As cannabis legalization sweeps the nation, a small group of U.S. senators held a desperate anti-pot circus show this week where they showcased the absurdity of cannabis prohibition. The hearing was dubbed “Is the Department of Justice Adequately Protecting the Public From the Impact of State Recreational Marijuana Legalization?”
Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein, the two oldest members of the Senate, hosted the event and invited other prohibition crusaders such as Nebraska attorney general Doug Peterson, who attempted to sue Colorado for being a drug cartel. Sen. Jeff Sessions also attended and provided perhaps the most laughable statement of the hearing when he said, “good people don’t smoke marijuana.”
I can’t tell you how concerning it is for me, emotionally and personally, to see the possibility that we will reverse the progress that we’ve made….
It was the prevention movement that really was so positive, and it led to this decline. The creating of knowledge that this drug is dangerous, it cannot be played with, it is not funny, it’s not something to laugh about, and trying to send that message with clarity, that good people don’t smoke marijuana.
It’s hard to know where to begin with this asinine statement. Firstly, Sessions insulted about half of the American population who use cannabis. Pot has never seemed to stifle success, but surely the righteous Senator would not dare insult his fellow statesmen who have used the plant recreationally.
All those people treating their health ailments with cannabis, whether smoked or its extracts eaten, can’t be doing any good in healing themselves. Medical science should not be promoting such bad behavior!
On a more serious note, as we discover the miraculous functions of the endocannabinoid system, we are finding ways to harness that system through the application of cannabis compounds to both heal and prevent disease.
The National Cancer Institute has recognized that cannabis kills cancer. The American Epilepsy Society has deemed cannabis the most promising treatment for seizures. We have reported on numerous studies and instances of the incredible potential of cannabis in treating epileptic seizures.
Many veterans of war are finding the only thing that can treat the post-traumatic stress disorder is cannabis, with some able to give up harmful prescription drugs. But these aren’t “good people” to Sen. Sessions, even if they are avoiding mental breakdowns by using the plant.
Indeed, all cannabis use can be considered therapeutic. Conditions that are treated with dangerous pharmaceutical drugs—marketed by a lucrative partnership between government and Big Pharma—can instead be alleviated with a plant that anyone can grow.
With all that we now know about cannabis, it is truly a mystery as to how anyone—especially one of a hundred Senators who profess to lead our nation in progress—can cling to the fallacies of 20th-century prohibition.
Sen. Grassley set the stage for the hearing with this characterization:
In 2013, the Department of Justice decided to all but abandon the enforcement of federal law relating to the possession, cultivation, and distribution of marijuana in states that were in the process of becoming the only jurisdictions in the world to legalize and regulate all these activities for recreational use.
The only thing being abandoned, sir, is the idea that a medicinal plant should be treated as something to be eradicated, and that people using it should be made into criminals.
The outdated senators are longing for the days of Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign while her husband ushered in the height of the drug war. Full-on prohibition brought skyrocketing jail populations of people who committed victimless crimes, and fueled an immense black market that creates death and worsens addiction.
This nefarious legacy of Reagan was built on decades of lies and propaganda. Participants at Tuesday’s hearing channeled the ghost of Reefer Madness, with Grassley attempting to link cannabis use to rising heroin addiction.
Just last year, the Centers for Disease Control found that people who are addicted to marijuana are three times more likely to be addicted to heroin. So if the Obama Administration is serious about addressing this epidemic, it should stop burying its head in the sand about what’s happening to its enforcement priorities on recreational marijuana.
This deception could not be more dangerous, as it hides the real reason behind the heroin epidemic – prescription opioid pills. When people run out of money and the government makes it harder to get pills, they turn to much cheaper and more readily available heroin.
In fact, the opposite of what Grassley said is true. Cannabis can reduce heroin abuse by avoiding the use of opioid pills. As we reported last August, deaths from opioid painkillers plummet in states with legal cannabis.
More researchers are suggesting their patients try medical cannabis as an alternative to opioid pills. Astonishing numbers of people are reporting that they substitute cannabis for prescription drugs.
While the senators hold a sham hearing on the mythical evils of cannabis, Grassley is refusing to hold hearings on legislation that would legalize medical cannabis use and downgrade it from a Schedule 1 classification. Unlike Grassley’s lack of factual information, the CARERS Act is based on overwhelming scientific evidence.
The remarks of the clueless senators would be amusing if they weren’t so dangerous. Sessions said, “We need grown-ups in charge in Washington to say marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized.”
But this is not surprising coming from a man who disputed the point that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol by saying, “Lady Gaga says she’s addicted to it and it is not harmless.”
The good news is that, in all likelihood, hardly anyone will take this farce of a hearing seriously. The senators and their few allies represent a disappearing breed of drug war crusaders fueled by stubborn irrationality, and apparently wish to take this reputation into retirement.
If you found what you watched in the video above at all disturbing, feel free to peacefully reach out to these clearly out of touch people and voice your concern.
United States Senate
Caucus on International Narcotics Control Hart Senate Office Building
Room 818-C
Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: 202-224-9032
Justin Gardner writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared.
This is what I have been telling people all along. There is no difference between D and R.
The DEA will soon reconsider rescheduling cannabis out of Schedule 1 and into a less restrictive category. How much do you want to bet it stays in Schedule 1? The for profit prison industry and law enforcement agencies have too much to gain from its continued prohibition
yep
Yeah. All too true.
Senator Sessions has no authority to supposedly protect a person from themselves.
.
Hierarchy of our promised Limited Constitutional Republic:
Creator.
Rights granted by the Creator. Yes, this is above the people.
The people.
The people created Constitution for the United States of America.
The laws.
The branches of government.
.
Our current d-word and r-word government:
Does not have authority to prevent people from using medication they want.
Does not have authority to force people to use medication they don’t want.
Does not have authority to force people to drink water with toxic waste in it.
Does not have authority to force inject people with poisons like non-therapeutic vaccines.
.
If you hadn’t noticed, our corrupt government does anything that it pleases against the people.
The only Court of general jurisdiction for the Federal Government is the Supreme Court; all other courts are courts of special jurisdiction. Courts of “special jurisdiction” have power over federal employees and federal property only; they have “jurisdiction” over you if you don’t challenge it.
Lawyers are “Officers of the Court” and will be as honest towards their clients as any vaccine shill doctor is to his profit marg—–, patients.
so let me see if i understand this.. twisted psychopaths who vote to have our military illegally and immorally murder people in foreign countries, somehow have convinced themselves that good people don’t smoke marijuana?
Genius has its limits, stupidity has no such limitation!
Stupidity is like Radiation, you wouldn’t want to get any on you …
Just highlights the fact that these “elected officials” are clueless, and in no way represent the people. These dinosaur brains are either victims of the brainwashing surrounding marijuana, or malicious rent boys following orders.
These are the same people that eat Oxicodone(spelling?) for breakfast.
Beyond laughable
BTW: nobodysaysboo – I’m all in with TRUMP.
People in Nebraska who voted on the side of marijuana both Republicans and Democrats are not buying our governors stand on this, and after he vetoed our votes you can bet he will not win another term.
This just in: Thomas Jefferson wasn’t a “good person”!
The congress and its members are the mentally ill. The continual lies that come from these congressmen/women about everything from banking to the need for more education reform and the need to stop the “global warming/climate change” by imposing more taxes on carbon has reached the level of supreme stupidity and outright psychopathic behavior.
Perhaps it is time to fire them all through impeachment or what ever means is necessary. They no longer serve the people. They are all just bullies who have no real strength in themselves and can not stand alone to face the god that inspired the constitution.
Are they morally corrupt? Do they take bribes? Do they know the creator?
Mmmm…. it is not judgement to discern evil it is the divine right to see the higher truth.
Blessings may all stand strong against this tyranny.
Good people don’t allow corrupt and ignorant politicians micromanage their lives without consequences for both.
Sessions is (once again) showing his ignorance. Move to Coolrado and imbibe for the health of it and watch the gorgeous sunsets with a little help from your friends.
Laugh or cry? Couldn’t be simpler. Couldn’t be more transparent upon reflection. But since denial is much more comfortable by eliminating cognitive dissonance, the system is obscured and made to seem impenetrably complex.
Be sure and create a file for this and share this with anyone and everyone. Thanks for viewing and commenting.
Both “Government Explained” and “Government Explained 2” are a good watch.
This source has allot of creativity and intellectual creative mind candy as I call it for people who use reason. Please share.
Sessions said he wanted to spread the message that good people don’t smoke mj, to scare people away from it. I am sure he would not say that alcoholics aren’t good people, but if he can run a scare campaign that prevents some people from becoming alcoholics, he might say whatever he thinks would work.
Mj certainly inhibits creativity. It creates a passiveness also. Has it been tested to see if it lowers IQ? I know some people use it for pain, and medical mj is available in a lot of states, but that’s different.
There are so many lies here. We need to stop voting for incumbents before we look at their voting records. We need politicians who will research and move with the times and to will of the voters. If any of them are interested in getting more knowledge on the subject then they need to do the work including take classes or do their own research on the class.
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