Pubdate: Wed, 06 Sep 2017
Source: Philadelphia Daily News (PA)
Copyright: 2017 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
Contact: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/about/feedback/
Website: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/339
Author: Dana Rohrabacher

MY FELLOW CONSERVATIVES SHOULD PROTECT MEDICAL MARIJUANA FROM THE
GOVERNMENT

Not long ago, a supporter of mine visiting from California dropped by
my Capitol office. A retired military officer and staunch
conservative, he and I spent much of our conversation discussing the
Republican agenda.

Finally, I drew a breath and asked him about an issue I feared might
divide us: the liberalization of our marijuana laws, specifically
medical marijuana reform, on which for years I had been leading the
charge. What did he think about that controversial position?

"Dana," he replied, "there are some things about me you don't know."
He told me about his three sons, all of whom enlisted after 9/11.

Two of his sons returned from the battlefield whole and healthy. The
third, however, came home suffering multiple seizures each day. His
prospects were bleak.

His medical care fell under the total guidance of the Department of
Veterans Affairs, whose doctors came under federal restraints
regarding the treatments they could prescribe. (Among the treatments
allowed were opioids.) Nothing worked.

Finally, a sympathetic doctor advised our young hero to see him in his
private office, where he could prescribe medication derived from
cannabis. The prescription worked. The seizures, for the most part,
ceased.

"Dana," said my friend, "I could hug you right now for what you've
been doing, unknowingly, for my son."

What had I been doing? With my Democratic friend Sam Farr, the
now-retired California congressman, I wrote an amendment to spending
bills that prohibits the federal government from prosecuting medical
marijuana cases in states where voters have legalized such treatment.
The amendment passed two consecutive years, the second time with a
wider margin than the first, and has been extended through continuing
resolutions and an omnibus spending bill.

Surprisingly, given the Obama administration's generally liberal
approach to marijuana, its Justice Department tried to interpret the
amendment in such a convoluted way as to allow counterproductive raids
on marijuana dispensaries. The courts -- most recently the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit -- repeatedly ruled that our
amendment meant exactly what it said.

Unfortunately, my longtime friend Jeff Sessions, the attorney general,
has urged Congress to drop the amendment, now co-sponsored by Rep.
Earl Blumenauer (D., Ore.). This despite President Trump's belief,
made clear in his campaign and as president, that states alone should
decide medical marijuana policies.

I should not need to remind our chief law enforcement officer or my
fellow Republicans that our system of federalism, also known as
states' rights, was designed to resolve just such a fractious issue.
Our party still bears a blemish for wielding the "states' rights"
cudgel against civil rights. If we bury state autonomy in order to
deny patients an alternative to opioids, and ominously federalize our
police, our hypocrisy will deserve the American people's contempt.

More than half the states have liberalized medical marijuana laws,
some even decriminalizing recreational use. Some 80 percent of
Americans favor legalization of medical marijuana. Only a benighted or
mean-spirited mind-set would want to block such progress.

Despite federal efforts to restrict supply, studies continue to yield
promising results. And mounting anecdotal evidence shows again and
again that medical marijuana can dramatically improve the lives of
people with epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder, arthritis, and
many other ailments.

Most Americans know this. The political class, not surprisingly, lags
behind them.

Part of the reason is the failure of too many conservatives to apply
"public choice economics" to the war on marijuana. Common sense, as
well as public choice theory, holds that the government's interest is
to grow, just as private-sector players seek profit and build market
share.

The drug-war apparatus will not give ground without a fight, even if
it deprives Americans of medical alternatives and inadvertently
creates more dependency on opioids. When its existence depends on
asset seizures and other affronts to our Constitution, why should
anti-medical-marijuana forces care if they've contributed
inadvertently to a vast market, both legal and illegal, for opioids?

I invite my colleagues to visit a medical marijuana research facility
and see for themselves why their cultural distaste might be misplaced.
One exists near my district office at the University of California,
Irvine, another at the University of California, San Diego.

Better yet, they might travel to Israel -- that political guiding
light for religious conservatives -- and learn how our closest ally in
the Middle East has positioned itself on the cutting edge of cannabis
research. The Israeli government recently decriminalized first use, so
unworried is it about what marijuana might do to its conscript military.

My colleagues should then return to Washington and keep my amendment
intact, declaring themselves firmly on the side of medical progress.
Failing that, the government will keep trying to eradicate the
burgeoning marijuana business, thereby fueling and enriching drug
cartels. Trust me: Hugs from grateful supporters are infinitely better.

Republican U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher represents California's 48th
District. He wrote this for the Washington Post.
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MAP posted-by: Matt