Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher made waves this week by admitting he used an ointment infused with marijuana on a surfing-related shoulder injury. “Now, don’t tell anybody I broke the law. They’ll bust down my door and, you know, and take whatever’s inside and it for evidence against me,” Rep. Rohrabacher quipped at a meeting in Washington DC. But the topical pot preparation worked.

“It’s the first time … in a year-and-a-half that I’ve had a decent night’s sleep,” Rohrabacher said.

The maverick Huntington Beach Republican has emerged as a champion of states rights with regard to marijuana policy in the House of Representatives. In 2014, Rep. Rohrabacher co-sponsored a historic cease-fire in the federal war on medical marijuana, defunding Department of Justice efforts to interfere in state cannabis regimes.

Rep. Rohrabacher has called federal prosecutors ‘criminals‘ for continuing to pursue lawful state medical pot providers in defiance of the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment. Prosecutors have since backed off two high-profile medical pot cases — one against the state’s oldest dispensary the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, and the other against Harborside Health Center in Oakland.

Mainstream media picked up on comments Rep Rohrabacher made, first reported on the marijuana podcast Cannabis Radio by Russ Bellville.

“I haven’t been able to go surfing for a year-and-a-half, and I’ve been in severe pain because I spent all my time [paddling], which I can barely do now,” he told attendees at a gathering of the the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Washington DC Tuesday.

“I went to one of those hemp fests in San Bernardino, and you know what? I tried it about two weeks ago, and it’s the first time … in a year-and-a-half that I’ve had a decent night’s sleep, because the arthritis pain was gone.”

The active ingredients in cannabis including THC have been shown in cell, animal and human trials to reduce pain and inflammation — both of which are hallmarks of sports injury.

Reports indicate Rep. Rohrabacher may be the first Congressman in about 30 years to admit medical cannabis use.

Researchers estimate one in 20 California adults have tried medical marijuana for a serious illness and about 92 percent of them reported the plant worked.