In 2014, 85 words in a budget bill made all the difference in the world to medical marijuana. They stopped the flow of arrests, virtually put a halt to California crackdowns and let activists breathe a little in the states that have legalized medical cannabis. The words were labeled the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment and are as follows:
“None of the funds made available in this Act to the Department of Justice may be used, with respect to the States of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, to prevent such States from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”
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Now Attorney General Jeff Sessions is pushing Congress to overturn the amendment. The Senate has already expressed its support of it going forward and will not be swayed. There is potential in Congress, however, and that potential could crumble the medical cannabis industry as we know it.
“It is shocking to think that this is at risk,” said Sarah Trumble, who is deputy director of social policy and politics at Third Way, which is a centrist think tank advocating the easing of federal restrictions on marijuana.
“This would give the attorney general a blank check to go after medical marijuana. Without it, he might try, but it would be really hard for him.”
The first signs of the coming scare and potential reality came when the House took pause regarding the amendment. Luckily for now, GOP leaders did not go forward with a vote on it in a committee chaired by Rep. Pete Sessions – who is no relation to Jeff Sessions, but does share his zeal for anti-pot legislation and philosophy. In other words, he also hates cannabis.
The amendment’s namesake, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, is livid and is doing everything he can to preserve the amendment, including working with Rep. Earl Blumenauer, otherwise his political opposite. Blumenauer is now cosponsoring the newest version of the amendment.
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“There are dozens of Republicans who realize this is a really bad political move,” Blumenauer said. “Marijuana got more votes than Trump. There are millions of Republicans and independents who voted for it. There are 20 million people a month who use it.”
And do the two men think Sessions changed any minds with his rhetoric in Congress? The answer is a resounding, “No.”
