Pubdate: Thu, 05 Jun 2014
Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)
Copyright: 2014 Boulder Weekly
Contact:  http://www.boulderweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/57
Author: Leland Rucker
Column: Weed Between the Lines

A HISTORIC CONGRESSIONAL CANNABIS VOTE ... OR NOT?

The Rohrabacher-Farr amendment to the 2015 Commerce, Justice and
Science Appropriations Bill (HR 4660) passed Friday in the U.S. House
of Representatives. It would prohibit the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) or the Department of Justice from using taxpayer
money to interfere with medical cannabis in states where it is legal
and would bar federal agencies from prosecuting hemp production in
states where it is legal. It would not keep the DEA from arresting
people unconnected to medical use.

The bipartisan measure was co-sponsored by Democrats Sam Farr, Jared
Polis, Barbara Lee, Steve Cohen and Earl Blumenauer and Republicans
Dana Rohrabacher, Don Young, Tom McClintock, Paul Broun and Steve Stockman.

The amendment was first offered by Rohrabacher and Maurice Hinchey in
2007. It was defeated 262- 165. The last time the amendment was
introduced was 2012. It lost 262-163. Last week, it passed 210- 189,
with 49 Republicans joining Democrats in voting yes. For some
historical reference, the first House vote on the issue was on a
nonbinding resolution opposing medical marijuana in 1998, which passed
by a 311-94 margin.

"We all are realists here," Polis told reporters on Friday after the
vote. "We know that we haven't had an appropriations process in some
time. We don't know where this particular amendment and bill are
going," he said. "It's the will of Congress. It has ramifications for
banking, for insurance, for a number of other issues that affect the
industry."

Rohrabacher, a Republican from California and former Ronald Reagan
speechwriter, conveniently forgetting that the 40th president and his
wife declared war on cannabis at this time 30 years ago, praised
Reagan for the 50-vote Republican turnaround. "I think that what we've
got now and what we have here in the Republican vote last night were
people who took a lot of those words and the philosophy of Ronald
Reagan to heart."

Whatever it takes.

Farr's press statement summed up the importance of the vote. "States
with medical marijuana laws are no longer the outliers; they are the
majority," he said. "This vote showed that Congress is ready to
rethink how we treat medical marijuana patients in this country. This
amendment gives states the right to determine their own laws for
medical marijuana use; free of federal intervention. It also gives
patients comfort knowing they will have safe access to the medical
care legal in their state without the fear of federal
prosecution."

Another amendment that passed will stop the administration from moving
staff temporarily to increase the Pardon Attorney Office's personnel,
which could help stop the administration's initiative to lower
sentences for non-violent drug offenders now in million of the DEA
budget on grants to state and prison. Rep. Steve Cohen added one that
moves $5 local police to help them reduce the backlog in rapetesting
kits. Another Cohen-sponsored amendment, the Legal Services
Corporation, which would have shifted money from the DEA to was defeated.

Still, this is historic - the first time a federal congressional body
has voted to oppose anything about the federal War on Drugs. Given the
congressional divide today, that in itself is pretty extraordinary. It
even brought together the director of the Drug Policy Alliance, Ethan
Nadelmann, and tax reform lobbyist Grover Norquist, who together
penned an editorial in the Daily Caller asking Congress to support the
bill as a stand for sensible drug policy and against wasteful
government spending. I doubt those two have ever agreed on anything
before.

The amendment has some hurdles to overcome. It goes to the Senate next
week, which is working on its own appropriations bill. It could go
along with the plan, change it or send it to a joint committee for
revisions. But it suggests, for the first time, that Congress might be
finally waking up to the fact that two states have legalized it, 22
states and the District of Columbia have passed medical cannabis laws,
five more allow access to CBD oils, and 10 states are attempting to
bring industrial hemp back to American fields - all in defiance of
federal statutes.

The hope is that this amendment will end the pervasive DEA raids on
medical facilities in the years while Michelle Leonhart has led the
organization. Some doubt that the language is strong enough to deter a
determined DEA. And nobody knows how the Senate will react, although
there have been indications that some in the body are warming to the
idea that cannabis should be a state rather than a federal matter.

Farr admits that it still faces long odds before the president finally
signs off on the omnibus appropriations bill. "But while momentum is
on our side, there is still work to be done to get this bill out of
the Senate," he said. "In the meantime, the federal government can
continue to prosecute medical marijuana patients. This is more than
just a waste of taxpayer dollars; it needlessly destroys lives and
tears families apart. The majority of states and now the House of
Representatives have clearly stated this absurd policy needs to stop."

I couldn't have said it better.
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MAP posted-by: Matt