Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions may believe that “good people don’t smoke pot,” but a new spending package approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday demonstrates the majority of congressional representatives believe medical marijuana states need protection from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Passed by a vote of 309 -118, the compromise bill to fund the government through September includes the extension of an unambiguous provision that keeps the DOJ from attacking stakeholders within medical marijuana states.
Included in the $1.1 trillion omnibus that ends September 30th is the renewed Rohrabacher-Farr amendment — now called the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment — which explicitly restricts the Department of Justice from utilizing any allocated funds to go after state-sanctioned medical marijuana cultivators, dispensaries, or patients.
Protected Medical Marijuana States
Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment: “None of the funds made available in this Act to the Department of Justice may be used, with respect to any of the States of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, or with respect to the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico, to prevent any of them from implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”
Continuing a sensible tradition first established during the Obama administration, this amendment has been restricting the DOJ and protecting MMJ business interests in medical marijuana states in every consecutive budget since 2014.
With marijuana now more popular than most elected officials, the passage of this bill demonstrates today’s congressional leaders are listening to the pleas of their constituents. Mysteriously missing from the protective amendment, Indiana and North Dakota were not included in the above list.
Still under threat, many believe the next battleground will be those states with recreational marijuana laws. Under federal law, and with the backing of the current administration, the DOJ and the DEA still wield the power to crush lives, dismantle dreams, and incarcerate individuals for participating in the fast-growing recreational marijuana markets across the country.
Providing our greatest hope for dodging the federal bullet of interference in states that have passed recreational marijuana laws, a bipartisan bill introduced last month would transfer marijuana from its current Controlled Substance Act (CSA) Schedule I status down to a Schedule II substance. If passed, marijuana would have the same classification as Codeine and Oxycodone. If successfully rescheduled as a Schedule II narcotic within the CSA, doctors would be allowed to prescribe it (theoretically) and its new classification would remove major roadblocks to important research. Additionally, this could potentially change how the cannabis industry accesses traditional banking services.
Photo Courtesy of Allison Beckett
