While the Trump administration continues to appoint supporters of the failed Drug War to positions within his cabinet, Congress took steps to protect patients. The new funding bill that averted a government shut down through September also extended protections to 44 states that have legalized medical marijuana in its proposed $1 trillion spending authorization bill.
The amendment to the spending bill will prevent the Justice Department from using any of its funding to “prevent” those states from “implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”
US v McIntosh affirms effect
In a major victory for cannabis reform activists, the bill names specific states, including California, and its effectiveness was affirmed by the US Courts of Appeal in 2015 in its US v McIntosh ruling (15-10117). It has been important in getting charges dropped against medical marijuana providers when a federal judge is willing to agree that federal prosecutors cannot spend money to prosecute an individual or activity protected by the law.
This provision, originally championed by former Reps. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., Sam Farr, D-Calif., and current Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., more than 10 years ago, became law in 2014 as part of the omnibus bill that funded fiscal year 2015 and was reauthorized in 2016. Now the enforcement ban has been temporarily extended into the autumn.
Prosecutors put on notice
It is especially important now that rabid prohibitionist and racist Jeff Sessions is running the US Department of Justice by restricting his ability to spend tax money to go after state-legal medical marijuana programs. The spending authorization has effectively notified him and his minions that Congress still controls spending.
Several measures have been introduced this year to make the spending limit permanent, to legalize medical marijuana, to deschedule cannabis, and to allow adult use. However, the Republican leadership has proven incompetent in addressing this and many other issues.
Democrats offer hope, GOP confusion
Many people are hoping that, at a minimum, the spending restrictions will stay in place through the 2018 elections, when a surge of anti-Trump sentiment, especially among millennials, may help Democrats regain control of Congress for the first time in eight years.
The Democratic Party platform adopted in 2016 is to legalize medical marijuana, protect states rights regarding cannabis legalization and create a path forward for federal legalization. The Republican platform from the same year voted to roll back medical marijuana and intensify the Drug War. However, when voters in four “red” states voted to legalize medical use last fall, the GOP fell into disarray.
Many Republicans support medical marijuana, others are afraid of a push back from voters, and a minority — including Sessions — support overturning states rights and enforcing federal prohibition.