DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced legislation Wednesday that would end the federal government’s prohibition of marijuana. The proposal is co-sponsored by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL). The bill, titled the Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act, would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, leaving Read the full article…
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: U.S. Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Bernard Sanders (D-VT), and Bob Casey (D-PA) issued the following joint statement in reaction to the preliminary cost estimate of the Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act issued by the Congressional Budget Office: “We are glad to see the independent Congressional Budget Office recognize that the Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Read the full article…
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The Drug Enforcement Administration is not having a great year. The chief of the agency stepped down in April under a cloud of scandal. The acting administrator since then has courted ridicule for saying pot is “probably not” as dangerous as heroin, and more recently he provoked 100,000 petition-signers and seven members of Congress to call for his Read the full article…
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said Wednesday that acting Drug Enforcement Administration chief Chuck Rosenberg should be replaced after calling the notion of smoking marijuana for medical purposes a “joke.” “Rosenberg is clearly not the right fit for the DEA in this administration,” Blumenauer said during a speech on the House floor Wednesday morning. The acting agency Read the full article…
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders filed a Senate bill Wednesday that would allow states to decide whether to legalize recreational use of marijuana and decriminalize the drug at the federal level. It’s a sign the Democratic presidential candidate is willing to stake out a clear contrast on the issue with front-runner Hillary Clinton. While some states have Read the full article…
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Let it be known that we’re still more than a year away from the 2016 presidential election, and the issues that will decide the election are still being felt out. However, with each day that passes it looks more and more plausible that marijuana and the federal government’s views on marijuana will play Read the full article…
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Hillary Clinton says she has never smoked pot, not even as a bell-bottom-wearing undergraduate in the 1960s. Her husband’s administration went nuclear in the War on Drugs. During the 2008 campaign, she publicly opposed marijuana legalization. But it’s now seven years later, and the marijuana industry isn’t selling baggies and answering beepers. It’s a Read the full article…
By Rob Kampia DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Now that Congress has returned from its August recess, it’s time for members to debate and vote on the annual budget that will fund the federal government from October of this year through September of next year. And various marijuana amendments will be a part of these discussions. Much has Read the full article…
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: It’s not easy being the DEA these days. After an unprecedented losing streak on Capitol Hill, the once-untouchable Drug Enforcement Administration suffered last week what might be considered the ultimate indignity: A Senate panel, for the first time, voted in favor of legal, recreational marijuana. Last Thursday, the Appropriations Committee voted 16-14 Read the full article…
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: President Barack Obama announced Monday that he has granted dozens of federal inmates their freedom, as part of an effort to counteract draconian penalties handed out to nonviolent drug offenders in the past. The 46 inmates who had their sentences reduced represent a small fraction of the tens of thousands of inmates who Read the full article…