Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) became the first sitting senator to give a keynote speech at a marijuana business conference when she addressed attendees of the first Cannabis Business Summit in NYC on Monday.
“Lawmakers are catching up with science and finally recognizing the medical benefits of cannabis,” Gillibrand said in the Grand Ballroom of the Wyndham New Yorker hotel.
Gillibrand, a sponsor of the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States Act or the CARERS Act – which would loosen federal marijuana regulations – held little back as she spoke passionately of families and patients she’d met whose lives have benefitted from medical marijuana, and derided the “grave lack of marijuana research.”
Among those patients is Charlotte Figi, a little girl who suffered severely from a severe chronic seizure disorder until her parents decided to try medical marijuana. Today, Charlotte’s suffering is much less and medical marijuana is still the only treatment that works. The strain that helped her, Charlotte’s Web, is named after her.
While Gillibrand was happy for a family that finally found the help they needed, she also expressed her dismay at what they had to go through to find it.
“As a mom, I couldn’t imagine a parent’s fear, anger and frustration that, in the age of modern medicine, they had to develop their own treatment for their daughter,” she said.
Gillibrand pointed out that Charlotte’s case is not an isolated one, nor is it an exception to the rule, and that many parents have gone through the same ordeal to find treatment for their children.
Gillibrand cited three important hurdles facing the medical marijuana industry today.
“There is a grave lack of marijuana research,” she said. “This is a direct result of the onerous government requirements that only govern studies of marijuana. No other drug, schedule I or otherwise is subject to these same constraints.
Second, there is a conflict between state and federal statute that confuses doctors, patients and providers alike. People aren’t sure what’s legal and what’s not, and the grey area’s result is hindering health care and industry development.”
“Third, financial restrictions have prevented transparent financing and has forced many providers to run dangerous cash-only operations,” Gillibrand said.
The CARERS act will address most of these concerns. If passed, the bill would reclassify marijuana to a schedule II drug and allow states to govern their own medical marijuana programs. It would lift bureaucratic restraints on scientific research and open financial services for all marijuana businesses.
“Medical marijuana reform is not one-dimensional,” Gillibrand said of the bill. “We can’t just pick and choose one of these challenges to address. A collaborative approach will solve more problems, help more people, and create a better framework for reform.”
While a business summit of any kind is designed to help industry leaders come together, learn, collaborate and eventually make a truck-load of money, Gillibrand seemed intent on remind everyone of the real reason that they were all there in the first place: helping people.
“We cant forget about the stories that brought is here,” Gillibrand said. “the children, the patients – all of whom are suffering because ideology is getting in the way of science.”