Top Republican senator introduces a medical marijuana research bill, says it's 'high time' to address in pun-filled statement

pulse

September 13, 2017 9:56 PM

Sen. Orrin Hatch, an 83-year old conservative from Utah, has all the weed puns.

Senator Orrin Hatch introduced a bipartisan bill Wednesday to facilitate medical marijuana research in an especially pun-filled manner.

"It's high time to address research into medical marijuana," the Utah Republican said in a statement. "Our country has experimented with a variety of state solutions without properly delving into the weeds on the effectiveness, safety, dosing, administration, and quality of medical marijuana."

Hatch's statement continues (emphasis ours):

Hatch added that he hopes the bipartisan initiative can be a "kumbaya moment" for both parties.

The bill, dubbed the Marijuana Effective Drug Study Act of 2017 or MEDS Act, is cosponsored by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). It's designed to improve the process for conducting research on medical marijuana and would direct the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to develop best practices for growing medical-grade cannabis.

Hatch took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to defend the bill, saying we "

Accessing quality samples of marijuana has been an ongoing challenge for scientists and doctors who want to study the plant because of its federal status.

The Drug Enforcement Administration — which dictates the legal status of controlled substances — announced last year that it planned to increase the supply of medical marijuana available to researchers, potentially paving the way for the Food and Drug Administration to approve a non-synthetic marijuana-based drug.

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