A Sensible Bill on Medical Marijuana

By THE EDITORIAL BOARDMARCH 11, 2015

Three senators, two Democrats and a Republican, introduced a bill on Tuesday that would allow
patients to use marijuana for medical purposes in states where it is legal, without fear of federal
prosecution for violating narcotics laws.
The bill makes a number of important changes to federal marijuana policies and it deserves to be
passed by Congress and enacted into law. Though this legislation would not repeal the broad and
destructive federal ban on marijuana, it is a big step in the right direction.
The most important change would reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug under the Controlled
Substances Act, which is intended for drugs, like heroin, that have no accepted medical use in the
United States, and place it instead in Schedule II, the classification for drugs that have a legitimate
medical use but also have a high potential for abuse.
The Schedule I classification made no sense because there is a medical consensus that patients with
AIDS, cancer, epilepsy and serious degenerative conditions can benefit from marijuana. And millions
of patients have used marijuana to relieve pain, nausea, appetite loss, insomnia and seizures
associated with various illnesses.
The bill, sponsored by Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, both
Democrats, and Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentucky, would not legalize medical marijuana in all 50
states. But it would amend federal law to allow states to set their own medical marijuana policies and
prevent federal law enforcement agencies from prosecuting patients, doctors and caregivers in those
states. Currently 35 states and the District of Columbia permit some form of medical marijuana use.
States would remain free to ban medical marijuana if they wished.
Other important provisions would allow banks and credit unions to provide financial services to
marijuana-related businesses that operate in accord with state law and protect them from federal
prosecution or investigation. That is a crucial improvement over the current situation where
marijuana business that is legal under state law is conducted in cash because financial institutions
fear to step in.
The bill would also allow doctors in the Department of Veterans Affairs to prescribe medical
marijuana to veterans, which they are currently prohibited from doing. And it would ease the overly
strict procedures for obtaining marijuana for medical research and require the Food and Drug
Administration to more readily allow the manufacture of marijuana for research.
An encouraging development last year may bode well for enactment of the legislation this year. A
surprisingly strong bipartisan majority in the House voted for a one-year provision barring the Justice
Department from using its funds to prevent states from carrying out their own laws authorizing the
use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana.
The provision was approved by a vote of 219 to 189, with 49 Republicans and 170 Democrats voting in
favor. The Senate adopted the same provision and President Obama signed it into law.
Polls show a majority of Americans in favor of legalization of medical marijuana. It is long past time
for Congress to recognize the need to change course.
Correction: March 11, 2015

An earlier version of this editorial misstated the day that a bill to allow patients to use marijuana
for medical purposes was introduced. It was on Tuesday, not Monday