Home Culture Lawmakers Not Joking About DEA Chief Chuck Rosenberg

Lawmakers Not Joking About DEA Chief Chuck Rosenberg

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The Marijuana Times recently reported on DEA Chief Chuck Rosenberg calling medical marijuana “a joke”. Cannabis activists with the Marijuana Majority who were outraged with Rosenberg’s comments created a petition at Change.Org that calls on President Obama to fire Rosenberg. The petition has since gone viral, receiving about 100,000 signatures.

“Several people who rely on marijuana to treat the symptoms of serious illnesses will deliver more than 100,000 petition signatures to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) headquarters today calling for Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg to be fired or step down after he called medical cannabis a joke.” A spokesperson for The Marijuana Majority said in a press release.

The Marijuana Majority is an organization dedicated to ensuring that politicians, government officials and the media treat medical cannabis with the fairness it deserves.

According to the Washington Post, a bipartisan group of seven lawmakers have gotten the message loud and clear, and today called on the president to fire the acting leader of the Drug Enforcement Administration. They join nearly 100,000 patients and family who were infuriated by Rosenberg’s dismissal of medical marijuana as “a joke” earlier this month.

The seven lawmakers agree that Rosenberg’s statements are “indicative of a throwback ideology rooted in a failed War on Drugs,” the letter, written by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D. -Or.), states. “They do not reflect the overwhelming body of testimonial evidence, reforms happening across the country at the state level and in Congress, or the opinion of the American people.”

23 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Guam have some form of medical cannabis program. Seventeen more states allow the limited use of certain extracts, primarily by children suffering from severe seizure disorders. Americans for Safe Access supports the petition, as they report more than two million Americans who use medical cannabis in accordance with these state laws.

The letter ends with lawmakers delivering a knockout blow:

“The DEA itself has been integral to limiting access to marijuana that can be legally used for research, creating bottleneck and uncertainty challenges for potential researchers. Currently, all marijuana used for research purposes in the U.S. must come from a single facility. Through his statements, Mr. Rosenberg has demonstrated he is not the right person to hold the job as head of the DEA and we urge you to find new leadership that can work to develop the right tools to properly rationalize our treatment of marijuana.”

 These lawmakers are representing the will of the people who are in support of legal medical cannabis. Kudos to them!

Read More:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/19/a-growing-chorus-of-lawmakers-wants-obama-to-fire-the-nations-top-drug-cop/

https://www.change.org/p/obama-fire-dea-head-for-calling-medical-marijuana-a-joke/u/14275238