Congressman Steve Cohen said marijuana should be medically available to the sick and decriminalized statewide during a marijuana advocacy event that took place at the University of Memphis.
Although this stance on cannabis is not new to the congressman, his voice adds to the growing movement across the nation to reform marijuana laws.
Twenty-three states and Washington D.C. have already legalized marijuana for medical use and four states have eliminated state laws against pot.
The event occurred on April 20—commonly know as 420 to some.
The U of M chapter of the National Organization sponsored the lecture for the Reform of Marijuana Laws—NORML.
Cohen shared a story about his close friend, OJ Mitchell Jr., who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and used marijuana in the last months of his life for relief.
“His mother, who was probably 85 at the time said, ‘Thank god for marijuana. It’s the only thing that makes him smile and helps him eat,’” Cohen said.
Cohen put the prohibition of pot into historical perspective and said that it stemmed quite directly from racial discrimination in the 1930s.
“People will sometimes whoop up on minority crowds to benefit their own political hopes,” Cohen said. “That is what happened with the war on drugs.”
Cohen said that he thinks it is “insane” that marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug alongside heroine and crack since marijuana hasn’t been directly linked to any death.
“Marijuana arrests have been shown to be highly discriminatory toward African Americans,” Cohen said. “The drug policy is part of the race policy and the race problem in this country. The civil war is still going on. Appomattox was a blip.”
Most recently Cohen sponsored the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States (or CARERS) in 2015, a federal bill that would reduce the federal government’s ability to crack down on medical marijuana in states where it has been legalized.
Although he admitted to feeling less than optimistic about the passing of the bill, he said that it has caused more people to examine their positions, especially when they see six republicans and six democrats.
“We want to keep bringing republicans in so that they feel more comfortable seeing their colleagues support it,” Cohen said.
The congressman said that the road to decriminalization is a work in progress that will take time.
He advised young advocates to talk to mayoral candidates about policy changes within the police department. He also suggested citizens urge for citations in lieu of arrest for certain amounts of pot.
“The city could do it,” Cohen said. “If the mayor tells the police department, ‘we don’t want to mess with marijuana, write these people citations, or look the other way,’”
Flannigan said that Cohen is the politician to go to if you’re in charge of NORML.
“Getting him to come to campus was actually easy,” Flannigan said, “He was happy to do it, and we were really excited.”
Hallie Flannigan, a history senior and founder of U of M’s NORML chapter, said that the date of the lecture was more incidental than anything else.
“It was last semester, and we knew that for our big event we wanted him to come to campus and talk to the students,” Flannigan said. “We weren’t really trying to send a message, the dates just happened to fall really close to 420, and he said, ‘Why not?’”
