12 Year Old Patriot Suing Jeff Sessions Over Marijuana Policy


Attorney General Jeff Sessions was a controversial pick for his office for a few different reasons. His shady past regarding civil rights was a big one. Sessions’ draconian stance on drugs (which many consider to go hand in hand with the first issue) is another. And now a twelve year-old girl is challenging whether Sessions has the Constitutional right to classify marijuana as a Schedule One drug.

Alexis Bortell is the girl in question. She is a resident of Colorado who uses a cannabis extract called Haleigh’s Help to curb her epileptic seizures. Using two drops of the oil per day, Bortell has remained seizure-free for over two years.

Bortell’s family is originally from Texas, where medical marijuana is illegal. Doctors in Texas suggested she get brain surgery to help control her seizures. The family decided a move was a safer and more cost-effective way to handle Alexis’ epilepsy.

On a federal level, marijuana is currently considered a Schedule One drug, which puts it in the same category as drugs like heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. This is despite the fact that twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana at least on the level of medical prescriptions.

The lawsuit is being filed in New York. The family’s attorney is Michael Hiller, who argued to Denver’s Fox 31 affiliate:

As it pertains to cannabis, the (Controlled Substances Act) is irrational and thus unconstitutional. “[The U.S. government]made a representation that cannabis has medical application for the treatments of Parkinson`s Disease, HIV-induced dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and yet at the same time the United States government maintains that there is absolutely no medical benefit for the use of cannabis. That is of course absurd.”

The lawsuit is yet another step in the right direction for advocates of sane drug laws. Adam Foster, an attorney who represents several Denver marijuana distributors, told Fox 31:

“Whenever you sue the government, the deck is really stacked against you.”

The federal government has already lost one motion to have the case thrown out. Watch Jeff Sessions speak against the evils of marijuana below:

Feature image via Flickr user Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0.