Bipartisan lawmakers have introduced a bill that would require the State Department to explain to Congress why it has not designated a U.S. citizen incarcerated in Russia over medical marijuana possession, as well as other Americans detained abroad, as “wrongfully detained.”
The legislation is titled the “Marc Fogel Act,” named after a teacher and former U.S. diplomat who is serving a 14-year sentence in Russia for possessing medical cannabis that he lawfully obtained as a registered patient in Pennsylvania.
Lawmakers have worked several angles to get the State Department to classify him as a wrongfully detained individual, a designation that escalates diplomatic efforts to secure his release.
Now Reps. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA), Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Brendan Boyle (D-PA) are seeking transparency in the process to force the federal government to provide documents and communications related to cases like Fogel’s to understand exactly why he and others who’ve been incarcerated abroad haven’t received the upgraded diplomatic designation.
“The Department has failed to do either and refused to explain its inaction—effectively stonewalling my efforts to bring him home,” Reschenthaler said in a press release on Tuesday. “The Marc Fogel Act will provide transparency into the State Department’s wrongful
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