DEA Agent Warns of Stoned Rabbits If Utah Passes Medical Marijuana Bill
Matt Fairbanks, an agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, warned a Utah senate panel considering a bill that would allow certain patients to be treated with edible forms of marijuana last Thursday that the decision to pass it could lead to severe environmental damage, including stoned rabbits.
"I deal in facts. I deal in science. I want the science studied and looked at, and specifically gone over. I appreciate the testimony that comes before us, I appreciate people's pain. My concern is with the growing of marijuana. How quickly the growing of a cash crop can get out of hand," said Fairbanks, in a recording of his testimony before the panel beginning at about the 58:30 mark below.
Fairbanks explained that, as a member of Utah's "marijuana eradication team," he's witnessed severe environmental damage caused by the growing of marijuana on public land.
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"I am also a member of the marijuana eradication team here in Utah and I spend time up on those mountains protecting our environment. While there, we've had great success. We've brought the back country farming from a few years ago, over a hundred thousand plants, down to almost nothing these last two years. It has taken millions of dollars and thousands of man hours to do this. Personally, I've seen entire mountainsides subjected to pesticides …," he said.
"The deforestation has left marijuana growth with even rabbits that have cultivated a taste for the marijuana where one of them refused to leave us. And we took all the marijuana around him but his natural instincts to run were somehow gone," he added, as faint chuckles could be heard on the recording.
Utah state Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Saratoga, recently sponsored Senate Bill 259 which is seeking to allow people with illnesses such as AIDS, cancer and other specific conditions to possess and use cannabis in a gummy or liquid form, according to FOX13. He also revealed that he tried the drug and concluded that it's very effective.
"I drove to Colorado, weekend before last, and tried that under the direction of my doctor," said Madsen, who explained that he's being treated for back problems. Doctors, he said, recommended medical cannabis as an alternative to prescription opioids.
"I think it's effective," added Madsen last Wednesday. "It has effective analgesic properties. I observed a diminution in my level of pain."
