U.S. Congressman Ted Lieu has been fighting for cannabis reform for many years; in fact, he was one of the authors of the ballot guide statement supporting cannabis legalization in California. Congressman Lieu believes that the U.S. should not spend a single cent more trying to eradicate cannabis: “My opinion is that the federal government should completely decriminalize cannabis, take it off the schedule controlled substances. It makes no sense for the federal government to spend any taxpayer dollars trying to prosecute cannabis related issues.” Lieu reminds us that it is important to consider the practicalities that go into getting a bill passed and making it bipartisan; because of this, bills like the MORE Act and the STATES Act may not be completely perfect. Lieu also discusses expungement, data, safe banking, automation, and more.
Seth Adler: US Congressman Ted Lieu joins us. Welcome to Cannabis Economy. I'm your host Seth Adler. Download episodes on canneconomy.com, that's two N's and the word economy, or wherever you currently get your podcasts. I've got a ton of direct insight from science, business and policy folks at canneconomy.com. So please go there for that insight. Please listen to this for information on Bedrocan and then US Congressman Ted Lieu.
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.
Seth Adler: They are now working on a follow-up to that study. Bedrocan is also working on the extent to which cannabis can reduce our 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: Congressman Lieu, thank you so much for having me in.
Ted Lieu: Thank you.
Seth Adler: Very excited to talk to you. We've got a lot going on here in Congress. We'll start by talking about cannabis. You have been on this issue for quite some time. I'll go all the way back to your 2015 DEA Bill that you introduced. Just to give folks a sense that you're not Johnny come lately on this, right?
Ted Lieu: No, thank you. In fact, I started working on this issue when I was in the California State Legislature. I was one of the authors of the ballot guide statement to support the legalization of cannabis in California. I'm very glad that the voters decided to do that. Then when I was in Congress, one of the first amendments I got passed was to basically cut funding to the Marijuana Eradication program, which was totally stupid, where you've got states that have legalized cannabis and then you've got the federal government trying to make it more expensive by trying to eradicate cannabis. It made no sense whatsoever.
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