18 Members Of Congress Wrote President Obama Seeking To Reclassify Marijuana On The Federal Level

RTX18P3B — U.S. President Barack Obama speaks before signing an executive order to raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers to $10.10 an hour starting next year, during an event at the White House in Washington February 12, 2014. The order will affect workers starting on January 1, 2015, and applies to new contracts and replacements for expiring contracts. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Eighteen members of Congress wrote a letter to President Barack Obama requesting that marijuana be reclassified from a Schedule I narcotic under Federal law.

Schedule I drugs are deemed to have no medical value and are considered “most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence,” by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Heroin, LSD and ecstasy are other examples of Schedule I drugs.

The Wednesday letter says the representatives were encouraged by President Obama’s remarks to the New Yorker magazine in January. President Obama said he didn’t believe marijuana was any more dangerous than alcohol and that it is “important for (marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington) to go forward because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished.”

Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) headed the letter and these Congress members (all from the House of Representatives) signed along with him:

Representative Steve Cohen (D-Tennessee)

Representative Sam Farr (D-California)

Representative Jared Huffman (D-California)

Representative Mike Honda (D-California)

Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-Arizona)

Representative Barbara Lee (D-California)

Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-California)

Representative Alan Lowenthal (D-California)

Representative Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts)

Representative Jim Moran (D-Virginia)

Representative Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas)