Trump Dismisses GOP Lawmakers’ Opposition To His Marijuana Rescheduling...

President Donald Trump on Thursday dismissed the concerns of GOP lawmakers
who oppose his freshly signed executive order to reschedule marijuana,
pointing out that an overwhelming majority of Americans support the reform
and that cannabis can help people—including his personal friends—who are
suffering from serious health issues.

At a signing ceremony, the president issued an order directing the attorney
general to “complete” the process of moving marijuana from Schedule I to
Schedule III in the “most expeditious manner,” while also announcing plans
to make full-spectrum CBD products available to patients through their
health providers that could be covered by Medicare.

After signing the order, Trump was asked about GOP opposition to the
reclassification decision, which included a last-ditch push from groups of
House and Senate Republicans to dissuade him from moving forward.

The president said he’d prefer to have the medical professionals in
attendance at the event take that question, but emphasized that polling has
found that four in five Americans are in favor of rescheduling cannabis.
The reform wouldn’t legalize marijuana, but it would ease research
restrictions and let marijuana businesses take federal tax deductions
available to other traditional industries.

“I can only tell you that when you see polls [showing] 82 percent of the
people want this” and have friends who are “really, really sick” and found
relief with cannabis, the policy makes sense, Trump said.

Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), also
responded to the reporter’s question about GOP lawmaker opposition,
stressing that strictly prohibiting marijuana as a Schedule I drug for
decades “hasn’t protected neither the adolescents nor the adults.”

“This is not legalizing it. It’s making it easier to do research,” Volkow,
who has long criticized keeping cannabis in Schedule I due to research
limitations, said.

Meanwhile, amid the heightened rumors that the Trump administration would
be moving forward on marijuana rescheduling, multiple top congressional
Democrats made the case that the reform would not go far enough—including
one senator who said the move is only an attempt by the president to
“gaslight” voters into thinking he legalized cannabis to boost his
“pathetic” approval ratings.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), one of the more vocal prohibitionists in Congress,
said this week that Trump doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally
reschedule marijuana via executive order. But while lawmakers could
overrule any administrative move to enact the reform, it would be a “heavy
lift” in the Republican-controlled Congress, he acknowledged.

The post Trump Dismisses GOP Lawmakers’ Opposition To His Marijuana
Rescheduling Action, Pointing To Polling And Medical Benefits appeared
first on Marijuana Moment.