September 16, 2017
The last time we checked in on Jeff Sessions and his "war on pot," things were not looking good.
In that Aug. 26 "weekender," we noted that Republican operative Roger Stone, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, and President Donald Trump himself had all lined up on the other side of that "war."
Well, things just got even worse for the beleaguered U.S. Attorney General.
In a pun-filled floor speech Sept. 13, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) announced the Marijuana Effective Drug Study Act of 2017 (MEDS Act), which encourages medical marijuana research and helps medical researchers.
"It's high time to address research into medical marijuana," Hatch said. "Our country has experimented with a variety of state solutions without properly delving into the weeds on the effectiveness, safety, dosing, administration, and quality of medical marijuana."
In introducing the legislation, Hatch was joined by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and cosponsors Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Thom Tillis (R-NC).
Hatch is no average senator. As Senate president pro tempore, he is third in line to the presidency behind Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.
And now, he's leading the bipartisan effort to force Sessions to "increase the national marijuana quota in a timely manner to meet the changing medical, scientific, and industrial needs for marijuana."
The MEDS Act aims to improve the process for conducting scientific research on marijuana as a safe and effective medical treatment. It encourages more research by streamlining the research registration process as well as make marijuana more available for legitimate scientific and medical research.
The act is in direct opposition to Sessions' stance on marijuana legalization. Sessions has long held the view that "good people just don't smoke marijuana" and has been a staunch opponent of legalization in any form - recreational or medicinal.
Just last month, the Senate Committee on Appropriations - which determines spending legislation - voted to reapprove the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment, blocks the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) from using any federal funds to go after medical marijuana patients and businesses in states that have legalized marijuana.
All this, of course, is a huge relief for thousands of people using medical marijuana across the country - especially those suffering from chronic pain.
We're at the beginning of a sea change in how we treat chronic pain, shifting from opioid-based ones to cannabis-based ones. Should the MEDS Act pass, more medical marijuana researchers will have the ability to freely research and develop new medicines.
I'm talking about treatments like Epidiolex, the new cannabis-based epilepsy therapy developed by GW Pharmaceuticals PLC (Nasdaq ADR: GWPH). It's near the end of the process of obtaining U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval right now.
Remember, the $6.7 billion legal marijuana market is estimated to top $35 billion by 2020. And a few dozen tiny stocks are set to deliver potentially once-in-a-lifetime windfalls.
Have a great week
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