Marijuana Opponents ‘Have Lost’ The Debate, GOP Senator Says, Arguing ‘It’s Time’ To Regulate It Like Alcohol And Tobacco

A GOP senator says opponents of marijuana legalization “have lost” the
fight to maintain prohibition and that “it’s time” for lawmakers to address
that reality by creating a regulatory framework treating cannabis “in the
same way that we do with alcohol and tobacco,” so that states can set their
own policies without federal intervention.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday that featured
witnesses from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Sen.
Thom Tillis (R-NC) pressed the DEA representative on cannabis policy issues.

“I have tried to keep pounding the table and saying, ‘Folks, those of us
who were not necessarily eager to legalize pot have lost,'” the senator
said. “The majority of states have legalized it at some level or another. I
don’t really have a whole lot of emotions about it personally, but for the
fact that I don’t think we’re regulating it properly, and I do believe it’s
just become another distribution channel for the cartels.”

Tillis seemed to be arguing that the absence of federal regulations, and
the policy disconnect with states that have increasingly enacted
legalization, has created a vacuum that’s allowed illicit operators to
thrive.

“We’ve got to get this under control. We have to realize that pot is going
to be legal in this country in one form or another, and virtually every
other state,” he said. “We can either figure out how to regulate it by
putting a U.S. Department of Agriculture regimen in [and] an [Food and Drug
Administration, or FDA] regimen in the same way that we do with alcohol and
tobacco are.”

*Watch the senator’s remarks on cannabis policy at the hearing in the video
below, starting around 2:11:00:*


“We’re going to get way down the road without control over inputs, and the
next thing the cartels are going to do is figure out how they can put—in
the race for potency, once they run out of how you can actually do this
through the plants, they’re going to figure out some way to make this more
potent and more deadly,” the senator said.

He also said that he feels “very strongly that we need to have a separate
meeting about how do we create a construct that, if states want to opt
into, they can—not make it legal federally—or this is getting out of
control.”

The senator also spent time pressing DEA Special Agent in Charge Los
Angeles Field Division Matthew Allen on an issue in his home state, where
the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has legalized both medical and
adult-use cannabis while the rest of the state remains under a system of
broad prohibition.

Despite repeatedly calling for a federal regulatory structure for
marijuana, Tillis has consistently taken issue with the policy disconnect
between state, federal and tribal governments. However, he said he
recognizes “they have a right to sell marijuana, I guess, as a as a
recognized tribe.”

“But they’re growing in one place and selling in another place. Not only
are they—and let’s face it, folks, it’s a casino operation. It’s a
destination. People are buying this stuff,” he said, referring to the
Cherokees’ land, called the Qualla Boundary. “You’d have to be out of your
mind to think that they’re going to dispose of whatever is not used by the
time they leave.”

It’s an “anomaly” that represents “one example of what happens when
Congress fails to act on something that I think it’s time for us to act
on,” Tillis said.


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Back in February, the senator also raised the issue during a Senate Banking
Committee hearing, saying “we should reexamine [federal marijuana laws].”
But at the same time, “we damn sure shouldn’t do it by passing” legislation
that would simply prevent federal regulators from penalizing banks that
work with state-legal cannabis businesses.

“If somebody wants to work on rules of the road and do that—and bank the
industry in a cohesive, sustainable way that doesn’t kind of skirt around
the fact that it’s still illegal at the federal level—count me in. Happy to
do it,” Tillis said.

Tillis also said last December that he’s hopeful Congress will have a
“discussion” about potentially creating a federal regulatory framework for
marijuana in 2025, though he added that he personally wouldn’t vote to
federally legalize cannabis.

Last July, the senator separately said that he supports creating a
“comprehensive regulatory framework that treats marijuana just like
tobacco,” arguing that “the federal government needs to figure out a safe
way to allow this market to occur.”

The latest remarks in the Senate committee hearing come about two months
after Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) once again introduced the Preparing Regulators
Effectively for a Post-Prohibition Adult-Use Regulated Environment Act
(PREPARE) Act, which would direct the attorney general to create a
commission charged with making recommendations on a regulatory system for
cannabis that models what’s currently in place for alcohol.

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*Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen.*

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Arguing ‘It’s Time’ To Regulate It Like Alcohol And Tobacco appeared first
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