GOP Senator Knocks "Half-Assed" Marijuana Reform Measures, Patient ODs at BC Hospital After Unsanctioned Safe Injection Site Closes, More... (11/20/24)

An Indiana group backed by Republicans calls for "safe and regulated" marijuana, but won't say the word "legalization," and more. 

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) is a lonely Republican calling for comprehensive marijuana reform instead of "half-assed" measures. (Senate.gov)

Marijuana Policy

GOP Senator Says Incremental Reforms are "Half-Assed," Wants Marijuana Regulated Like Alcohol and Tobacco. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) broke with Republican orthodoxy this week, saying that incremental reforms such as banking legislation for the legal marijuana industry and marijuana rescheduling are "half-assed measures" and that lawmakers should just go ahead and legalize marijuana, regulating it like alcohol and tobacco. 

The vast majority of Republican senators oppose marijuana legalization. They will be in control of the Senate for the next session. 

"I think we’re reaching a point to where we’ve got to take a look" at comprehensive reform, Tillis said in an interview Tuesday. "We probably need to look at a federal comprehensive framework to deal with the banking issues and scheduling issues," Tillis said. "But I think, in my opinion, we need a federal regimen that’s not unlike what we have for tobacco and alcohol, where you authenticate the crops on the front end, you mandate flavorings and delivery methods through the FDA and you allow banking."

But, Tillis added, that doesn't necessarily mean federal legalization. Instead, the federal government should at least play a role in regulating markets in states where it is legal. And he said that he would not vote for marijuana banking regulation because doing so could move Congress "further away from a comprehensive framework."

"I think all that stuff has its place in a framework that also ensures that you don’t have the cartels making money by getting caught into the supply chain—and they are—and then you’ve got the off-the-books people," he said.

He also claimed that hemp-derived products such as CBD "are more harmful than the marijuana flower" and worried that if Congress passes incremental reforms, 

"it’s going to be at the expense of people truly understanding the dangers out there" with hemp-derived products such as CBD, which he said "are more harmful than marijuana flower."

Indiana GOP-Backed Group Forms to Push for Marijuana Legalization, But Does Not Say That Word. A new group backed by in-state Republicans that wants lawmakers to "adopt safe and regulated" marijuana policies launched on Wednesday. But it will not say the word "legalization."

"By embracing a smart and evidence-based approach that prioritizes public health, safety, and economic opportunity, we can give Hoosiers the access that they deserve and demand," said spokesman Joe Elsener. He was previously executive director of the Indiana Republican Party and chair of Marion County’s GOP.

Calling itself Safe and Regulated Indiana, the group already has an ad out. "It’s time, Indiana — time to tax and regulate marijuana for adults 21 and up, just like alcohol," the ad says.

Taxation and regulation would not only bring in tax dollars, it would put "drug dealers out of business," and free up law enforcement to focus on bigger problems like violent crimes.

"Tell your legislator it’s time for safe and regulated marijuana," the video concludes.

"I have spent my entire career in public safety, and I know the current policy is not working. It is time to come together and fix it," said group member Tom Hanify, a veteran and retired past president of the Professional Firefighters Union of Indiana. 

Indiana is surrounded by states that have either legalized medical marijuana (Kentucky) or legalized adult use of marijuana (Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio). But the state's Republican-led legislature and its outgoing Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb have opposed all marijuana law reforms. Now, however, cracks are appearing in that consensus.

International

British Columbia Patient ODs in Hospital Hours After Unsanctioned Safe Injection Site Closes Doors. Health care workers unhappy with the toll of overdose deaths among hospital patients opened unsanctioned safe injection sites outside two British Columbia hospitals on Monday. After the sites closed for the day, a patient at one of the hospitals was found in a hospital bathroom dead from a drug overdose. 

Island Health, which covers Vancouver Island, had promised to create safe injection sites at hospitals in Victoria, Nanaimo, and Campbell River last year, but that has yet to happen. That is why the healthcare workers opened the pop-up sites Monday at hospitals in Victoria and Nanaimo. 
The patient who overdosed and died had availed himself of the pop-up earlier in the day while awaiting admission to the Nanaimo emergency department. After the site closed for the day at 6 p.m., he was admitted to the hospital, where he overdosed around 4 a.m. 

"He had recently been housed and we hadn't seen him at the hospital in a really long time, but he came into the emergency department [Monday], and he was very sick and needing to be admitted," said addiction specialist Dr. Jess Wilder. That night, "he overdosed in the bathroom of the emergency department and died," she said.

"So this is an example of why services like this are needed and why they need to have adequate, fully staffed hours at all times that people are using substances, which is all day, every day," said
Wilder. "Nurses who were caring for him in the emergency department thanked us for providing him a safe place to use, and when he didn't have that option, he used somewhere where he wouldn't be found in time, and he died, and our team is devastated."

Wilder reported that seven patients and three community members used the site on Monday and that overdoses are a recurring issue at the hospital: "I know that on at least a weekly basis, currently, they are having to support an overdose in some way, shape or form, on hospital grounds."

She added that while some patients are already prescribed safer supply drugs and others are using medication such as methadone to stabilize their addictions, others are still using, and they deserve attention, too. 
"But sometimes people who use substances are not ready to make changes, and they wish to continue using the substances that they're using, and we can support them to do that in the least harmful way possible. People who use substances deserve to access hospital services as much as people who don't use substances," she said.

On Tuesday, police in Victoria asked the pop-up there to shut down its drug consumption portion because public drug use is illegal and the site was unsanctioned. The healthcare workers complied. They were uncertain if they would be back.