Heller co-sponsors medical marijuana legislation

WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Dean Heller , R-Nev., announced he’s cosponsoring the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States (CARERS) Act, S.683, to ensure states, like Nevada, have the right to determine their own medical marijuana laws.

The bipartisan legislation is also supported by Senators Rand Paul, R-Ky., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Heller stated:

“The time has come for the federal government to stop impeding the doctor-patient relationship in states that have decided their own medical marijuana policies,” Heller said. “This bipartisan legislation puts Americans who are suffering first by allowing Nevada’s medical marijuana patients, providers, and businesses that are in compliance with state law, to no longer be in violation of federal law and vulnerable to federal prosecution.

Heller said he looks forward to working with Sens. Booker, Paul, and Gillibrand on this legislation and to ensure states setting their own medical marijuana policies without federal interference becomes a reality.

With more than 300,000 veterans living in Nevada, Heller said the legislation also allows for doctors at the Veterans Administration to prescribe medical marijuana.

On Tuesday, Heller also explained why he was one of the 47 Republican senators who signed a letter to Iran concerning current negotiations with the Obama administration on a nuclear deal.

Heller said the president’s refusal to allow the Senate to vote on the deal left him “no choice” but to sign the letter.

“It is very, very clear that the president wants to go alone on this, and he doesn’t want any input,” Heller stated in a Las Vegas Review-Journal article.

Heller said his goal was for Iran to “completely disarm. I don’t support any treaty that would allow — whether it is five years, 10 years, 20 years down the road — for them to have any nuclear capability, period,”

As far as what should be done about Iran, Heller said, “I think we start (at sanctions) first and make the necessary moves after that, and I don’t know what those are.”