Political Quotes

“This has been a very important week in the evolution of the Federal policy to end the failed policy of prohibition on cannabis. Yesterday, the House overwhelmingly approved my amendment that would prohibit the Department of Justice from interfering with any State- legal cannabis activities. We had also approved an amendment that granted the same protections to the Tribes. This is remarkable progress that we have seen, but it is just an effort by Congress to catch up to where the rest of the American public is. For the last 23 years, American voters have changed the policies that are outmoded and dangerous. Most recently, we have seen a wave of activity dealing not just with medical marijuana but dealing with adult use. The public, by a two-thirds margin, supports this. And, when we talk about medical marijuana, it is like the Fourth of July. Ninety percent of the American public believes that we ought to have access to medical marijuana. I have been working in this Congress to extend the same opportunities to our veterans, who, if anything, need medical marijuana more than any other category of our citizens. We lost 7,000 people to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but we have lost over 100,000 veterans to suicides and opioid overdoses. The VA, I am afraid, has not been as helpful as it should be. They prescribe opioids for our veterans at a rate 50 percent higher than others. Our veterans are twice as likely to die from overdose.…”