USA: New Congressional Hearing Scheduled – “Is the Department of Justice Adequately Protecting the Public from the Impact of State Recreational Marijuana Legalization?”

30 March 2016

Hearing Page URL
http://www.drugcaucus.senate.gov/content/grassley-feinstein-convene-drug-caucus-hearing-%E2%80%9C-department-justice-adequately-protecting

Marijuana.com reports

Its witness list is stacked with ardent prohibitionists, including:

  • Doug Peterson, the Nebraska attorney general who oversaw a lawsuit his state and Oklahoma filed together against neighboring Colorado over its legal marijuana law. The U.S. Supreme Court decided last week not to hear the case.
  • Benjamin Wagner, a U.S. attorney from California who helped to lead a crackdown against state-legal medical marijuana dispensaries during the first term of the Obama administration.
  • Kathryn Wells, a medical doctor from Denver and a board member of leading anti-legalization organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

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The caucus, which has the status of a Senate standing committee, is chaired by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and its co-chair is Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Both lawmakers have have long been among Congress’s most dedicated proponents of the war on drugs, arguing against efforts to reform marijuana laws whenever possible.

Also scheduled to testify at the hearing is Jennifer Grover of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which released a report last month criticizing the Justice Department for not having a clear plan for deciding when to enforce federal drug laws against people who are operating in accordance with state marijuana legalization programs.

That report was requested by Grassley and Feinstein, who aren’t happy with the relative leeway the Obama administration has given states to implement their own marijuana laws without much federal interference.

The full report can be accessed at the following url and is definitely worth another 5 minutes of your time
 http://www.marijuana.com/blog/news/2016/03/obamas-not-keeping-us-safe-from-legal-marijuana-senators-say/

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