On March 10, 2015, Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States (CARERS) Act to the United States Senate. This landmark act is the first comprehensive medical marijuana legalization legislation introduced in the Senate.
Also, as of April 21, 2015, CARERS is under consideration in the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations in the United States House of Representatives. Why is a bill promoting federal legalization getting consideration from a Republican-led Congress? Is this not the party that started the “war” on drugs to begin with?
A changing tide in the Republican Party
The current chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), has a track record of shooting down marijuana reform. This has drawn the ire of influential marijuana activist groups like the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which gave him a “hard on drugs” marijuana voting rating of -20. Yet, it’s Sensenbrenner who may hold the key to the passage of CARERS in the House.
In a surprising about-face, Sensenbrenner was among the group of Republicans who broke away from the social conservative wing of the party and voted in favor of the March 2015 Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment that prohibits the Department of Justice from interfering with state medical marijuana programs and the patients who rely on them. It was the largest show of support for medical marijuana reform in congressional history.
Building bipartisan support in the Senate
Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have also changed their tune on the medical marijuana issue. Their future support is vital for getting CARERS passed through more committees in the Senate.
In 2013, Grassley condemned medical marijuana. As part of a prepared statement for hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he wrote, “Marijuana’s continued presence on this statute’s list of illegal substances isn’t based on a whim. It’s based on what science tells us about this dangerous and addictive drug.”
Representing California, a state where medical marijuana has been legal for 20 years, Feinstein’s criticism of federal government attempts to legalize medical marijuana is more nuanced. In an interview in early 2015, Feinstein noted, “There may very well be a place for medical marijuana, and I think there is…but the research has to be done. And I think for our government not to do that research is a huge mistake.”
In spite of their concerns, Feinstein and Grassley teamed up to write a key editorial in TIME encouraging medical marijuana research at the federal level. The editorial went on to imply that they might support CARERS by the time it’s ready for a vote. In the Senate, CARERS is stuck in the preliminary stages of review and has yet to go before any committees, though key provisions of CARERS have passed through the Appropriations Committee as piecemeal amendments.
Notable progress towards legalization
In a big leap this year, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed four independent amendments also present in the CARERS Act. The amendments allow Veterans Administration doctors to recommend marijuana to their patients, permit banks to provide financial services to medical marijuana businesses in states where it is legal, prohibit the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from undermining state medical marijuana laws, and prohibit the DEA from undermining state hemp research laws.
The rapid changes in these federal laws have opened the floodgates for legalization. As of October 2015, 23 states, along with the District of Columbia and Guam, now allow for comprehensive public medical marijuana and cannabis programs. A slim majority of the American population also supports the legalization of marijuana in general.
The remaining elephant in the room is that marijuana is still classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, putting it in the same class as heroin and cocaine with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” The federal government will need to address this discrepancy and reschedule marijuana as a Schedule II controlled substance before general legalization can occur.
It’s exciting to watch federal medical marijuana policy evolve after seeing so much change at the state level. Even if the CARERS Act continues to stall in the House, it is sure to gain more ground in the Senate and perhaps get a boost from the new Speaker of the House in late 2015.
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