Republican lawmakers push back on federally legalizing marijuana

While a majority of Congress supports the federal legalization of marijuana in some form, a small but vocal group of conservatives remain successful in thwarting recent marijuana bills.

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), one of the leading voices against the legalization of marijuana on Capitol Hill, successfully garnered enough opposition to stop a bill in April that would have directed the Department of Veterans Affairs to research the use of marijuana on issues such as PTSD.

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“I just look at the cultural effects and the legal outcomes of this and think, why would we as a nation say, ‘this is going so well we should do more of it’?” Lankford told Politico in an article published Monday. “We’ve opened up marijuana without any kind of regulation of any significance for what the product is and how it’s delivered.”

Lankford also organized a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration, signed by 14 lawmakers, to reject the Health and Human Services recommendation to reschedule the drug’s classification. A companion bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX).

The senator’s motivation for his anti-marijuana stance comes from stories and anecdotes he hears from his constituents. Lankford said he cannot remember a time in his more than 20 years as a youth pastor when using marijuana made things better for a child and their family, and it made a situation worse many times.  

Despite the vocal minority of lawmakers who decry making marijuana legal on the federal level, there is no concentrated or organized effort to stymie the legislation, according to nearly a dozen lawmakers in both chambers of Congress. There are also different levels of opposition to marijuana, with some legislators liking the drug for medical purposes but not recreational use.

Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA), a pharmacist who is in favor of marijuana research and medicinal use, said he does not know who circulated the rescheduling House petition but said his stance on marijuana is widely known.

“I am in favor of the medicinal use of the basic ingredients — but I’m not in favor of the recreational use of marijuana,” Carter said. “Most people know that and that’s probably why they circulated it to me.”

Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Ted Budd (R-NC) are also known for opposing marijuana legislation. So are Sessions, Carter, and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) in the House.

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Despite the setbacks created by Republicans, supporters of marijuana legalization have seen some momentum on the Hill and in the White House this year. President Joe Biden signed a standalone bill that will expand medical research on marijuana earlier this year, and a bill to expand access to banking services for the marijuana industry passed the Senate Banking Committee last month. The bill was approved with bipartisan support.

A total of 23 states have legalized the recreational use of marijuana for adults, along with Washington, D.C., Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Virginia and Minnesota are among the 23 states to have legalized the drug, according to Reuters.