Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chair, I rise to oppose the amendment. My State is named in the amendment.

Look, everyone supports compassionate, effective medical care for patients with cancer, epilepsy, chronic pain. You will probably hear anecdotal reports, maybe even during the testimony this evening, about how medical marijuana can solve some of these problems.

There are two problems with medical marijuana. First, it is the camel's nose under the tent; and second, the amendment as written would tie the DEA's hands beyond medical marijuana.

With regard to the camel's nose under the tent, let me just quote from the DEA report just published this month: Organizers behind the medical marijuana movement did not really concern themselves with marijuana as a medicine. They just saw it as a means to an end, which is the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes. They did not deal with ensuring that the product meets the standards of modern medicine: quality, safety, and efficacy.

Because, Mr. Chairman, the term ``medical marijuana'' is generally used to refer--and this is from the NIH. We respect the NIH. This is the National Institute on Drug Abuse: The term ``medical marijuana'' is generally used to refer to the whole, unprocessed marijuana plant or its crude extracts.

Mr. Chairman, that is not what medicine is about. Medicine is about refining the components THC and CBD, actually making sure they are efficacious, giving the exact dose, not two joints a day, not a brownie here, a biscuit there. That is not modern medicine. In fact, the DEA supports those studies, looking at the safety and efficacy and dosing regimens for these, THC, CBD. They have licensed some of the drugs.

Mr. Chairman, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, medical and street marijuana are not different. Most marijuana sold in dispensaries as medicine, again reading from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is the same quality and carries the same health risks as marijuana sold on the street.

Mr. Chairman, we know there are health problems. The problem is that the way the amendment is drafted, in a State like Maryland which has medical marijuana, if we ever legalized it, the amendment would stop the DEA from going after more than medical marijuana.

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Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chair, marijuana is neither safe nor legal. Let's get it straight. The Controlled Substances Act makes marijuana in the United States illegal because it is not safe.

Mr. Chairman, there is more and more evidence every day that it is not safe. The effect on the brains, developing brains of teenagers and young adults, is becoming more and more clear, as the doctor from Louisiana has talked about, the effect on affect, the effect on mood; it is not safe.

Mr. Chairman, this is not a medicine. This would be like me as a physician saying: You know, I think you need penicillin, go chew on some mold. Of course I wouldn't do that. I write: for 250 milligrams of penicillin q.6 hours times 10 days. I don't write: chew on a mold a couple of times a day.

Mr. Chairman, why don't we have therapeutic tobacco? Nicotine, one of the substances in tobacco, purified is actually useful as a drug to treat autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy. Nobody writes a prescription: smoke a couple of cigarettes and cure your epilepsy. But that is what we are being asked to do.

Mr. Chairman, worse than that, this blurs the line in those States that have gone beyond medical marijuana. For instance, in Colorado, under Amendment 64, a person can grow six plants under the new law for general use, but if it is medical marijuana you can grow as many plants as you want as long you can prove you have a medicinal use.

So how is the DEA going to enforce anything when, under this amendment, they are prohibited from going into that person's house growing as many plants as they want, because that is legal under the medical marijuana part of the law, not under the new law?

Mr. Chairman, this is not the right place for this. The Ogden memorandum from this administration clearly states that the Department of Justice does not prioritize prosecution for medical marijuana--clearly states it. They don't do it. This is a solution in search of a problem that opens many other doors to the dangers of marijuana.

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