Texas Republican Ron Paul will join Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank to reintroduce bipartisan legislation providing for the use of medicinal marijuana by seriously ill patients.
The bill, scheduled to be introduced tomorrow, is identical to legislation previously introduced this year by Rep. Frank (H.R. 1344) except it no longer includes provisions mandating federal officials to provide marijuana for investigational new drug (IND) studies. That clause will be reintroduced as a separate bill at a later date, a spokesman from Rep. Frank’s office said.
The Frank-Paul bill reschedules marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II under federal law so that physicians may legally prescribe it under controlled circumstances. It also permits state legislatures that wish to establish medical marijuana distribution systems the legal authority to do so.
NORML’s Keith Stroup calls the proposal a streamlined effort to get medicinal marijuana to those who need it. “Historically, voters and state legislatures have been more receptive to this issue than the federal government. This legislation addresses this paradigm and effectively gets the government out of the way of those states that wish to regulate marijuana as a medicine.”
Stroup said that he welcomed Congressman Paul’s decision to co-sponsor the bill. “Providing an effective medicine to those seriously ill patients that need it is neither a Democrat nor Republican issue,” he says. “It should be the goal of legislators from both political parties.”
Since 1996, nine states – Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington – have enacted laws allowing patients to possess and use marijuana medicinally under a doctor’s supervision. In March, the Supreme Court ruled that federal law forbids the manufacture and distribution of marijuana for medical purposes, but did not decide on whether individual patients may legally use marijuana in states authorizing its use.
Seventeen co-sponsors signed on to Frank’s original bill. All 17, with the addition of Rep. Paul, are expected to co-sponsor the new bill.
For more information, please contact Keith Stroup, Executive Director of NORML, at (202) 483-5500 or Mark Levine at Rep. Frank’s office at (202) 225-5931.
