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A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
If marijuana is legalized for medicinal purposes, the decision should be made at the federal level, not by state government, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Thursday on a conference call with reporters.
The Hawkeye State Republican was responding to the decision Wednesday by the Iowa Board of Pharmacy to recommend marijuana be switched from a Schedule I narcotic to a Schedule II, a move that would legally recognize it has a medical use.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (Photo: Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.com)
“Quite frankly, I would not support that move until I had indication from [Federal Drug Administration], both from the standpoint of effectiveness and from the standpoint of safety, because I think when you talk about using certain products for health purposes, for medicinal purposes, I think the safety and efficacy standard set by the FDA is the one that ought to be used,” he said.
Grassley has long been a critic of medicinal marijuana. In the aftermath of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement that federal authorities would no longer interfere with states implementing medical marijuana laws, Grassley said it would bring a “certain amount of legitimacy to an illegal drug,” and that “most of the marijuana that flows into the United States comes from the drug lords.”
Thursday, Grassley continued along that line, saying there is no evidence that marijuana has medicinal uses.
“And so far I have only had ad hoc instances and evidences of marijuana helping people with health problems,” he said. “And I believe that you need to be very cautious as you move forward because I believe that marijuana’s a gateway for harder drugs.”
But in fact, a clinical trial on the medical efficacy of marijuana released Wednesday found that it helps relieve pain and muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis and certain neurological conditions. The study, conducted by the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, involved five separate clinical trials.
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