Flipping A District In The Great Northwest: WA-08

This week we were delighted to hear that two truly awful Republican congressmen-- John Kline in Minnesota and Dave Reichert in Washington-- are stepping down. Kline made it final; he's going for sure, which must be a great relief to America's students (and their parents). Reichert, bored with Congress, is still mulling a run for his state's governor's mansion, which polling indicates he'll lose anyway.

Blue America hadn't made a decision to back a candidate in MN-02 yet, although Angie Craig looks like a good replacement for Kline. It's much easier for us in WA-08, where we already have a great, well-vetted candidate in Jason Ritchie.

Washington's 8th Congressional District is the only CD in Washington that is considered flippable. It is the only district in the state-- and one of only 17 nationwide-- that President Obama carried in 2012 but has a sitting Republican congressman, Reichert. If, as is likely, he does leave this seat open, it must be turned blue for Democrats to reclaim a majority in the House of Representatives in 2016. And not just blue, but progressive.

The DCCC hasn't recruited a conservative to run against Jason in a primary-- having looked and failed. But keep in mind, the Republicans aren't giving the district up without a fight. Reichert tried portraying himself as relatively "mainstream" or even "moderate." (He wasn't.) It's likely that whoever the GOP tries replacing him with won't even try. Privatizing Social Security and cutting back on Medicare are as high on the Republican agenda as rounding up millions of undocumented immigrants and shipping them to Mexico. That's a very different agenda from the one Jason is fighting for.

After Reichert's announcement last week that he's looking closely at the gubernatorial race, Jason told us that he's

seeking this seat in 2016, as I did in 2014, as a strong, progressive Democrat who believes that Social Security, Medicare and Disability are not entitlements; they are earned benefits. I will oppose any Republican efforts to degrade, defund, privatize or otherwise take away our earned benefits.

Across the board, Jason is a stalwart Blue America-backed candidate with values and principles that support working families and not wealthy special interests. 

I strongly support and believe in women's health care choices, and I will oppose any Republican effort to limit access to these health care choices, including any efforts to cut funding to essential access points such as Planned Parenthood.

I own and operate a small construction business building wheelchair ramps and installing grab bars for seniors and people with physical challenges. I know that middle class, living wage jobs are the lifeblood of our economy. I know that economic inequality and lack of opportunity are the largest threats to our democracy and our economy. I will fight to create strong, middle class, living wage jobs in our communities by investing into our infrastructure.

I need your support to fight those Republicans who think they can keep this seat red. I need your help to make the case to the voters of the 8th CD that this race is not only winnable, it is essential that we win this seat in 2016.

This is a seat Jason can win-- with our help. He's not a wealthy man, and the DCCC hasn't given him any help at all, although they haven't been sabotaging him this cycle either. I suspect that if he can raise some money this quarter, they may actually even get behind his campaign. If you can afford to, please consider making a contribution here. Washington deserves an upgrade after 12 years of Reichert! We all do.

Replacing Dave Reichert In Washington State With A Bold Progressive, Jason Ritchie

Blue America’s last endorsement of the 2014 cycle was Jason Ritchie, the candidate running for the Blue-leaning Washington State seat currently held by conservative Republican Dave Reichert, in a district that stretches from the suburbs south and east of Seattle all the way out to Wenatchee and Ellensburg. At the time, Ritchie vowed he word make a concerted effort to win the seat over at least two cycles. "I'll be back in 2016," he said, "and we're building the infrastructure, identifying the voters, and organizing to win now and in the future." This year Jason was Blue America's first endorsement.

We’re asking you, again, to consider chipping in whatever you can to help Jason, a stalwart progressive. Reichert remains a GOP hack, continuing to vote like a zombie-- backing the Tea Party in their demands to shut down funding for the Department of Homeland Security to obstruct immigration reform, shutting down the government in 2013, suing President Obama and supporting nearly 60 votes cast to gut the Affordable Care Act. Reichert, who may declare his candidacy for governor this year, has a clear record as a cog in the Republican Party obstructionist machine.

Jason’s platform continues to be advocacy on behalf of students in his support of America’s College Promise and reforming the student-loan debt machine. He is speaking out on the dangers of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and urging his supporters to pay attention to the details of the proposal. He says:

The challenges of climate change, wage stagnation, income inequality and social injustice will not simply resolve themselves. It’s up to us as progressives to demand change and fight for a more fair future for our country. We must stand up against those who would seek to allow corporate control over our economy and our political system to drive us further into oligarchy.

Jason told us: "The first duty of a progressive is to counter corporate influence and Big Business's corrosive impact on our communities and middle class."

This is the fight that I am committed to in 8th Congressional District of Washington State... I believe in fighting for middle class, family wage jobs. I strongly support the Affordable Care Act, I believe earned benefits like Social Security and disability must be protected and I strongly support women's health care choices. Our social safety net must not be weakened, it must be reinforced.

The 8th Congressional District is one of 17 districts nationwide that was won by President Obama in 2012 but has a Republican representative. This district is a winnable, progressive district that we must turn blue if we are going to turn the House back to our side. Inexplicably, the DCCC has abandoned the district entirely, although they have indicated that if Reichert declares he's running for governor, they will have one of their conservatives to primary Jason. So far, though, Jason has an open shot for this race.

His campaign is already underway.

We have phone banks set up across the 8th Congressional District. We are identifying voters, growing our volunteer base and registering new voters every day.

Jason was a leader of the movement against the TPP in Washington, a state very divided over the trade pact, and he was willing to stand up against corporate Dems. Almost all Dems in Washington, though-- as well as plenty of Republicans and independents-- agree on one issue: the need for environmental protections. "The 8th Congressional District," he wrote, "is home to some of the most beautiful land in the world."

From Snoqualmie Pass to Mount Rainier, we have an obligation to nurture and protect our environment especially from the dangers of global climate change. The Mountains to Sound Greenway runs through the heart of the 8th Congressional District and is our responsibility to maintain and preserve. It is an essential part of our commitment to the environment and our promise to future generations. Maintaining this treasure to the region must be our shared goal.

Protecting local wilderness areas is just one part of defending our environment. As many members of the Republican Party continue to deny the existence of climate change, our planet comes closer and closer to the brink of ecological disaster. According to the EPA, rising temperatures are already affecting our local snowpack, stream flows, and forest cover, and we can expect worsening conditions if current trends are allowed to continue. The snowpack that our Cascades store every winter is expected to dwindle, threatening our agriculture, wildlife, and drinking water supply. Increased drought brings increasingly severe summer wildfires, and our already struggling salmon populations wouldn’t be able to survive in their remaining habitats. Pest and weed control are forecasted to become huge problems as well, which spells trouble for our local farmers. Climate change has far-reaching global consequences, and the potential damage to be inflicted on our own communities in particular motivates me to take action.

This flies right in the face of the virulent anti-environmental approach that Dave Reichert, a climate change denier, has taken. Please consider helping Jason replace Reichert and bring another strong progressive voice to the House of Representatives.

One gone; one to go

Legalization Of Medical Marijuana Is Inevitable-- But There Is Still Money To Be Made By Politicians Opposing It

When Congress legalizes medical marijuana-- and that's coming-- dozens and dozens of ineffective, highly toxic prescription drugs, many with ghastly side effects, will cease providing bounties to the industrial drug makers that manufacture and market them. These pharmaceutical conglomerates have appealed-- so far successfully-- to Congress to at least wait for them to make some minor, inconsequential change to marijuana before they legalize it. That way they can patent and sell some iteration of marijuana as if they invented it.

Several Members of Congress have been working hard to legalize medical marijuana. Jared Polis (D-CO), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CO) and Ted Lieu (D-CA) have been in the forefront this year. Rohrabacher's legislation to prevent the federal government from using funds to come between a doctor prescribing marijuana and his patient passed 242-186 on May 30. Rohrabacher managed to round up 67 Republicans to join 175 Democrats (all but 10) to pass the legislation. So who opposed it?

Who would be against medical professionals prescribing a harmless, natural drug-- in use for thousands of years-- to suffering patients? Well, in short, uptight assholes unaware that the world has moved on since the days of Reefer Madness and, of course, Members of Congress who are paid off by Big Pharma. Since 1990 Big Pharma has spent over $166 million bribing federal candidates. The dozen current Members of the House who took in the most are:

• Anna Eshoo (D-CA)- $1,267,371- supports
• Fred Upton (R-MI)- $1,145,306- supports
• John Boehner (R-OH)- $1,056,680- opposes
• Joe Barton (R-TX)- $923,688- opposes
• Frank Pallone (D-NJ)- $864,529- supports
• Steny Hoyer (D-MD)- $780,772- supports
• Michael Burgess (R-TX)- $652,174- opposes
• Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)- $639,843- opposes
• John Shimkus (R-IL)- $639,143- opposes
• Joe Pitts (R-PA)- $634,002- opposes
• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)- $629,900- opposes
• James Clyburn (D-SC)- $616,881- supports

I haven't run into a Democratic congressional challenger this year who doesn't support legalization. All the Blue America-endorsed candidates, of course, back legalization. For example, the Blue America candidate in WA-08, a suburban and exurban district east of Seattle, Jason Ritchie, has been an outspoken proponent of legalization-- as have the voters in his district, which voted for it as a ballot initiative. The current congressman, Dave Reichert, doesn't care. He keeps voting NO to every legalization proposal that comes before Congress.

"In 1998 the people of my State of Washington voted to become one of the first states to legalize medical marijuana," said Ritchie after Reichert's most recent betrayal.

In 2012, they again set a precedent by voting overwhelmingly to legalize marijuana commercial sales. Our State Legislature responded and set up a reasonable regulatory and tax structure. This has happened without incident, except for intransigent Republicans like Rep. Dave Reichert who continue to insist their values should supersede the will of the people. His arrogant and baseless opposition only serves to marginalize him from the people he purports to represent. I strongly support marijuana legalization in Washington State and look forward to ending mass incarcerations for non-violent drug possession.

Jason can use some help in his uphill race to replace Reichert, who has taken $216,917 from Big Pharma since he was first elected. If you'd like to lend him some support, you can do it here.

Who Is Jason Ritchie And Why Is He Running Against Dave Reichert In WA-08?

If you've been following Jason Ritchie's twitter feed, you're following the most active struggle against Fast Track in the state of Washington, Fast Track that sacrifices $700 million in Medicare to grease the skids and Fast Track that is being pushed by Republican incumbent Dave Reichert. Obama won WA-08 both times, by almost 15,000 against McCain and by close to 5,000 against Romney. Both of Washington’s Democratic senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, also won WA-08. The district's voters gave majorities to marijuana legalization, to marriage equality, and to a proposition requiring gun registration-- each of which Reichert aggressively opposes.

Reichert tries to paint himself with the smiley face of a moderate while voting in lockstep on the important issues with the Republican extremists in Congress. He opposes increasing the minimum wage, for example, another issue on which he and Jason fundamentally disagree. "Critics of raising the national minimum wage," wrote Jason, "claim that it would harm small businesses and in fact slow job growth. The reality is that the opposite is true. Raising the minimum wage to $10.10-- in addition to allowing for cost-of-living adjustments-- would help create the jobs that America needs, that Washington needs, and most importantly, that the 8th District needs. The economy is not going to recover on its own. However, by raising the minimum wage we can encourage reinvestment in small businesses and local spending. By raising the minimum wage, we can ensure that people will be able to feel comfortable with the job that they have. I have seen the effects that a subpar wage can do to those who are unable to 'pull themselves up by their bootstraps.' We need to support our lowest-paid citizens and our small businesses by raising the federal minimum wage. We can create this kind of change if we elect the right kind of people-- those that represent the interests of the constituents." Jason:

Creating, sustaining and cultivating an economy that generates stable middle class jobs in the district, with benefits and a living wage that can support a family, should be the goal of our government: federal, state and local. Creating middle class jobs in the district is not a one-sided proposition; it cannot be done well by government or business acting alone. We need partnerships between government and business that maximize resources and share risks.

Middle class jobs are those that require skilled trades and long-term commitments. We need a trained workforce and continuing education for that workforce. We must stand up against efforts to send middle class jobs overseas and any effort to grind down wages to unlivable standards. Our community needs service providers, master plumbers and electricians, teachers and artisans working in manufacturing, all working and living in our community. We need small businesses to take risks, expending capital, inspiring ingenuity and invention. We need federally backed loans, deregulation and tax-friendly environments. We need to cultivate an economy that will support our local businesses, where local dollars are spent in local stores on locally made goods and services.

As your Congressman, I will fight for middle class jobs. I will work to create a climate where businesses and government are working together to create the kind of jobs that can support a family, grow our community and endure.

Reichert opposes equal pay for equal work for women, opposes equality under the law for the LGBT community and is no friend of this country's social safety net, Medicare and Social Security. Jason's positions contrast directly with Reichert's pathetic voting record.

Social Security is one of the most successful government programs and has proven integral to our society. Today, Social Security keeps more than a third of our senior citizens out of poverty. Nearly 65 million Americans depend on this great program, and we must work together not only to keep their benefits intact, but also for the prosperity of our children and future generations.

However, Social Security is not sustainable under current policies. Social Security is rapidly withdrawing from its trust fund, and, at current rates, will run out in 2035. As such, we need legislators who are willing to stand up and propose common sense solutions. Social Security is a problem we can solve; we just need leaders who will act. Dave Reichert has shown he is not one of those leaders. During his 10 years in Congress, Dave Reichert has not only failed to bring about legislation to remedy the upcoming Social Security deficit, but hasn’t even taken a stance on the issue. We must remove these “do nothing” politicians from Congress, who place partisan politics over the well being of all Americans.

As your Congressman, I will sponsor balanced legislation that will allow Social Security to help citizens for generations to come. One key provision will be to raise the maximum taxable earnings level, as wages over $117,000 are not currently subject to Social Security contributions. This means America’s richest are paying a lower percentage than the rest of the country. Allowing up to the 90th percentile of wages to be covered by the Social Security tax, which was part of bi-partisan legislation passed under Ronald Reagan, would fix over 36% of the projected Social Security gap. Fair and proven solutions such as this would play a major role in maintaining Social Security benefits for all Americans.

Jason was one of the first candidates Blue America endorsed for the 2016 cycle. This is the year the Democrats can win in WA-08, and Jason is the candidate who can do it. If you'd like to help him replace Reichert, please consider contributing to his campaign here.

Senator Sherrod Brown And Congressman Alan Grayson On "So-Called" Free Trade

Brown has been fighting against the job-killing corporate trade agenda since long before he was ever elected to the Senate. He was the primary champion of the battle against these unfair trade bills in the House-- just as Grayson is today. Last week, Brown did an OpEd for the Jackson County Times-Journal about the dangers of fast-tracking the TPP.

Folks in Washington like to make big promises when it comes to our trade deals. But for too long, we’ve seen nothing but bad results.

We’ve seen what so-called free trade agreements have done to our workers and our communities over the past two decades. We’ve seen the factories close and the stores get boarded up. That’s why I voted against giving the president authority to rush through a huge new trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And it’s why I’ll continue to fight for a level playing field for American workers and American businesses.

It’s true that trade deals have created jobs, and that the TPP could as well. But this ignores the millions more jobs that have been lost because of unfair trade deals.

I like to look at things in baseball terms. Lauding gains from exports while ignoring a flood of imports – and skyrocketing trade deficits-- is like reporting half of the score of a baseball game. The Cleveland Indians scoring three runs doesn’t help the team much if the Yankees scored six runs.

We know that past trade deals have replaced manufacturing jobs-- with good pay and good benefits-- with low-wage service sector jobs. We can’t let that happen again.

And we also know that we make deals with countries that don’t play by the same rules we do-- they have lax labor and environmental standards, and what international rules they do have to follow too often get ignored.

That’s why we can’t have trade promotion without trade enforcement.

Instead of rushing a bill through last month, the Senate should have taken the time to get this right and to include my important amendments that protect Ohio workers and manufacturers. I fought for provisions that would guarantee a level playing field for our workers and companies by cracking down on countries who manipulate their currencies, and that would give American businesses new tools to fight back against illegal foreign imports.

I also fought to make sure China isn’t able to sneak into this trade pact at a later date, without any oversight or Congressional approval.

I’m going to continue fighting to get these important protections to the president’s desk. This massive agreement could affect forty percent of the global economy-- it is too important to rush it through.

We know that trade done right can create prosperity. I want trade that lifts up Ohio’s middle class families and that creates good-paying jobs-- not trade that leads to more shuttered plants and shattered communities. That can only happen when the rules aren’t rigged and we have a level playing field.

Unfortunately, with the TPP we know which kind of trade we’re getting-- the kind the results in corporate handouts and worker sellouts.

No wonder Brown's approval rating is through the roof among Ohio voters, while the state's other senator, "Free" Trade architect Rob Portman, is sinking into nothing! Today Grayson sent his supporters an e-mail asking them to call some of his Democratic colleagues he fears may be leaning towards voting for Fast Track:

"Our trade debt," he wrote, "stands at eleven trillion dollars ($11,000,000,000,000.00). That's more than $35,000 for every human being in America-- including you. 'Fast Track' would pave the way for new trade bills that would increase that. How are we ever going to pay that money back?... Fast Track unconstitutionally restricts Congress from holding hearings, conducting investigations, debating a bill and offering amendments-- basically, its job. In fact, it could restrict each House Member to only 83 seconds of debate.

Grayson was blocked by Republicans who control the Rules Committee from submitting a series of amendments to the 3 trade acts the Senate already passed and that the House is taking up now. "The rubber-stamping of these acts," wrote Grayson, "is an abrogation of duty by the House of Representatives. I introduced 30 amendments that would protect our economy, our workers, the environment, and the rights of workers in our trading nation; along with establishing criteria that guarantees any trade deal we enter into would improve our economy. The Rules Committee did not consider any one of them before calling for a vote on these acts. This is another example, like the 'Fast Track' trade authority we will vote on Friday, of trade deals being created in secrecy with no input from those of us where were elected to represent the people of our districts. These deals have repeatedly hurt the US economy, especially workers, and cost us millions of jobs. My amendments required that all deals entered into by the US Trade Representative":

•         Lower the US trade deficit
•         Keep the trade deficit under $100 billion
•         Be withdrawn from if the trade deficit rises above $100 billion
•         Decrease unemployment
•         Have partners with a minimum wage as high as the US
•         Have partners with environmental standards equal to the US
•         Have partners with safety standards equal to the US
•         Have partners with consumer protection standards equal to the US
•         Have partners with established pension programs
•         Ensure that US citizens can appeal from foreign “trade courts” to US Supreme Court as the last resort
•         Automatically expire in no more than 5 years
•         Cannot include any provision prohibiting the US Congress from passing a law requiring products bought by US government to be made in US
•         Have partners with intellectual property protection as strong as the US
•         Have no partners who collect private electronic data on citizens in violation of its own constitution
•         Must clearly explain the projected trade benefits; if these benefits are not met within three years then the deal is withdrawn
•         Have partners with a democratic form of government
•         Have partners with no active and pervasive internet censorship
•         Have partners with freedom of press the same as the US
•         Have partners who prohibit forced labor
•         Have partners who prohibit child labor
•         Have partners with freedom of religion
•         Have partners with freedom of speech
•         Have partners with freedom of assembly
•         Have partners whose laws offer protection against unreasonable searches and seizures
•         Have partners who allow no seizing of private property without just compensation
•         Have partners who prohibit cruel and unusual punishment
•         Have partners whose laws require equal pay for equal work
•         Have partners who allow the right to form trade unions
•         Have partners who require free compulsory education
•         Include the text of the act guaranteeing the supremacy of US law.

No votes allowed. Whose side are these guys on? Help draft Grayson for the Senate here.

UPDATE: First House TPP Fast Track Vote

Around 5 p.m. this evening, the House voted on the Rules Committee proposal to go forward with the "debate" on Fast Track, which includes the Republican plan to cut Medicare to use the money to help grease the way for TPP. It passed 217-212, 8 Democrats, disgracefully, joining 209 Republicans (so all but 8) to cut Medicare and displace hundreds of thousands of Americans from their jobs. The 8 Democrats:

• Earl Blumenauer (OR)
• Gerry Connolly (New Dem-VA)
• Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
• John Delaney (New Dem-MD)
• Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX)
• Ron Kind (New Dem-WI)
• Rick Larsen (New Dem-WA)

House Republicans have loaded up the combined trade package with a hodgepodge of right wing wishes and traps-- Medicare cuts, language blocking any help for immigrants in trade deals, language blocking any action on climate in trade deals... No Democrat should even consider voting for this monstrosity. It's more than clear that the Obama-Boehner trade package is now a broad corporate attack on core Democratic values and constituencies. And Democrats who vote for it will not just be vulnerable in primaries on trade and jobs and wages, but on climate, immigration rights, food safety and most of all, on Medicare.

  One of the Republicans happily voting to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicare was Dave Reichert from the suburbs east of Seattle. He always tries to pass himself off as a moderate while voting for the extremist GOP agenda. His progressive opponent, Jason Ritchie, has been working hard to organize against unfair trade legislation. Earlier today, before the vote, Jason told his supporters that "Reichert owes the people of the 8th Congressional district and Washington State an explanation after recently proposing to cut $700 million from Medicare to pay for jobs lost by his failed trade policy. In a trade deal that was negotiated in secret by corporations, and where corporations stand to benefit most, why is it that job losses created by the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be paid for by raiding Medicare? Corporations have no right using Medicare funds to hedge their bets and the people of Washington State deserve better than the usual "no response" from Rep. Reichert. Medicare is an earned benefit and is vital to millions of Americans. It should not be used as the personal 'piggybank' for Reichert and the Republican Party. Transnational corporations negotiated the Trans Pacific Partnership in secret-- the same corporations that consider the middle class simply another commodity to be traded. I am pro-trade and pro-transparency and accountability. Demanding transparency and accountability doesn’t make one opposed to trade. It makes one an active participant in our democracy. I oppose the TPP and stand with the middle class, environmental groups, and trade unions over corporations. Let’s work for a trade deal that grows our American middle class, protects our currency, our human rights and environmental standards, and puts family needs above corporate profits."

Early this morning, DFA's Jim Dean said, "Ahead of today's votes we wanted to be very clear to Democratic members of Congress: If you vote for either Medicare-cutting Trade Adjustment Assistance legislation or Fast Track Authority for the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership, we will not lift a finger or raise a penny to protect you when you're attacked in 2016, we will encourage our progressive allies to join us in leaving you to rot, and we will actively search for opportunities to primary you with a real Democrat."

If you'd like to help replace Reichert with Jason Ritchie, please consider making a contribution to his grassroots campaign here.

The Growth Of Medical Marijuana As A Salient Political Issue

The video above is from a hearing of the Michigan state legislature not the U.S. Congress. And the hearing is about abuse of forfeiture laws, not about medical marijuana itself. On April 30 the House voted on an amendment offered by Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) that was meant to "prohibit the use of funds to implement, administer, or enforce Veterans Health Administration directive 2011-004 with respect to the prohibition on 'VA providers for completing forms seeking recommendations or opinions regarding a Veteran's participation in a State marijuana program.'" Yes, medical professionals are not even allowed to discuss medical marijuana use with patients in states that have made it legal. Blumenauer's amendment failed 210-213. California Republican Dana Rohrabacher, a conservative, led 34 other Republicans across the aisle to vote for Blumenauer's amendment, which was supported by the Democratic leadership and all but 8 Democrats, the 8 being, generally speaking, the scum of the earth and, at least in their matter, no better than a garden variety blood-sucking Republican who cringes at the thought of providing comfort and solace to the old and infirm and to their own constituents suffering from terminal illnesses. These were the treacherous Democrats, daring you to vote them out of office in 2016:

• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
• John Garamendi (CA)
• Bill Keating (MA)
• Joe Kennedy (MA)
• Sandy Levin (MI)
• Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL)
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
• Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL)

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a New Dem and a virulent and determined opponent of medical marijuana, ducked the roll call but voted with the Republicans against legalization last time it came to a vote-- a year and 2 days ago, when Republican Dana Rohrabacher proposed it. That time it passed 219-189 with 16 other backward Democrats joining Wasserman Schultz's march across the aisle. These were the Democrats who voted with most of the GOP against it:

• John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA)
• Karen Bass (D-CA)
• Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
• Pete Gallego (Blue Dog-TX)
• Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX)
• Bill Keating (D-MA)
• Joe Kennedy (D-MA)
• Sandy Levin (D-MI)
• Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL)
• Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)
• Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC)
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
• Nick Rahall (Blue Dog-WV)
• Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL)
• Debbie Wasserman Schultz (New Dem-FL)
• Frederica Wilson (D-DL)

5 of the above were subsequently defeated for reelection or forced to retire by Democrats who were sick of their Republican-lite game-playing. Although I stopped using marijuana in 1969, a struggle with cancer brought it back into my life, this time for pain management. Medical marijuana is somewhat legal in California and generally speaking, patients are not abused by the police, even if the confusing and inconsistent laws are troublesome and confusing for sick and suffering patients and their doctors. Michiganders are in a similar, although somewhat worse, situation, as you probably concluded from the video up top or from the reporting on Ginnifer Hency's case.

Hency explained that her neurologist had recommended medical marijuana to treat pain associated with multiple sclerosis. She is also registered in the state of Michigan as a caregiver for five other patients, giving her the ability to distribute medical marijuana.

Hency said that the six ounces in her locked backpack were in compliance with Michigan medical marijuana laws when a drug task force raided her home with four children present.

“They took everything, even though I was fully compliant with the Michigan medical marijuana laws,” she said. “They charged me with possession with intent to deliver, even though I’m allowed to posses and deliver.”

A St. Clair County judge dropped the charges against Hency, but for 10 months law enforcement officials have refused to give back her belongings.

“They have had my stuff for 10 months, my ladder, my iPad, my children’s iPads, my children’s phones, my medicine for my patients,” Hency noted. “Why a ladder? Why my vibrator, I don’t know either. Why TVs?”

“The prosecutor came out to me and said, ‘Well, I can still beat you in civil court. I can still take your stuff.’” Hency recalled, adding, “I was at a loss. I literally just sat there dumbfounded.”

“And I was just sitting there, like, thinking I was going to be able to get my stuff back, but not in this country. And that is why civil asset forfeiture in this state needs to change.”

According to Sullum, the Michigan House Judiciary Committee is considering a bill that would require local law enforcement agencies to report forfeitures to the state police, and it would raise the standard of proof required for civil forfeiture in drug cases.

But under the proposed law, local agencies would continue to keep 100 percent of the proceeds from forfeitures, “which gives them a strong incentive to target people based on the assets they own instead of the threat they pose to public safety,” Sullum wrote.

The ugly mess around legislators' unwillingness to deal humanely with medical marijuana in not yet a major campaign there-- but it is headed in that direction. People don't like being screwed around with the way puritanical politicians are using their own insecurities about marijuana to make the lives of sick people unbearable. Last May 17 Democrats voted with the GOP against medical marijuana. One year later, only 8 Democrats crossed the aisle. Today when I talk with candidates about medical marijuana they all start with a story about a relative close friend, usually with cancer or some other catastrophic disease, finding solace with medical marijuana-- or, not being permitted to have their agony eased with the harmless substance. As we mentioned last month, Blue America endorsed candidates and the incumbents we support favor legalizing medical marijuana for patients under doctors' supervision.

Mark Pocan, the wildly popular progressive leader from Madison, Wisconsin, warned us: "Make no mistake, our nation’s current drug policy is a broken relic of the last century. The 'War on Drugs' has cost the American taxpayer billions of dollars-- over $5 billion dollars is spent on enforcement of federal marijuana laws, including incarceration. In the past five years more than 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use. It’s time to bring federal marijuana policy in to the 21st century. Marijuana should be legalized and regulated at the federal level. We need to stop misusing federal tax dollars to prosecute non-violent crimes."


And Pocan is far from the only younger Member who understands the ramifications of the debate. El Paso Congressman Beto O'Rourke, who wrote a book about marijuana legalization, told us that if medical marijuana "relieves pain and improves quality of life, and is already legal in one form or another in half the states, why would we stand in the way of allowing doctors to prescribe their preferred treatment when it happens to be marijuana?"

And in California, where, at least technically, medical marijuana is already legal, one of our favorite incumbents and one of our favorite challengers, respectively Ted Lieu and Lou Vince, are commonsense backers of the humane approach. "In an era of limited resources," Lieu told us 2 weeks ago, "it is insane to have federal investigators and prosecutors devote even one second of their time to investigating or prosecuting marijuana cases. This insanity rises to new levels when medical evidence shows marijuana can be useful in treating a variety of medical conditions. The current system is also corrosive to our democracy because states are now routinely ignoring the outdated federal law that criminalizes marijuana. It is time to stop the federal criminalization of marijuana." 

Lou Vince, an ex-marine and LAPD officer who is running in CA-25 (Santa Clarita, Simi Valley and the Antelope Valley) took a very pragmatic perspective: "According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report, police arrest more Americans per year on marijuana charges than the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Decriminalizing marijuana frees up law enforcement resources to deal with more serious crimes. Nationwide, more than 60,000 individuals are behind bars for marijuana offenses at a cost to taxpayers of $1.2 billion per year. Furthermore, Decriminalizing Marijuana will go a long way to reduce the mass incarceration problem we face in America. Marijuana prohibition laws have been used to put African Americans in handcuffs at a much higher rate than whites-- black people are three times as likely to be arrested for personal marijuana possession even though young blacks consume marijuana at lower levels than young whites."

Alex Law will have just turned 25, the minimum age for occupying a House seat, by the time he beats Donald Norcross in New Jersey's first congressional district across the river from Philly. Although he talks a lot in his campaign about protecting Medicare and Social Security benefits for seniors, his age predicts he would be more open-minded about the benefits of medical marijuana than most elderly, brain-washed politicians are. "In America," he told us this morning, "we have a creed that we are the 'Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave' but truth be told, America has the largest percentage of its population in prison of all the countries in the civilized world. Crimes related to marijuana contribute significantly to that terrible reality. The legalization of marijuana is important for our society. The war against marijuana, a substance science has proven to have real medical benefits and to be significantly less harmful than other legal substances, has contributed to bankrupting many of our states. The war on marijuana has turned many nonviolent members of society into criminals. This is also an issue of racial equality. White Americans use marijuana at the same rate as African Americans, yet an overwhelming majority of arrests are of African American males. The enforcement of the current drug laws is just as wrong as the laws themselves. It is time we make the American deed match the American creed.

"States have long been considered he laboratories of democracy," Alex continued. This issue is no exception. Colorado has legalized marijuana and seen a huge net positive from that decision. Crime is down, tax revenues are up, there is a booming industry creating new middle class jobs, and the state has seen an increase in tourism. All of this has happened without any access to capital markets. The growth would explode even more if these new companies had access to financing, an ability to take credit card payment, and an ability to expand out of state. The federal government should follow Colorado’s lead and legalize marijuana in America. As progressives, this is a policy we must endorse."

Jason Ritchie is an entrepreneur from the Seattle area and he's running for the swing seat currently held by rabid anti-pot Republican Dave Reichert. "In 1998," said Jason, "the people of my State of Washington voted to become one of the first states to legalize medical marijuana. In 2012, they again set a precedent by voting overwhelmingly to legalize marijuana commercial sales. Our State legislature responded and set up a reasonable regulatory and tax structure. This has happened without incident, except for intransigent Republicans like Rep. Dave Reichert who continue to insist their values should supersede the will of the people. His arrogant and baseless opposition only serves to marginalize him from the people he purports to represent. I strongly support marijuana legalization in Washington State and look forward to ending mass incarcerations for non-violent drug possession."

Illinois state Senator Mike Noland is the lead sponsor of a bill in the Illinois General Assembly to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. He's running for the House seat Tammy Duckworth is giving up and when he's in Congress, he will be counted on to be another clear voice in favor of legalization of medical marijuana. This is what he told us just a few minutes ago:

The time has come to allow patients to gain access to medical marijuana. Too many people are unnecessarily suffering when there is a natural alternative that can provide much relief from pain and other debilitating symptoms.

The medical community provides more than enough justification to legalize marijuana for medical purposes.

The American Medical Association has long supported research on medical marijuana.

What is known is that the ‘high’ experienced by those who use marijuana is from only one component: Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.  What’s more, our bodies contain a natural cannabinoid that regulates health and wellness.  Indeed, our systems are pre-programmed to work with the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, which may be superior to narcotic painkillers for neuropathy, or nerve pain. Moreover, marijuana can decrease the amount of narcotics needed for pain relief. Yet the science is unequivocal, unlike narcotic painkillers, marijuana has only the same addictive potential as caffeine.

Marijuana’s main side effect is euphoria, and is often used as a sedative for cancer patients.  In fact, it is currently being studied as a treatment for various forms of cancer itself.

The medical use of marijuana has also been shown to relieve the affects of both symptoms and the pain associated with AIDS/HIV, Arthritis, Asthma, Chronic Pain, Crohn’s Disease, Epilepsy, Glaucoma and Multiple Sclerosis. So, many people are suffering unnecessarily when there is a real possibility for hope and relief.

I am proud of my past support of this cause in the Illinois Senate and plan to continue to support the science-based policy of legalized medical marijuana.

If you'd like to help elect candidates like Jason, Alex, Mike and Lou, Blue America has a page for that. Medical marijuana won't legalize itself. We need to elect more progressives to Congress-- lots more. The last time Congress voted on legalizing marijuana, in late April, the proposal was defeated 210-213. 175 Democrats and 35 Republicans voted for legalization. 8 backward Democrats and 205 Republicans-- including Dave Reichert, of course-- voted to kill the legislation.

If you get a catastrophic illness, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Dan Lipinski, like most Republicans, prefer that you suffer in agony rather than see medical marijuana legalized

Dave Reichert Disagrees With WA-08 Voters On Almost Every Substantive Issue

Phony smile on phony politician

There's been a lot of chatter that WA-08 incumbent Dave Reichert would abandon his congressional seat to run for governor against Jay Inslee. Although his name recognition is a healthy 53%, a new poll from PPP shows him scoring only 34% against Inslee's 45%. However, some of the other questions in the poll should give Republicans-- both in Washington and nationally-- more cause for concern. Support for de rigueur Republican positions is crumbling. And the crumbling support isn't just among normal voters; even Republicans are backing away from crackpot GOP positions from past eras.

Over the last couple elections voters in Washington legalized gay marriage and marijuana, and enacted background checks on all gun sales. Our newest poll in the state finds that all three of those new laws are even more popular now after being implemented than they were when voters first approved them.

In 2012 Washingtonians voted to approve gay marriage by 8 points. Now voters in the state say they support gay marriage by 20 points, 56/36. 78% of voters say that its being legal has either had a positive impact on their life or no impact at all, with only 22% claiming gay marriage has affected them negatively. Also 65% of voters in the state think gay conversion therapy should be illegal to only 14% who think it should be allowed. Majorities of voters across party lines-- 78/6 with Democrats, 63/14 with independents, and 51/27 with Republicans- think conversion therapy should not be allowed.

Also in 2012 Washingtonians voted to legalize marijuana usage by 12 points. Now voters in the state say they support marijuana being legal by 19 points, 56/37. 77% of voters say marijuana being legal has either had a positive impact on their life or no impact at all, with likewise only 22% claiming marijuana legalization has affected them negatively.

Just last fall Washingtonians voted to legalize background checks on all gun sales by 18 points. Now voters in the state say they support background checks on all gun sales by 44 points, 68/24. 82% of voters in the state say extended background checks have either had a positive or no impact on their lives, while only 18% claim a negative impact. Even among gun owners 78% grant that extended background checks have had no adverse effect on their lives, and they support the policy 61/31.

Washington voters were on the leading edge of legalizing gay marriage, marijuana, and extended background checks. And since those policies went in effect the verdict has been no big deal, leading to their increasing popularity.

Although the DCCC gives Reichert a free pass to reelection-- which is very strange in a swing district with a PVI of R+1-- the Democratic candidate for the WA-08 seat, Jason Ritchie, is calling Reichert out on how out of touch his voting record in Congress has been with the voters in the district. Last month, when Congress failed to decriminalize medical marijuana by only 3 votes, Reichert was not one of the 35 moderates who crossed the aisle to vote for legalization.

"In 1998 the people of my State of Washington voted to become one of the first states to legalize medical marijuana," said Ritchie after Reichert's betrayal. "In 2012, they again set a precedent by voting overwhelmingly to legalize marijuana commercial sales. Our State Legislature responded and set up a reasonable regulatory and tax structure. This has happened without incident, except for intransigent Republicans like Rep. Dave Reichert who continue to insist their values should supersede the will of the people. His arrogant and baseless opposition only serves to marginalize him from the people he purports to represent. I strongly support marijuana legalization in Washington State and look forward to ending mass incarcerations for non-violent drug possession."

And it isn't just on medical marijuana where Reichert diverges from his own constituents. He has an ugly homophobic voting record-- a 0.0 lifetime crucial vote score! An NRA darling, Reichert also opposes commonsense gun regulations including the background checks that Washington voters passed (and have become increasingly fond of). Reichert also opposes the kind of comprehensive immigration reform that most people in the district support. Washington voters also back raising the minimum wage, which Reichert opposes. These are all issues on which Ritchie is aligned with the voters of WA-08 and on which Reichert is the odd man out. Reichert is also a supporter of unrestricted, unconstitutional surveillance on Americans by the NSA (unwarranted wiretapping and monitoring of emails, texts, etc.).

If you'd like to help replace Reichert with Jason Ritchie, here's the place.

Democratic Congressional Candidate Jason Ritchie Makes The Case For Opposing TPP

In the new video above, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, a professor of economics at UC Berkeley, asserts, "The only sure way to stop excessive risk-taking on Wall Street-- so that you don't risk losing your job or your savings or your home-- is to put an end to the excessive economic and political power of Wall Street by busting up the big banks."

And in a new Senate report, Broken Promises: Decades of Failure to Enforce Labor Standards in Free Trade Agreements Elizabeth Warren punched back hard at the absurd contentions from the White House about how simply wonderful the Republican trade agenda is that Obama is shilling for. "The President," explains the report, "claims the TPP will have 'higher labor standards, higher environmental standards,' and 'new tools to hold countries accountable.'" Problemo: every administration has been promulgating the same damn lies.

• In 1993, President Clinton claimed that “the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA] is the first agreement that ever really got any teeth in environmental standards, any teeth in what another country had to do with its own workers and its own labor standards... There’s never been anything like this before.”


 • In 2005, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman claimed, “[t]he [Central American Free Trade Agreement] has the strongest labor and environmental provisions of any trade agreement ever negotiated by the United States.”


 • In 2007, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab claimed that the Peru, Colombia, and Panama trade agreements contained “unprecedented protections for labor rights and environmental standards.”


 • In 2010, President Obama said that the South Korea agreement included “groundbreaking protections for workers’ rights.”


 • In 2011, the White House insisted that the Colombia trade agreement “include[d] strong protections for workers’ rights, based on the May 10, 2007, bipartisan Congressional- Executive agreement to incorporate high labor standards into America’s trade agreements.” President Obama said in 2012 that “this agreement is a win for our workers and the environment because of the strong protections it has for both-- commitments we are going to fulfill.”


 • A few months later, the White House made nearly identical claims about the Panama Free Trade Agreements. 
 However, the history of these agreements betrays a harsh truth: that the actual enforcement of labor provisions of past U.S. FTAs lags far behind the promises. This analysis by the staff of Sen. Warren reveals that despite decades of nearly identical promises, the United States repeatedly fails to enforce or adopts unenforceable labor standards in free trade agreements.

Again and again, proponents of free trade agreements claim that this time, a new trade agreement has strong and meaningful protections; again and again, those protections prove unable to stop the worst abuses. Lack of enforcement by both Democratic and Republican presidents and other flaws with the treaties have allowed countries with weaker laws and standards and widespread labor and environment abuses to undermine treaty provisions, leaving U.S. workers and other interested parties with no recourse. This analysis finds:

• The United States does not enforce the labor protections in its trade agreements. A series of reports by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), as well as reports by the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of State, document significant and persistent problems with labor abuses in countries with which we have FTAs. While GAO acknowledged progress by partners in implementing commitments and by agencies in tracking progress and engaging on problems, their analysis concluded that the USTR and DOL “do not systemically monitor and enforce compliance with FTA labor provisions,” and that the U.S. agencies generally have not been “identifying compliance problems, developing and implementing responses, and taking enforcement actions.”

• The U.S. pursues very few enforcement actions. Prior to 2008, the Department of Labor had not accepted a single formal complaint about labor abuses in free trade agreements. Since then, the Obama administration has conducted in-depth investigations into complaints and issued fact-finding reports and recommendations. However, DOL has accepted only five claims against countries for violating their labor commitments, and it only agreed to restart the first ever labor enforcement case under any free trade agreement in 2014, six years after the initial claim was filed. This reveals both the cumbersome nature of complaint process and the overall enforcement problems with these agreements.

• Widespread labor-related human rights violations. The United States has 14 free trade agreements with 20 countries. While some of these countries have made progress in improving labor conditions, problems with labor rights and other abuses are widespread. U.S. agencies or other investigators have identified significant problems with use of child labor or other labor-related human rights abuses in 11 of the 20 countries.

• Failure to curb even the worst abuses. Case studies of several countries that have signed U.S. free trade agreements reveal continuing horrific labor abuses. Guatemala was named “the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists” five years after entering a trade agreement with the U.S. In Colombia, despite the existence of a special “Labor Action Plan” put in place to address long-standing problems and secure passage of the Colombia FTA, 105 union activists have been murdered and 1,337 death threats have been issued since the Labor Action Plan was finalized four years ago.

Yesterday Paul Krugman made it clear why he's sickened by all the lies woven around the big TPP fallacy.

One of the great blog posts of all time was from Daniel Davies, who declared-- apropos of Iraq-- that

Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance.

It’s a good dictum; and if you see a lot of lies, or at least misdirection, being used to sell a policy you should be very, very concerned about said policy.

And the selling of TPP just keeps getting worse.

William Daley’s pro-TPP op-ed in today’s Times is just awful, on multiple levels. No acknowledgment that the real arguments are not about trade but about intellectual property and dispute settlement; on top of that a crude mercantilist claim that trade liberalization is good because it means more exports; some Dean Baker bait with numbers-- $31 billion in trade surplus! All of 0.2 percent of GDP!

Right now that excessive economic and political power Wall Street has accrued in the last few decades is going towards shoving another bad trade deal down America's throat, the TPP. Conservative Democrats beholden to Big Business have joined the Republicans to screw over America's working families. Progressive and populist congressional candidates, like those endorsed by Blue America, are among the few standing up behind Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Bernie Sanders, Alan Grayson and a few other brave legislators opposing Obama's headlong rush into another NAFTA-like bad deal. 

One is Jason Ritchie, from the Seattle suburbs (WA-08). Ritchie is locked in an electoral struggle with a Republican incumbent, Dave Reichert, who is gung-ho on giving Obama fast-track power. Ritchie penned this guest post for us today.


We Can Do Better Than The TPP
by Jason Ritchie

Trade is essential in the global economy and accounts for more than 40% of Washington State’s economy. A good trade deal can grow our middle class and create living wage jobs. But we must demand transparency and accountability or we risk repeating the mistakes of the past.

Trade is balanced when two equal partners create a mutually beneficial exchange of goods and services that respect each other’s laws, grow each other's economies and create stronger ties. Good trade policy will work equally well for businesses, workers, families and communities.

But that’s not what the Trans Pacific Partnership or TPP is about.

Based on the leaked sections of the trade agreement, the TPP favors global corporations and will extend the decline of America’s middle class. We would be risking our ability to protect what’s left of our American manufacturing base, jeopardizing our right to fight against unfair trade practices, endangering our ability to fight against unfair currency manipulation, and allowing other countries to set our human rights and environmental standards.

Transnational corporations negotiated the Trans Pacific Partnership in secret-- the same corporations that consider the middle class simply another commodity to be traded. It’s incumbent on the supporters of the proposal to outline who stands to benefit from the trade agreement and why. To date, this hasn’t happened.

This isn’t a question of partisan loyalty. There are Democrats and Republicans on each side of the TPP issue. This is a question of transparency and accountability.

I was born and raised in Michigan. Many in my family worked in the auto industry and belonged to the United Auto Workers. My family and their coworkers built a prosperous region with good schools, solid public infrastructure and a strong sense of community. I know the benefits of good paying middle-class, living wage jobs and a vibrant manufacturing base. I am a product of living wage jobs and I am now a creator of living wage jobs.

I know the consequences of trade deals that are not based on our middle-class values and are negotiated by transnational corporations to the sole benefit of their shareholders. I lived through what the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA did to my family, my community and my country and I will not let that happen again with the proposed TPP.

I am pro-trade and pro-transparency and accountability. Demanding transparency and accountability doesn’t make one opposed to trade. It makes one an active participant in our democracy. It’s time to slow down, drop the recriminations and start demanding answers to questions.

Let’s work for a trade deal that grows our American middle class, protects our currency, our human rights and environmental standards and puts family needs above corporate profits.

How Much Good Can Medical Marijuana Do Patients?

The year 1970 saw marijuana's exit from my life-- or so I thought. (A little background here.) But because of the pain and side effects from 6 months of chemotherapy, I've started a program of medical marijuana every night before bed. It has allowed me to sleep deeply, to re-regulate my digestive system, to manage the intense pain from neuropathy and to eat again (after I lost 45 pounds really fast). Without sleep and food, you don't heal. 

Now I'm healing. And I'm helping other people who need advice and guidance in the strange twilight world of medical marijuana that our bizarre puritan society still imposes. Orlando Congresssman Alan Grayson is, of course, on the side of the angels and is well aware that marijuana can be "a valid treatment for pain... Opponents of medical marijuana," he says, "live in abject fear that someone, somewhere, might be having a good time."

This week, Time's cover story is titled The Highly Divisive, Curiously Underfunded And Strangely Promising World Of Pot Science, and I'm hoping it helps open up a much-misunderstood, and much-maligned, subject to some public scrutiny and discussion. It shocks me that conservative legislators-- primarily Republicans of course-- could be so tone deaf as to leave elderly constituents suffering, cruelly and unnecessarily, because of some outmoded notions about marijuana and hippies. Republicans have managed to block research on a drug that's offering incredible pain-management advances in states where voters have given up on conservative shitheads who just carry out the wishes of wealthy campaign donors, like Big Pharma in this case.

The most common illicit drug on the planet and one of the fastest-growing industries in America, pot remains-- surprisingly-- something of a medical mystery, thanks in part to decades of obstruction and misinformation by the federal government. Potentially groundbreaking studies on the drug’s healing powers are being done to find treatments for conditions like epilepsy, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, sickle-cell disease and multiple sclerosis.

...[D]ecades of prohibition and official misinformation continue to shape public views. “The government did not spend as much effort in finding out the facts about marijuana,” says [scientific researcher Yasmin] Hurd. “That strategy of scaring people rather than provide knowledge has made people skeptical now when they hear anything negative.

"As states now rush to legalize pot and unwind a massive criminalization effort, the federal government is trying to play catch-up on the science, with mixed success. The only federal marijuana farm, at the University of Mississippi, has recently expanded production with a $69 million grant in March, and [the head of the National Institute for Drug Abuse, Nora] Volkow has expressed a new openness to studies of marijuana’s healing potential.

...But scientists and others point out that a shift to fund the real science of pot still has a long way to go. The legacy of the war on drugs haunts the medical establishment, and federal rules still put onerous restrictions on the labs around the country that seek to work with marijuana, which remains classified among the most dangerous and least valuable drugs. “We can do studies on cocaine and morphine without a problem, because they are Schedule II,” explains Fair Vassoler, a researcher at Tufts University who has replicated Hurd’s rat experiment with synthetic pot. “But marijuana is Schedule I.”

That means that under the law, marijuana has “no medical benefit,” even though 23 states have legalized pot as medicine and NIDA acknowledges that “recent animal studies have shown that marijuana can kill certain cancer cells and reduce the size of others.” And marijuana researchers face barriers even higher than those faced by scientists studying other Schedule I drugs, like heroin and LSD. Pot studies must pass intensive review by the U.S. Public Health Service, a process that has delayed and thwarted much research for more than 15 years. The result is sometimes a catch-22 for scientists seeking to understand the drug. “The government’s research restrictions are so severe that it’s difficult to find and show the medical benefit,” says neurobiologist R. Douglas Fields, the chief of the nervous-system-development section at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

That all may change soon. On Capitol Hill, a left-right coalition of Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Cory Booker of New Jersey introduced a bill in March to federally legalize medical marijuana in states that have already approved it. “For far too long,” said Paul, a Republican candidate for President, “the government has enforced unnecessary laws that have restricted the ability of the medical community to determine the medicinal value of marijuana.”

...While American research on the potential harms from marijuana is booming, the U.S. continues to lag in funding investigations into the possible benefits. In the late 1990s, the U.S. and British governments commissioned separate studies of medical marijuana. The U.K. study was spurred by multiple-sclerosis patients’ using pot to calm spasticity. The U.S. study, done by the Institute of Medicine, was in response to California’s 1996 legalization of medical marijuana.

Both studies reached a similar conclusion: medical pot wasn’t a hippie’s delusion. The research showed that the stuff held real therapeutic potential for specific conditions, including epilepsy, chronic pain and glaucoma. The British responded by treating marijuana as a plant with biotech prospects. U.K. officials licensed GW Pharmaceuticals, a startup lab in Salisbury, England, to grow weed and develop cannabinoid drugs, some of which U.S. scientists like Hurd use in their research.

The Americans, meanwhile, doubled down on the war on drugs. Barry McCaffrey, Bill Clinton’s drug czar, was outraged at the Institute of Medicine’s results. “I think what the IOM report said is that smoked marijuana is harmful, particularly for those with chronic conditions,” he said–pretty much the opposite of the report’s conclusions. Nonetheless, he and then Attorney General Janet Reno vowed to prosecute medical-marijuana patients and doctors who prescribed the drug. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services adopted even tougher strictures against the study of marijuana as a medicine.

The federal antipot policies resulted in a strange kind of scientific trade deficit. The U.S. leads the world in studies of marijuana’s harm, but we’re net importers of data dealing with its healing potential. THC discoverer Raphael Mechoulam runs the world’s leading cannabinoid lab at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Spanish biologist Manuel Guzmán is doing cutting-edge work on the potential of cannabinoids to retard the growth of glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer. Canada’s health agency may soon approve the world’s first clinical trial to test medical marijuana on military and police veterans with PTSD.

There are signs of change at home, though. This year, the Colorado department of public health awarded $9 million in grants for medical-marijuana research, funded with tax revenue from state-licensed pot stores. They will be among the first U.S. clinical trials to look into the effectiveness of marijuana for childhood epilepsy, irritable-bowel disease, cancer pain, PTSD and Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Kelly Knupp, a pediatric-epilepsy specialist at Children’s Hospital in Denver, will track children using high-CBD marijuana strains to calm seizures. “Some of these children can have 100 to 200 seizures a day,” Knupp says. “We’re hoping we can measure seizure frequency to see if there’s any improvement” among kids trying the cannabinoid medicine.

In the past, medical marijuana hasn't been a front-line issue for Blue America. We were happy when we found articulate spokespeople for legalization, like Beto O'Rourke (D-TX), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Jared Polis (D-CO), Alan Grayson (D-FL) and, of course, Barney Frank (D-MA), but it was never a make-or-break issue for us, like Choice, climate change or income inequality. Until now. 

Now medical marijuana legalization is a Blue America issue. We won't be endorsing candidates who oppose it. And I'm happy to report that our candidates support it. Mark Pocan, the wildly popular progressive leader from Madison, Wisconsin, warned us: "Make no mistake, our nation’s current drug policy is a broken relic of the last century. The 'War on Drugs' has cost the American taxpayer billions of dollars-- over $5 billion dollars is spent on enforcement of federal marijuana laws, including incarceration. In the past five years more than 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use. It’s time to bring federal marijuana policy in to the 21st century. Marijuana should be legalized and regulated at the federal level. We need to stop misusing federal tax dollars to prosecute non-violent crimes."


And Pocan is far from the only younger Member who understands the ramifications of the debate. El Paso Congressman Beto O'Rourke, who wrote a book about marijuana legalization, told us that if medical marijuana "relieves pain and improves quality of life, and is already legal in one form or another in half the states, why would we stand in the way of allowing doctors to prescribe their preferred treatment when it happens to be marijuana?"

And in California, where, at least technically, medical marijuana is already legal, one of our favorite incumbents and one of our favorite challengers, respectively Ted Lieu and Lou Vince, are commonsense backers of the humane approach. "In an era of limited resources," Lieu told us today, "it is insane to have federal investigators and prosecutors devote even one second of their time to investigating or prosecuting marijuana cases. This insanity rises to new levels when medical evidence shows marijuana can be useful in treating a variety of medical conditions. The current system is also corrosive to our democracy because states are now routinely ignoring the outdated federal law that criminalizes marijuana. It is time to stop the federal criminalization of marijuana." 

Lou Vince, an ex-marine and LAPD officer who is running in CA-25 (Santa Clarita, Simi Valley and the Antelope Valley) took a very pragmatic perspective: "According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report, police arrest more Americans per year on marijuana charges than the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Decriminalizing marijuana frees up law enforcement resources to deal with more serious crimes. Nationwide, more than 60,000 individuals are behind bars for marijuana offenses at a cost to taxpayers of $1.2 billion per year. Furthermore, Decriminalizing Marijuana will go a long way to reduce the mass incarceration problem we face in America. Marijuana prohibition laws have been used to put African Americans in handcuffs at a much higher rate than whites-- black people are three times as likely to be arrested for personal marijuana possession even though young blacks consume marijuana at lower levels than young whites."

Alex Law will have just turned 25, the minimum age for occupying a House seat, by the time he beats Donald Norcross in New Jersey's first congressional district across the river from Philly. Although he talks a lot in his campaign about protecting Medicare and Social Security benefits for seniors, his age predicts he would be more open-minded about the benefits of medical marijuana than most elderly, brain-washed politicians are. "In America," he told us this morning, "we have a creed that we are the 'Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave' but truth be told, America has the largest percentage of its population in prison of all the countries in the civilized world. Crimes related to marijuana contribute significantly to that terrible reality. The legalization of marijuana is important for our society. The war against marijuana, a substance science has proven to have real medical benefits and to be significantly less harmful than other legal substances, has contributed to bankrupting many of our states. The war on marijuana has turned many nonviolent members of society into criminals. This is also an issue of racial equality. White Americans use marijuana at the same rate as African Americans, yet an overwhelming majority of arrests are of African American males. The enforcement of the current drug laws is just as wrong as the laws themselves. It is time we make the American deed match the American creed.

"States have long been considered he laboratories of democracy," Alex continued. This issue is no exception. Colorado has legalized marijuana and seen a huge net positive from that decision. Crime is down, tax revenues are up, there is a booming industry creating new middle class jobs, and the state has seen an increase in tourism. All of this has happened without any access to capital markets. The growth would explode even more if these new companies had access to financing, an ability to take credit card payment, and an ability to expand out of state. The federal government should follow Colorado’s lead and legalize marijuana in America. As progressives, this is a policy we must endorse."

Jason Ritchie is an entrepreneur from the Seattle area and he's running for the swing seat currently held by rabid anti-pot Republican Dave Reichert. "In 1998," said Jason, "the people of my State of Washington voted to become one of the first states to legalize medical marijuana. In 2012, they again set a precedent by voting overwhelmingly to legalize marijuana commercial sales. Our State legislature responded and set up a reasonable regulatory and tax structure. This has happened without incident, except for intransigent Republicans like Rep. Dave Reichert who continue to insist their values should supersede the will of the people. His arrogant and baseless opposition only serves to marginalize him from the people he purports to represent. I strongly support marijuana legalization in Washington State and look forward to ending mass incarcerations for non-violent drug possession."

Illinois state Senator Mike Noland is the lead sponsor of a bill in the Illinois General Assembly to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. He's running for the House seat Tammy Duckworth is giving up and when he's in Congress, he will be counted on to be another clear voice in favor of legalization of medical marijuana. This is what he told us just a few minutes ago:

The time has come to allow patients to gain access to medical marijuana. Too many people are unnecessarily suffering when there is a natural alternative that can provide much relief from pain and other debilitating symptoms.

The medical community provides more than enough justification to legalize marijuana for medical purposes.

The American Medical Association has long supported research on medical marijuana.

What is known is that the ‘high’ experienced by those who use marijuana is from only one component: Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.  What’s more, our bodies contain a natural cannabinoid that regulates health and wellness.  Indeed, our systems are pre-programmed to work with the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, which may be superior to narcotic painkillers for neuropathy, or nerve pain. Moreover, marijuana can decrease the amount of narcotics needed for pain relief. Yet the science is unequivocal, unlike narcotic painkillers, marijuana has only the same addictive potential as caffeine.

Marijuana’s main side effect is euphoria, and is often used as a sedative for cancer patients.  In fact, it is currently being studied as a treatment for various forms of cancer itself.

The medical use of marijuana has also been shown to relieve the affects of both symptoms and the pain associated with AIDS/HIV, Arthritis, Asthma, Chronic Pain, Crohn’s Disease, Epilepsy, Glaucoma and Multiple Sclerosis. So, many people are suffering unnecessarily when there is a real possibility for hope and relief.

I am proud of my past support of this cause in the Illinois Senate and plan to continue to support the science-based policy of legalized medical marijuana.

If you'd like to help elect candidates like Jason, Alex, Mike and Lou, Blue America has a page for that. Medical marijuana won't legalize itself. We need to elect more progressives to Congress-- lots more. The last time Congress voted on legalizing marijuana, in late April, the proposal was defeated 210-213. 175 Democrats and 35 Republicans voted for legalization. 8 backward Democrats and 205 Republicans-- including Dave Reichert, of course-- voted to kill the legislation.

Lipinski, one of only 8 Democrats who want to see seniors suffer with unspeakable pain rather than get a prescription from their doctor for medical marijuana