Sam Farr: “I couldn't disagree more with my respected chairman. This is really a medical issue that ought to be in the hands of…”

“I couldn't disagree more with my respected chairman. This is really a medical issue that ought to be in the hands of medical doctors. It does not allow them to prescribe marijuana. They can prescribe Oxycontin. What this amendment does, it says if your State has legalized for medical purposes, as a doctor in a VA facility, you can have a discussion with a vet seeking medical advice on whether you ought to have access to--he can't write out the prescription, he doesn't have authority to do that. It is a conversation. It is a discussion. It is a medical conversation. I don't care whether you are for or against marijuana. That is not the issue here. The issue is--and Mr. Chairman, you know this issue from Eric Seastrand in our California State Legislature who happened to be a Republican assemblyman dying of cancer, he got up and made the most impassioned plea I have ever heard in my life on a legislative floor, saying members--and he was a pretty conservative guy. He said: you know, when you are dying, don't deny us access to hope. The issue was about getting access to a prescription drug that hadn't yet been licensed. So I think we are in this debate now in this country whether we like it or not. The voters of California overwhelmingly passed--and I think it is pretty much a senior citizen issue--that if we are having chronic pain and if we think medical marijuana can help alleviate that pain, don't deny us access to it.…”