Did Jeff Sessions Just Increase the Odds Congress Will Make Marijuana Legal? The attorney general has created intolerable uncertainty for a growing industry that is now demanding legal protections from Congress. And lawmakers are listening. By JAMES HIGDON January 06, 2018 https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/06/jeff-sessions-marijuana-legalization-congress-216251 The fact that marijuana has now risen to the height of top-tier budget negotiations is a sign that the pro-marijuana coalition is no longer merely a menagerie of loud-mouth hippies, stoners, and felons, as the pro-pot crowd has been characterized in the past. The community of Americans who now rely on legal medical marijuana, estimated to be 2.6 million people in 2016, includes a variety of mainstream constituency groups like veterans, senior citizens, cancer survivors, and parents of epileptic children. "The American Legion, a conservative veterans organization by any measure, has voted twice in favor of resolutions to expand research and safe access for its members".
“The American Legion has been a leading advocate for the removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act to enable greater research into the medical efficacy of the drug to treat ailments that impact veterans such as PTSD and chronic pain,” Joe Plenzler, Director of Media Relations for The American Legion, told POLITICO Magazine — "which means Jeff Sessions just crossed the nation’s largest wartime veterans service organization".