Steve Cohen

I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will report the amendment. The Clerk read as follows: Page 22, line 25, after the first dollar amount, insert ``(increased by $2,000,000)''. Page 34, line 8, after the dollar…

Louis Brandeis, my favorite Supreme Court Justice, said that States are the laboratories of democracy.

I am a strong supporter of D.C.'s having the autonomy to address the issues as they did by a 10-1 vote.

In closing, I just want to comment that Mr. Goodlatte's committee has now produced this bill and the next bill, the Lummis-Cohen bill, and we came together to work against sex trafficking last week. So the Judiciary Committee, under the…

I do not dispute the report's findings but instead am interested in learning what Congress and our VA medical centers can do to help prevent incidents like these from reoccurring in my home and at VA medical centers across America.

While I do not sit on the VA Committee, today's hearing touches on an issue that unfortunately has affected veterans and their families in my home of Memphis, Tennessee.

I am concerned that in the five years after the colonoscopy debacle at the Miami VA, nothing has changed.

Schedule 1 says you cannot do any research on it. Why will you not ask the Secretary under Title 21, Chapter 13, to initiate that program to get marijuana out of Schedule 1? It is obviously not Schedule 1.

In my humble opinion, and I think the majority of the people in this country, there is no way that marijuana should be Schedule 1 because it is not in the same class as heroin and LSD as it in the Code, which breeds contempt for our laws.

Let me suggest to you that it is my understanding under Title 21 that you have the authority to initiate a request to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to do a study to look into marijuana and Schedule 1.

I appreciate what you have done, and some of the statements you have made have been most forward moving.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

You said you would definitely get a whole bunch of folks on both sides of the aisle?

I would just like to say that while this legislation and the previous legislation is going nowhere, we should be dealing with the issues that face the American people, the serious issue of jobs and the environment and global warming and…

First, I would like to say that Federal officer may be mentioned many times in the code, but not defined; not defined. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren).

Therefore, it needs to be rectified. Because the foundation of our society rests upon the law.

Because the basic respect for the law is so important and what we do as legislators, Congress people is pass laws.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do thank you for putting this together.

But the fact is we need to put our priorities toward heroin and meth.

Kids shouldn't use it. Kids shouldn't use it ever. And at age 18 people shouldn't be arrested for it.

And the fact that we spend so much time arresting people is sinful.

Maybe the reason that so many more people are smoking marijuana now is because they are not listening, and maybe they are doing the other drugs, too. But it also shows that the drug war has been a failure.

People don't smoke marijuana and beat up their wives and girlfriends.

Maybe marijuana doesn't kill you; heroin does and meth does. They are different.

The truth is the drug war failed. Your direction on marijuana is a failure.