Republican Speaker of the House, known for his tireless attempts to dismantle as many government programs as possible, including health care and gutting the social safety net, is now touting the medical benefits of CBD from industrial hemp.
“It has proven to work,” Ryan said of cannabidiol (CBD) on Tuesday, noting that it “helps reduce seizures.”
Responding to a question about medical marijuana from a woman whose husband passed away, Ryan referenced his late mother-in-law who used synthetic cannabinoids when she was suffering from melanoma and ovarian cancer.
Speaking at a rally in Kentucky in support of Representative Andy Barr, Ryan showed off his hemp knowledge to the locals.
“And by the way, there’s a lot of industrial uses for hemp that I understand from talking to [GOP majority leader] Mitch McConnell and it’s a big deal to Kentucky agriculture,” said Ryan. “And we’re all in favor of that as well.”
Ryan’s endorsement of hemp comes at a key time, noted Marijuana Moment’s Tom Angell, when congressional leaders are negotiating the differences in the House and Senate versions of the Farm Bill; the Senate favors McConnell’s push to legalize hemp while the House bill has no such provisions.
“If the top Republican in either chamber is now vocally in support of ending the prohibition on marijuana’s non-intoxicating cousin, it seems more and more likely that the House will accept the Senate’s hemp language,” said Angell.
“That said, don’t count the outgoing speaker as a diehard marijuana supporter, even when it comes to medical uses.”
History will not likely remember Ryan, who is retiring early next year, for his new found love of CBD, but rather his cowardly “silence in the face of Trump’s indignities,” writes Politico.
“This is a political obituary of Ryan’s own writing. His silence in the face of Trump’s indignities—and his observance of ‘exquisite presidential leadership,’ a line that will live in infamy…Indeed, the speaker’s habit of turning a blind eye to the president’s behavior is relevant and revelatory because it was not always so.”
Oh well, at least Ryan knows the difference between hemp and its intoxicating cousin.
