Press Releases

Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) today joined 26 bipartisan Senators and Representatives in sending a letter to President Obama urging him to remove barriers to research on medical marijuana and facilitate new medical research on cannabis and its derivatives.

Griffith said, “While I do not support marijuana for recreational use, countless reports tell of marijuana’s medicinal benefits in treating conditions such as cancer, glaucoma, and epilepsy, including a recently released landmark study conducted in part at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago which found a marijuana extract significantly decreased seizures in severely epileptic children.  Unlike many other circumstances, I am of the belief that this is a situation in which President Obama has the authority to appropriately use his pen and his phone and allow the advancement of research in order to help sick people.  It is time marijuana’s medicinal benefits be researched further.”

Griffith was joined by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN), U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-MI), U.S. Representative Sam Farr (D-CA), U.S Representative Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), U.S. Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA), U.S. Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA), Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), U.S. Representative Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI), U.S. Representative Jared Polis (D-CO), U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA), U.S. Representative Adam Smith (D-WA), U.S. Representative Dina Titus (D-NV), and U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA).

The full text of the letter is attached.

In April 2014, Griffith introduced H.R. 4498, the Legitimate Use of Medicinal Marijuana Act (LUMMA), which would reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule II drug (allowing for more research on its risks/benefits), and would also prohibit the federal government from preventing the prescription, possession, transportation, and distribution of marijuana for medical purposes in compliance with applicable state law, such as the Virginia medicinal marijuana law that has been on the books since 1979.  Building on Griffith’s initial efforts, in April 2015, he and Rep. Blumenauer introduced H.R. 1774, the Compassionate Access Act, which would reschedule marijuana and CBD and would allow the states to provide appropriate access to patients needing these legitimate, medical treatments under the supervision of their physician.

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