[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5774-5775]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          TAKE MARIJUANA OUT OF THE CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, last week, Attorney General Holder said 
that he would be happy to work with Congress to reexamine how marijuana 
is scheduled under Federal statutes.
  That is a thoughtful effort, but I hope the Attorney General realizes

[[Page 5775]]

that the time for examination and reexamination has passed. It is now 
time for him and the administration to act.
  The jury has returned its verdict on medical marijuana. More than a 
million patients use it in managing chemotherapy symptoms, chronic 
pain, PTSD in our soldiers, and epilepsy, particularly in severe 
epilepsy that afflicts children; 70 percent of Americans think that 
medical marijuana should be legal, and I honestly believe that, if the 
other 30 percent had a child who was subject to these severe epileptic 
seizures or if a loved one had unbearable chronic pain, they would come 
around as well.
  Marijuana is currently listed as a schedule I drug. That is the same 
classification as heroin or as LSD. It is higher than cocaine or 
methamphetamines. This makes no sense whatsoever. No one dies from a 
marijuana overdose, and the alleged less dangerous methamphetamines 
have been ravaging communities, particularly in rural and smalltown 
America, and people do die, and people do commit violent acts.
  The Attorney General has called on Congress to act, and in fact, we 
have. Working in a bipartisan way, we have introduced a variety of 
bills that do everything from creating a regulatory framework to tax 
marijuana, to bills to protect State marijuana laws from Federal 
interference, to legalizing the production of industrial hemp; but the 
dysfunction of Congress has kept these simple, commonsense bills from 
passing to this point.
  What we need is for the Attorney General and those who work for him 
at the DEA to at least move marijuana off the schedule I or the 
schedule II of controlled substances. This is something they can do 
under their own initiative.
  Relisting or delisting marijuana could make it easier for researchers 
to gain access to the drug. It will allow marijuana businesses, which 
are perfectly legal in over 20 States, to deduct their business 
expenses like all other legal businesses.
  It could give States more flexibility in dealing with it as a public 
health issue, and it would reflect what every teenager in America 
knows--but apparently what the DEA does not know--marijuana is not more 
dangerous than cocaine and methamphetamines, and to pretend otherwise 
means that young people and the general public will take the DEA less 
seriously.
  I am inviting the Attorney General to visit us here on Capitol Hill, 
or we will go to his office to go over these points in person with a 
bipartisan group that has been working on these issues, whose advice 
and counsel should be helpful to him.
  However, the easiest path forward for the Attorney General remains 
the same: take marijuana off the schedule I. A cab ride to Capitol Hill 
is not going to change that. We hope we can see some action and see it 
soon.

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