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Five Great Reasons to Celebrate This 4/20

By Canna Law Blog on April 20, 2016
Posted in Events, Medical Marijuana, Recreational Marijuana



Happy 4/20 everyone! On this 4/20, here are another five great reasons to celebrate cannabis:

1. The Department of Justice accepts that it can no longer spend money shutting down state-law compliant medical marijuana. In 2014, Congress passed the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which prohibited the Department of Justice (DOJ) from using federal funds to prevent states from implementing their own medical marijuana laws. The amendment was the basis behind a federal judge’s ruling last October that the DOJ could not enforce injunctions against a California dispensary in compliance with the state’s medical marijuana laws. During the case, the DOJ argued that prosecuting and shutting down medical marijuana dispensaries does not prevent states from implementing their laws. Judge Breyer did not respond well to this argument, saying that the DOJ’s interpretation “tortures” the meaning of the law and “defies language and logic.” The DOJ appealed the district court’s ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court and then, in a surprising turn of events, the DOJ dropped its appeal earlier this week by filing a motion to dismiss its own case. This is a big win for those who believe that marijuana businesses operating in compliance with state and local laws should be treated the same as any other legally compliant business. As long as Congress continues to renew the amendment each year, marijuana business owners in legal states can sleep more soundly knowing they will not be woken up by DOJ boots kicking down their doors, and that even if this does happen, they could have the courts on their side

2. More states are looking to try on medical cannabis. Multiple states are looking to try out more comprehensive medical marijuana programs, like Florida. Other states are looking to implement medical marijuana through legislative action, like Pennsylvania which just passed its first medical marijuana legislation. More states are recognizing the medical value of cannabis and taking steps — through ballot initiatives or legislative action — to allow their citizens the use marijuana for medical purposes.

3. More states are looking to all out legalize marijuana. California, Maine, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Nevada will all be considering legalization by ballot initiative this year. That’s huge. We already have four states that have gone the adult use cannabis route–Oregon, Alaska, Washington, and Colorado. We expect these four states will soon be joined by at least a couple of other states this fall in ending marijuana prohibition.

4. The DEA may consider re-scheduling marijuana (but don’t hold your breath on this one). The Drug Enforcement Administration announced this month that it will consider rescheduling marijuana sometime in 2016. The DEA has the legal authority to reschedule substances and for years marijuana advocates have urged it to move marijuana to a less restrictive Schedule or to remove it from scheduling altogether. The DEA’s memo comes in response to a 2015 letter from Senator Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic senators, urging the federal government to allow more research into the benefits of medical marijuana. In its response memo, the DEA said it will consider a Food and Drug Administration recommendation on whether it should reschedule marijuana. The DEA did not disclose what the FDA recommended, only that it has received a recommendation. The DEA (finally) conceded it “understands the widespread interest in the prompt resolution of these petitions [to reschedule marijuana] and hopes to release its determination in the first half of 2016.” The DEA has previously routinely denied any such rescheduling, and our thinking is that it will likely do so again because it’s the DEA.

5. SCOTUS declined to hear the Nebraska and Oklahoma v. Colorado cannabis lawsuit. Remember when Nebraska and Oklahoma sued Colorado in the U.S. Supreme Court over its recreational marijuana program, basically alleging Colorado’s program was allowing marijuana to enter their states and thereby straining their own law enforcement resources? When the case came up, SCOTUS issued a decision rejecting the challenge. For more on the case and its failure to proceed, see here. More than anything, we hope and predict that this decision will cause states like Oklahoma and Nebraska to stop wasting their own taxpayers’ money by butting into the affairs of neighboring states.

Happy 4/20!
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