John Boehner joins marijuana group, says he has 'evolved'

WASHINGTON — Former Speaker of the House John Boehner has joined the board of Acreage Holdings, which calls itself one of the "nation's largest, multi-state actively-managed cannabis corporations."

In a tweet sent early Wednesday, Boehner said his “thinking on cannabis has evolved."

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In a brief interview Wednesday, Boehner said he never seriously thought about the issue until he was approached, and realized that, like a lot of Americans, he was "taking a different view of this" than he might have five or 10 years ago.

“I decided to basically add my voice to this debate,” he said, adding it could be “an interesting discussion.”

“There are all these anecdotal stories about the use of cannabis for medical issues and what kind of bothers me is that because it’s a Schedule 1 narcotic, no university does any real research on this. I think the medical uses of this plant could be enormous and certainly would be helpful,” Boehner said.

He said the VA also cannot do research on medicinal uses of marijuana, and that the drug could be helpful in treating post-traumatic stress syndrome and chronic pain. “It could be a whole lot safer than opioids,” he said.

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Cox Media Group