Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, my colleague across the aisle said we need to research this more, and I agree, and that is why this amendment is being introduced. The note was brought up that there is a rider provision saying that there is an exception for those drugs that have shown medical promise, but we cannot prove that medical promise unless we fund the research to actually have it in the first place. So we have a catch-22, and we have to get rid of it. There are war-on-drugs provisions in so many Federal statutes beyond just the one schedule, the one scheduling of these drugs. I am a strong believer in evidence-based policymaking, and wherever there is evidence of good, we have a moral obligation to pursue and explore the parameters of that good, even if it means challenging our past assumptions or admitting past wrongs. Thirty percent of all military veterans have considered suicide--30 percent. So if a substance shows promise in treating PTSD, we have an obligation to study it. One of the leading causes of death in America today is suicide. So if a schedule I drug shows clinical promise in treating and in treatment- resistant depression, perhaps it is not the drug we should say is morally wrong, but perhaps it is the law, the schedule, the statute. {time} 0215 Moreover, I am proud to say that this is a bipartisan amendment. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle often bemoan the role of government and promote ideas of choice.…”