| Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colorado. |
Congressman Jared Polis is among the majority of U.S. House representatives who voted in favor of defunding DEA raids on medical marijuana businesses in states where MMJ is legal. But even though that effort is currently stalled in the Senate, Polis is trying to push ahead on other cannabis-related fronts.
Case in point: Polis is among thirty Congressional signatories of a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell. The missive asks that Burwell take steps toward ending what Polis describes as the federal government’s “monopoly on marijuana research.”
“As you know, the feds list cannabis as a Schedule I narcotic, meaning it has no known or accepted medical use — even though more than twenty states and the District of Columbia have legalized MMJ,” Polis says. “A possible way to end this disconnect is to conduct studies that prove marijuana’s medical efficacy. But the letter maintains that “scientific research clearly documenting these benefits has often been hampered by federal barriers.”
Denver Westword has more.