Pete Sessions may be a name you are not familiar with. This congressman is not, in any way related to the Attorney General Jeff Sessions. But these two Sessions have something in common: they profoundly despise marijuana.
Pete is one of the primary reason for the government’s slow progress in the legalization of marijuana and why the Congress cannot vote on medical cannabis anymore.
Pete Sessions: The Man Who Has the Power to Block Legislation
This Texan Sessions is a Republican Congressperson. He currently functions as Chairman of the House Rules Committee.
That role gives Sessions a lot of authority over what bills reaches the House floor.
The Pete Sessions website has posted that the House Rules Committee has an important role in overseeing the efficiency of the House. This includes the supervision of the law within the internal organization, the budget procedure for Congress, the ethics process, and maintaining the relationship of the Executive, Judicial, and the Congressional branches.
Conclusively, this duty gives Sessions the jurisdiction to authorize what will and will not come to Congress’s attention for them to give their votes. And Pete Sessions is aggressive and is not hesitant in using the powers vested in him.
He also wrote in his website that the assignment of the Rules Committee has given him the authority to use his know-how and personal conviction to affect or alter all of the legislation that passes his way before that reaches the House Floor.
This power to personally manipulate a regulation is clearly evident when marijuana-related laws come into his office. According to Tom Angell, a Project Oversight and Communications officer of Marijuana Majority, the Congressman Sessions has blocked all cannabis-related bill from getting the chance to see the light and be voted in the House for more than two years.
In simple terms, Pete Sessions is the reason the Congress cannot vote on laws that could legalize marijuana.
On May 2016, the full House was given an opportunity to vote on cannabis regulation. The majority of the representatives motioned to agree on a proposal that would give the veterans permission to use the substance for medicinal reasons as a part of the Veterans Affair health care program.
Nothing came after that. Congressman Sessions was successful in preventing any more federal marijuana legislation from passing and getting a vote on the House floor.
Pete Sessions: The Man with Outdated Knowledge on Marijuana
As mentioned earlier, this Sessions is not related to the Attorney General. Although of different lineages, both Sessions are vocal marijuana defamers. These two loudmouths regularly express their anti-cannabis absurdities that are not at all coherent with modern science, data, and research.
At a recent opioid epidemic summit, Congressman Pete Sessions gave a speech to an audience of doctors and other medical professionals. He suggested that cannabis is the primary reason for addiction. He used this opportunity to lambaste and campaign against the recreational and medical legalization movement.
Most of the speech he gave focused on attributing the addiction to opioid on marijuana. This left questions on the medical practitioners that attended the event. Because according to several studies, prescription painkillers offered by large pharmaceutical companies are actually the primary reason for the addiction.
He also went as far as blaming legal marijuana as the leading source of drug abuse in the U.S.
Unfortunately, for the Chairman of the House Rules Committee, his beliefs regarding cannabis are not backed up by any data. First, there is an increasing amount of research done that disproves that marijuana is a gateway drug.
As a matter of fact, the National Institute on Drug Abuse released a statement that says most of the marijuana users never try harder substances.
This is particularly true when it comes to opioid addiction. In spite of Congressman Sessions’ statements, cannabis was actually reported curing patients with opioid addiction.
In 2016, a study determined that cannabis has helped individuals that has alcohol and opioid-related substance abuse.
The analysts of that research went so far as calling marijuana an addiction “exit drug”. Results showed that it helped the victims of addiction ease off dangerous materials like highly addictive painkillers.
Pete Sessions: The Reason Congress Can’t Vote on the Legalization of Marijuana
The comments of the Chairman of the House Rules Committee against cannabis is not only dangerous, it is also disappointing. Obviously, one of the problems is that those words are based more on outdated hogwash to scare the public rather than any scientifically proven research.
But above that, the real problem lies in the position of Congressman Sessions. He has one of the most powerful roles in the federal legislation. Behind the scenes, he can readily manipulate what will and will not reach the House floor.
His irrational fear and ignorance on marijuana is primarily the reason that the US Congress cannot vote on passing laws that would legalize a highly therapeutic plant. He has done it for two years now and a clear stop on his uninformed views and actions is nowhere in sight.
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