INMG HUGE MARIJUANA NEWS! Congress just voted to continue protecting medical marijuana states from federal persecution
FEATURED / NEWS
Early this morning, Congress voted to renew the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment.
MIROSLAV TOMOSKI
FEB 9, 2018
Rohrabacher-Blumenauer
Congress voted today to renew the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer provisions which protects states with legal medical marijuana from prosecution by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for another two years.
The provisions are part of an amendment to the federal budget which is passed every year to fund government departments like the DOJ. The amendment prevents the DOJ from spending any of the money it receives from the budget to go businesses and individuals in states with legal medical marijuana.
The amendment’s approval has been up in the air for months now as the government struggled to agree on a budget. Without an agreement on how to spend money and where the government cannot operate and is forced to shut down.
The amendment was allowed to expire temporarily for the first time on January 20, 2018, as a result of a government shutdown, but was extended on January 23rd when the government passed a temporary budget.
Rohrabacher-Blumenauer, which is named for its sponsors U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), is a separate protection from the Cole Memo, which Attorney General Jeff Sessions scrapped earlier this year. It prevents law enforcement agencies like the DEA from prosecuting medical marijuana in legal states whereas the Cole Memo extended that protection to recreational marijuana.
GettyImages 459964191 Congress just voted to continue protecting medical marijuana states from federal persecution
DENVER, CO – JANUARY 1: Tyler Williams of Blanchester, Ohio selects marijuana strains to purchase at the 3-D Denver Discrete Dispensary in Denver, Colorado after the legalization of recreational marijuana sales in the state went into effect.
In the past, the DOJ has tried to ignore the amendment by arguing that it applies only to government officials in the listed states and not to private citizens and businesses. In its selective interpretation of the amendment, the DOJ actually contradicted itself, having originally opposed the amendment because it believed that it could apply more broadly to recreational users.
In 2016 the Ninth Circuit Court, which covers the bulk of legal marijuana states on the western side of the country, put that confusion to rest by ruling that the protection extends to all businesses and consumers operating within the law in their own state.
If the DOJ decided to prosecute medical marijuana during a government shutdown, which it has never done, the decision made by the Ninth Circuit Court would protect Americans prosecuted for the use or sale of medical marijuana.
However, if a future budget is ever passed without the amendment included, the DOJ would no longer be restricted from spending money to prosecute medical marijuana across the country. Which means it is important that the amendment is approved each year until marijuana is removed from the highest restrictive listing, Schedule I, under federal law.
Since it first passed in 2014, support for Rohrabacher-Blumenauer has increased among members of Congress to the point that it’s inclusion in future budgets has become the standard.
MIROSLAV TOMOSKI
FEB 9, 2018
