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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNYT Editorial--> Congress and Obama Are Too Timid on Marijuana Reform
So many lives and families are lost --Congress needs to act NOW!
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/opinion/sunday/congress-and-obama-have-been-too-timid-on-marijuana-reform.html?_r=0
SundayReview | Editorial
Congress and Obama Are Too Timid on Marijuana Reform
By THE EDITORIAL BOARDAUG. 8, 2015
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Instead of standing by as change sweeps the country, federal lawmakers should be more actively debating and changing the nations absurd marijuana policies, policies that have ruined millions of lives and wasted billions of dollars. Their inaction is putting businesses and individuals in states that have legalized medical and recreational marijuana in dubious legal territory doing something that is legal in their state but is considered a federal crime. Many growers, retailers and dispensaries also have to operate using only cash because many banks will not serve them, citing the federal prohibition. Recently, the Federal Reserve denied a master account to a credit union in Colorado seeking to provide financial services to marijuana businesses.
Lawmakers who hope their colleagues in Congress will act face an uphill struggle. For example, a bill introduced in the Senate by Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrats of New Jersey and New York, respectively, and Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, would allow states to legalize marijuana for medical use. It would also allow banks and credit unions to provide financial services to cannabis-based businesses in states that have legalized the drug. The bill has 16 sponsors, including two Republicans, but the Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, has not scheduled it for a hearing or a vote. An identical bill in the House with 17 sponsors, eight of them Republican, is also languishing in committee.
The New York Times Calls for Marijuana LegalizationJULY 26, 2014
Congress has taken a few positive steps, like approving a provision that would prevent the Justice Department from using federal funds to keep states from carrying out their own medical marijuana laws. And some senior Republicans, including Mr. Grassley and Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, have expressed support for the medical use of a compound known as cannabidiol, which is found in the cannabis plant but is not psychoactive. The Obama administration recently made it easier for scientists to study marijuana by removing a requirement that studies not funded by the federal government go through an additional review process, beyond what is required for researchers working with other drugs.
But both Congress and the White House should be doing more. Specifically, marijuana should be removed from the Controlled Substances Act, where it is classified as a Schedule I drug like heroin and LSD, and considered to have no medical value. Removing marijuana from the act would not make it legal everywhere, but it would make it easier for states to decide how they want to regulate it................
Ghost in the Machine
(14,912 posts)passed by Congress, the reasons were rooted in racism. I have looked, but cannot find, the text of the actual hearing that made it illegal. If memory serves correctly, there were only 4 people in the room, one being Harry Ansbaugh?? (correct me if I am wrong), and the whole process took less than 30 minutes.
Peace,
Ghost
PatrickforO
(14,592 posts)The private prison system lobbyists, big oil, the textile industry and its suppliers - all of them are pressuring their owned politician puppets to forget about legalizing pot.
Why?
Does it matter to them that millions of lives are being destroyed by our stupid war on drugs?
Does it matter to them that we have the highest incarceration rate in the WORLD?
Nope.
You know what matters? The ONLY thing that matters??
PROFITS.
That's it.
And, that's one of MANY reasons why profit IS a dirty word.
pipoman
(16,038 posts)Who didn't think this would be handled by our "change" president? I would have expected a rethug to increase nonviolent prison populations...I would have bet Obama would have made headway, yet here we are.....no change, just like nearly every other aspect of government that I expected positive change....the Obama presidency will go down as the 'no change' presidency.
Hekate
(90,829 posts)....he has going on in the background on this issue? His "fourth quarter" is turning out to be very consequential.
JMHO
Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)It would kill their lucrative oxy market. Just more business of, by, and for the corporations.