Senate Republicans on Wednesday elected a new majority leader who not only opposes legalizing marijuana but has also called for a reversal of the Biden administration's plan to reschedule cannabis and has criticized Democrats for working to increase the industry's access to banking services.
Thune, who defeated Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Rick Scott (R-FL) in an election for the leadership slot, joined other GOP lawmakers in a letter in July challenging the current administration's marijuana rescheduling push, urging that the policy proposal be trashed.
The rescheduling rule "fails to provide adequate science and data to support moving marijuana to schedule III and should not have been signed or published," the letter Thune signed says, calling it "irresponsible" for federal health officials to "make this determination when emerging research shows that there are significant health concerns associated with marijuana use."
The letter details Thune's and other Republican lawmakers' concerns about marijuana's health effects, suggesting that there is a "clear association between cannabis use and psychosis, anxiety, cognitive failures, respiratory adverse events, cancer, cardiovascular outcomes and gastrointestinal disorders."
Read more at Marijuana Moment