Ro Khanna joins us and shares his perspective on advancing Cannabis legislature: “Make sure you’re picking one or two key bills to rally around, and then talk to legislators to get them onboard.”
Seth Adler: US Congressman Ro Khanna returns. Welcome to Cannabis Economy. I'm your host Seth Adler. Download episodes on canneconomy.com. That's two n's and the word economy. We've got Hill and Valley, which is a column that Ro Khanna provides to Cann Economy, basically, quarterly, and so this is an audio version of that. Please go to canneconomy.com to see others, as well as register for the digital workshop that we've got coming up focusing on business, science, and policy, what is happening, and what should be happening now. First, a word from Bedrocan and then US Congressman Ro Khanna.
Seth Adler: Bedrocan is a patient-driven global pharmaceutical minded cannabis company. Their entire end-to-end process is GMP certified through Dutch and ultimately European authorities. Bedrocan is the market leader in Europe for medical cannabis and has been the sole supplier to the Dutch government for 16 years. Through the Dutch government Bedrocan provides product to 15 countries, currently. As a science-based company, Bedrocan invests in clinical research. The Leiden University conducted a double-blind placebo controlled clinical trial on fibromyalgia with Bedrocan products, which yielded promising results. They are now working on a follow-up to that study. Bedrocan is also working on the extent to which cannabis can reduce a reliability on opioids. Bedrocan believes that clinical research is key for the future of the company, standardized product, the industry, and the patient. Visit bedrocan.com for more information.
Seth Adler: Let's talk about cannabis because as I just said to you, before I turned on the microphones, you are quickly becoming one of the best Congresspeople on this issue. Let's start with the livestream, Marijuana Justice Act, you see to be enthused. I don't want to say over enthused, but properly enthused about that legislation.
Ro Khanna: Well, it's a great piece of legislation because it, first of all, legalizes marijuana, gets it off of the schedule in the federal government. More and more people are coming around to that view. But, that's not sufficient. We can't just legalize marijuana and forget the racial justice issues that are at stake. Many of the people who are in jail today are there because of possession drug crimes, for the use of marijuana, for the use of or a minor sale, where they're not the drug dealers, but sold something to their family member or friend. We need to have a way of expunging low-level offenses, and the Marijuana Justice Act does that in ways that reintegrates them into society. Then, we have to understand that our prison population because of the drug war has almost quadrupled in the last 25, 30 years.
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