Federal law allows marijuana purchases with welfare

[Jazzy]

The federal government maintains the authority to curb funding to states that allow welfare recipients to use their EBT cards in liquor stores, casinos and strip clubs, but that power doesn't extend to marijuana dispensaries, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell clarified recently.

Responding to a query about the policy by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Burwell wrote in a letter that current law makes no mention of marijuana shops as establishments where people are prohibited from using benefits from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Right now it's only an issue for the two states that have legalized pot, Colorado and Washington.

Burwell noted that states enjoy the freedom to mold their respective laws to ban welfare cards as appropriate marijuana payment: "In fact states have the flexibility to prevent TANF assistance from being used in any type of establishment they deem inappropriate," she wrote. She pointed out that Colorado lawmakers have already begun crafting legislation to do just that.

Sessions said at the federal level he'll take steps to close what's loosely referred to as the "welfare-for-weed" loophole, introducing a Senate version of the legislation House Republicans penned this spring, which would delegitimize the use of welfare cards or food stamps for marijuana purchase.

"The federal government current spends roughly $750 billion each year on means-tested welfare programs across 80 different accounts," Sessions said, according to the Washington Examiner. "This money is administered by a vast, sprawling bureaucracy with little oversight and no moral vision.

Source

Your thoughts on welfare cards or food stamps being used to purchase marijuana?

 

[DrLeftover]

Can we quit pretending that this is about compassion for the sick?

 

[Sinon]

Can we quit pretending that this is about compassion for the sick?

This.

 

[DrLeftover]

Thank you.

And before somebody flames me for saying it.

Go check these out first:

http://genius.com/discussions/66018-First-medical-marijuana-commercial-debuts-on-major-network

and

http://www.today.com/entertainment/bone-thugs-n-harmony-rapper-creating-medical-marijuana-strain-1C8979471

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Our government is one disgusting entity. pot dispensers with tax payer money no problem. But cigarette dispensers with peoples own personal money we cant have that! This country needs a nationwide protest of at least 50 million Americans rich and middle class just not pay there taxes and stand strong until this kind of waste stops. We need a revolution!

 

[Dee]

No. Just...no. We're already all paying for your gosh durn health insurance now that it's required. This really, really needs to be investigated and determined to be an unnecessary and wasteful option for people receiving handouts from the government.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

We're already all paying for your gosh durn health insurance now that it's required.

Speaking of that, marijuana is considered medication in the states where it's legal, so, it should just be handled like a prescription. Maybe insurance covers a portion and there will be a co-pay involved.

 

[Dee]

We're already all paying for your gosh durn health insurance now that it's required.

Speaking of that, marijuana is considered medication in the states where it's legal, so, it should just be handled like a prescription. Maybe insurance covers a portion and there will be a co-pay involved.

I think there's a fine line between who uses it for medication and who uses it for recreational use. But you can say that for people getting prescriptions from doctors who hand out Vicodin or other hardcore pain killers or drugs prescribed for medicinal use. Marijuana is just another one of those to add to the list.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

We're already all paying for your gosh durn health insurance now that it's required.

Speaking of that, marijuana is considered medication in the states where it's legal, so, it should just be handled like a prescription. Maybe insurance covers a portion and there will be a co-pay involved.

I think there's a fine line between who uses it for medication and who uses it for recreational use. But you can say that for people getting prescriptions from doctors who hand out Vicodin or other hardcore pain killers or drugs prescribed for medicinal use. Marijuana is just another one of those to add to the list.

Some would argue that Vicodin or other hardcore pain killers are far worse than marijuana and it makes no sense that doctors hand them out by the bottle full while lesser drugs still seem to have unnecessary controversy and legal issues.

 

[Dee]

We're already all paying for your gosh durn health insurance now that it's required.

Speaking of that, marijuana is considered medication in the states where it's legal, so, it should just be handled like a prescription. Maybe insurance covers a portion and there will be a co-pay involved.

I think there's a fine line between who uses it for medication and who uses it for recreational use. But you can say that for people getting prescriptions from doctors who hand out Vicodin or other hardcore pain killers or drugs prescribed for medicinal use. Marijuana is just another one of those to add to the list.

Some would argue that Vicodin or other hardcore pain killers are far worse than marijuana and it makes no sense that doctors hand them out by the bottle full while lesser drugs still seem to have unnecessary controversy and legal issues.

Oh definitely, I can see where those arguments come from, but again it's partly a matter of usage and moderation. Half a vicodin for me just takes the pain away when I actually have pain. I had to take it on 2-3 different occasions and never got addicted to it. It's a case-by-case situation and different for every individual. Any kind of drug that alters your state of mind can be abused, but the consequences of them are all different. But, should we be paying more to allow people to purchase their weed on welfare? I don't think so. Marijuana is not a necessity to survival.