Alabama Republican legislators to urge federal government to re-schedule marijuana for medical use

by David Kumbroch,


File photo of marijuana (Image: MGN Online)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – For the last few years, the Alabama legislature has talked a lot about CBD oil. It’s derived from marijuana, but it can’t get you high. It can, however, make a big difference for patients who sometimes suffer multiple seizures a day.

Carly’s Law created a legal exception to allow CBD oil for research purposes.  This year, the driving force behind Carly’s Law, Representative Mike Ball (R-Madison), has a new push he’s making.  It’s for Leni’s Law, which would decriminalize CBD oil.

Still, even if that law passed, it would be almost impossible to obtain the oil in Alabama without breaking federal law.  So Representative Ball came up with a bold plan.

He’s creating a push to re-schedule marijuana on the federal level, creating legal room for medicinal marijuana.

Admittedly, the Alabama legislature can only do so much to change federal law, but Representative Ball plans to take it as far as he can with the power he has.

He’s planning a joint resolution. It will call on Alabama’s federal delegation to change the way the whole government treats marijuana.

“It’s going to encourage our federal delegation to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule II,” explains Ball.

He already has a Republican in the Alabama Senate joining him.

Senator Paul Sanford (R-Madison County) will present the joint resolution on his side of the capitol building, arguing, “Sometimes government doesn’t really need to do anything other than just get out of the way.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration treats drugs like marijuana based on what schedule they are on.  Marijuana is currently Schedule I — meaning it is in the most dangerous category of drugs, but it also, by definition, means it has no medicinal value.

Federal law says doctors can’t prescribe it, and it’s difficult for researchers to study.

“There is some medical value in it,” argues Ball, “And we need to take the handcuffs off the medical profession, so that they can research, so that they can study it, so that they can prescribe it.”

It’s not as if moving marijuana to Schedule II is even close to legalization.

“Listen,” says Ball, “Cocaine is Schedule II. Ok? You tell me why marijuana should be Schedule I, if cocaine is Schedule II.”

While Representative Ball has honed in on CBD oil right now, he says of medical marijuana, “If it has medical value, of course.”

A sign that even in the most conservative of legislatures, we’re seeing more tolerance for medical marijuana.
We reached out to north Alabama’s federal delegation, Representative Robert Aderholt (R-4th), Representative Mo Brooks (R-5th), Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), and Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL).

We called their Washington offices around 2 p.m. Wednesday. As of now, we have only heard back from Congressman Brooks.

A spokesperson for Brooks says he would be open to hearing the state legislators out and weighing the public policy impacts of the issue.

We’ll update this story as we get additional responses.