Today in cannabis news: North Carolina state Senators take action on a medical cannabis legalization proposal; Democrats in the U.S. Congress contradict President Joe Biden by attempting to lift the prohibition on cannabis retail in Washington, D.C.; and the Department of Veterans Affairs continues to resist a measure that would require cannabis research for military veterans.
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** First up: This week, a North Carolina state Senate panel amended a proposal to legalize medical cannabis, laying the scene for the committee’s passage at an upcoming hearing. The Judiciary Committee approved a substitute iteration of the proposal, spearheaded by Rules Committee Chairman Bill Rabon (R), with a voice vote.
Patients with a “debilitating medical condition” including cancer, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis would be eligible for medical cannabis within the measure. Further eligible criteria could be added by authorities.
“There is nothing less compassionate on this Earth than to watch a person you love suffer when there is something that can ameliorate at least that suffering,” Sen. Rabon, a cancer survivor, remarked in an opening speech.
Per a report, a 13-member Medical Cannabis Advisory Board would be authorized to “review petitions to add a new debilitating medical condition and have the power to add a new debilitating medical condition” within a substitute amendment accepted by the panel.
** Next up: In spite of President Joe Biden including a rider in their budget proposal last month prohibiting Washington, D.C. from utilizing tax revenue to legalize cannabis retail, lawmakers of a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee published a sweeping spending proposal that would remove that restriction, as well as safeguard banks that serve state-authorized cannabis firms.
The omission of the D.C. clause from the Fiscal Year 2022 FSGG spending proposal could lead to a dispute among Congress and the president. The Biden administration has previously frustrated activists by failing to follow through on campaign promises to take significant steps on cannabis legalization, and their insertion of the D.C. rider was perceived as a spiteful gesture.
In April, the mayor of the District stated that local authorities are ready to go forth with establishing a legal structure of recreational cannabis retail in the country’s capital as early as when they overcome the remaining “hurdle” of federal involvement.
The persistent impasse stems from an amendment introduced by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) when Republicans held a House majority and has since carried through yearly appropriations bills. The House has advanced spending bills without the cannabis restriction multiple times since then, but the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, pressed on reapplying it in officially approved legislation.
** Last up: This week, a Senate panel heard testimony on a measure that would mandate the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to perform clinical studies into the medicinal properties of cannabis for military veterans suffering from PTSD and chronic pain. However, a VA spokesperson said President Joe Biden’s administration is in opposition to the measure.
Regardless of bipartisan backing for providing veterans with alternative medications such as cannabis, VA Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Health for Community Care, Mark Upton stated unequivocally that the organization “does not support this proposed legislation.”
Although the VA is not opposed to cannabis studies for veterans in general, it claims that the new law is unneeded since it is already “dedicating resources and research expertise to study the effects of cannabis on conditions affecting veterans.”
Upton, who was hired to the position by then-President Trump in 2020 and has continued to serve in the Biden administration, stated that the measure “is not consistent with the current state of scientific evidence, which suggests that smaller, early-phase, controlled clinical trials with a focused set of specific aims are optimal to determine proof of concept for the use of cannabis in treating specific conditions.”
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