Title:
Ask Governor O’Malley to support efforts to reclassify marijuana
Message:
As you may
have heard, Governors Christine Gregoire of Washington and Lincoln Chafee of
Rhode Island recently
submitted a petition asking the federal government to change its policy
with respect to medical marijuana. Marijuana is currently considered a “Schedule
I” drug, with a high potential for abuse and “no currently accepted medical use
in treatment in the United States.” As the hundreds of thousands of patients
protected by state medical marijuana programs can tell you, that is patently
false.
Unfortunately,
the petition only asks that marijuana be moved to Schedule II, which would
still leave it very difficult for patients to obtain medicine. And
regrettably, Chafee and Gregoire have used the petition as cover for their
failure to implement laws passed by their state legislatures that would have
made medical marijuana available to patients through well-regulated channels.
Nonetheless, moving marijuana out of Schedule I is an important step in the
right direction that other governors should support.
Please ask Maryland Governor Martin
O’Malley to join other governors in asking the federal government to reclassify
marijuana.
Maryland needs a well-regulated
system through which patients can obtain medical marijuana, and this change to
federal law would eventually help facilitate access. Moreover, there are 34
states with no medical marijuana laws at all. Governors from Vermont and
Connecticut have already announced that they will join the rescheduling effort,
and you can ask Governor O’Malley to do the same by emailing him now.
