On Tuesday, Republican congressman and outspoken supporter of marijuana law reform Dana Rohrabacher admitted that he has tried medical marijuana to alleviate arthritis pain in his shoulder caused by a lifetime of surfing.
“I haven’t been able to go surfing for a year and a half, and I’ve been in severe pain,” he said. “And you know what? I tried [a marijuana-infused topical preparation] about two weeks ago, and it’s the first time… in a year and a half that I had a decent night’s sleep, because the arthritis pain was gone.”
While the California congressman confirmed that it was indeed medical marijuana that he was introduced to at “one of these hempfests in San Bernardino” (where medi-pot is legal), he acknowledged that cannabis use is still technically illegal under federal law.
“Now don’t tell anybody I broke the law,” he said. “They’ll bust down my door and, you know, and take whatever’s inside and use it for evidence against me. The bottom line is that… there’s definitely cannabis in there, and it makes sure that I can sleep now.”
According to CannabisRadio.com, NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre was “stunned by the admission,” which Rohrabacher’s staff confided was the first time they had heard the congressman publicly admit to medical marijuana use.
“This is definitely the first legislator in Congress in at least 30-some-odd years who has acknowledged to using marijuana illegally,” St. Pierre said.
(Photo Courtesy of Newport Beach Indy)
