote:
The stodgy inertia most politicians feel is up against a creeping reality, and that is that marijuana for medical relief is a movement which is attracting voters who are pretty assertive on the subject.
Yes, William F. Buckley was a visionary. He saw what direction the will of the American people would be having, and he foresaw today that the vast majority of the American people do not want the Federal Government wasting limited dollars destroying doctors’ lives, preventing research into medical marijuana, and getting in the way of the people of the States who have voted to make this substance legal in their State for medical purposes.
Conservatives in this body–in this body, in this House–who regularly call for a decrease in the size and scope of the Federal Government ought to seriously consider voting for my amendment. Likewise, conservatives in this body who routinely talk about the need for the Federal Government to respect the 10th Amendment of the Constitution and those who believe that Washington should not interfere with the doctor-patient relationship, which we have heard so much about, these people, my conservative colleagues, ought to seriously consider supporting my amendment, as well.
In fact, if you are on the wrong side of Milton Friedman and William F. Buckley and people like Grover Norquist and George Schultz on the medical marijuana issue, I would suggest to my colleagues that they ought to reconsider the position that they are taking, that it may not be the one that is consistent with the conservative belief in freedom, individual responsibility, and, of course, limited government.
This amendment has been introduced in the past, most recently in 2012, but the difference this time around is that the American people are now demanding the Federal Government respect the majority of the States in our country which have implemented various medical marijuana laws.
The question at this point is whether the American people’s Representatives in this House will grant them the wish and accede to what their opinion is and understand that laws are made for these people and their opinions have a right to be heard. I would hope that my fellow Representatives hear the American people’s cry, hear those people who are trying to take care of their elderly mother or a veteran coming home or their children who are suffering seizures and say it is a total waste, it is a travesty to use limited dollars, to have a Federal Government stopping a doctor in States that have declared it as legal, prevent that doctor from offering a treatment for these people, our loved ones, Americans throughout our country.
My hope and expectation is that truth and common sense will prevail. I have faith in the American people. And yes, I have faith in my colleagues. I believe that both the American people, given a choice in their lives, they will do the right thing for themselves and their family. I also believe they will do it without bureaucracy, without massive Federal intrusion into their lives. And I also have faith in my colleagues that they will begin to take a second look at this issue and see if what they are doing is consistent with our overall belief in American freedom and personal responsibility.
One final point I would like to make is that, as legislators who have the power of the purse, we have a responsibility to prioritize Federal tax dollars and how they are spent. Our debt has increased by trillions of dollars in just the last few years. This year’s deficit is expected to add an additional $500 billion to the debt, and the CBO estimates that the deficit will only slightly be lower next year before ballooning up again to unacceptable levels. What we are going through is already unacceptable to most of us.
As we look for places to cut spending, why don’t we begin by eliminating those expenditures which the vast majority of Americans believe to be an unjustified exercise of Federal powers. I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting a commonsense amendment that will be a step in the right direction in respecting State medical marijuana laws and will respect the individual liberties that our country believes in.
I would hope that the Federal Government also, finally, we in the Federal Government will understand prioritizing spending, so even if you have questions of how someone making a personal choice somewhere across the country as to whether to use medical marijuana to help a family member who is sick or to stop their own seizures or whatever, yes, even if you don’t believe that individuals across our country or the State governments have a right to be able to make those decisions and local voters should be making those determinations, which is what our Founding Fathers wanted, even if you don’t believe in that, we should, at the very least, understand that we do not have resources at the Federal level to do everything for everybody.
While showing compassion for thousands of ailing patients across our country, we can also do the right thing, that is the right thing for us to do in terms of balancing our budget and having responsible spending patterns and taxing patterns here in Washington. Here is where it crosses. Here is where the waste of taxpayer dollars and enforcing laws that they have already said they don’t want at the State level, forcing this upon them, declaring that someone is not going to have the personal responsibility in his own life to make these decisions, even in States where our people have voted to make this legal in terms of decisionmaking for using medical marijuana, well, even in those States, and all of this in one formula, you still have to understand that we have to deal with a budget; and it is totally inconsistent with a responsible spending pattern to use such limited resources as we have, going into debt in order to fence in doctors and other people who are trying to use medical marijuana around the country and even prevent the research into medical marijuana to show that it might have some benefit. No, that is a travesty and a total waste of our limited resources.
I would call on my conservative colleagues and my liberal colleagues, my Democrat and Republican friends and the people across the country of the United States to look at this issue with an open mind, intelligently look at the issue, look at it with your heart and your brain, and we will come to the conclusion that medical marijuana, especially in those States in which the people have decided to make medical use of marijuana legal, that it is a total waste of limited Federal funds for us to be focusing the use of those Federal funds on that activity at the State and local levels by people who are being given the choice by doctors as to what medicine they will use.
Let’s get the Federal Government out of the areas that it shouldn’t be in. That should be something conservatives really support. And so today, I would call on my colleagues to support the amendment that I will be offering, along with Congressman Blumenauer and others here in the body, to make sure that we get back to the 10th Amendment of the Constitution and put into law that, when it comes to the medical use of marijuana, the Federal Government will not waste its money trying to thwart the will of people throughout our country and the various State legislatures throughout our country.
With that said, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time”, said ROHRABACHER (source: Congressional Record: http://thomas.loc.gov/).
See related video: Medical Benefits Of Marijuana – National Cancer Institute http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkMxrS8R_T8