Times are changing: Congressman admits to marijuana use in office

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) didn’t say he’s been toking it up in the Rayburn Building. But the lawmaker’s admission to using a marijuana-based medicine to relieve his arthritis is still a big deal.

Though medical marijuana is legal in Rohrabacher’s home state, it remains prohibited by federal law.

Despite countless reports of individuals who find relief using medical marijuana products that is better, or comes with fewer side effects, than what Big Pharma can provide, the feds maintain that cannabis has “no currently accepted medical use” and “a high potential for abuse.”

During a recent address to a gathering of marijuana reform activists, Rohrabacher said he has to disagree based on personal experience.

“I haven’t been able to go surfing for a year-and-a-half and I’ve been in severe pain,” Rohrabacher said as he made a paddling motion, according to Cannabis Radio. “Because I spent all this time doing that, which I can barely do now.”

But the lawmaker said he found something to help ease the pain of the arthritis that keeps him from surfing.

“I went to one of these hempfests in San Bernardino,” Rohrabacher said.

There the lawmaker learned of a topical cream made from marijuana.

“And you know what? I tried it about two weeks ago, and it’s the first time… in a year-and-a-half that I’ve had a decent night’s sleep, because the arthritis pain was gone,” he said.

Rohrabacher then pointed out the stupidity of federal laws that keep Americans all over the country from seeking alternative treatments via marijuana-based products.

“Now don’t tell anybody I broke the law,” he said. “They’ll bust down my door and, you know, and take whatever’s inside and use it for evidence against me. The bottom line is that… there’s definitely cannabis in there, and it makes sure that I can sleep now.”

NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre told Cannabis Radio that Rohrabacher is “the first legislator in Congress in at least thirty-some-odd years who has acknowledged to using marijuana illegally.”

“Back in the 19-early-80s, there was a congressman, Stewart McKinney… and he and a guy named Newt Gingrich introduced a bill, and it was all about his [McKinney’s] need to use medical marijuana, even back in the 1980s,” he said.

The post Times are changing: Congressman admits to marijuana use in office appeared first on Personal Liberty®.

from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/05/30/times-are-changing-congressman-admits-to-marijuana-use-in-office/

from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2016/05/29/times-are-changing-congressman-admits-to-marijuana-use-in-office/