Drug War Issues
This article was published in collaboration with AlterNet and first appeared here.
Just last week, in a series of successful amendments to the Justice Department appropriations bill, the House sent a clear message to the DEA and DOJ to stop interfering in medical marijuana states. Today, a similar message came from the Senate.
Congress doesn't want the DEA messing with medical marijuana where it's legal. (wikimedia.org)
While the appropriations bill must still be approved by the Senate as a whole, both houses of Congress are now on record as telling the DEA to butt out of medical marijuana states. The passage of identical amendments in both houses is a good indicator that they will be included in the spending bill when it gets to President Obama's desk.
While the House has passed similar amendments for the last two years, this is the first time it was offered in the Senate. It mirrors the provisions of the CARERS Act (HR 1538/S.683), introduced earlier this year, but because a ban in an appropriations bill expires at the end of the fiscal year, advocates are still calling for the CARERS Act to move.
The vote was an impressive 21-9, with the only Democrat voting against it being Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Republicans split right down the middle, with eight opposing and eight supporting.
Drug reform advocates were pleased.
California's senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, was the only Democrat to vote "no." (senate.gov)
"This is another resounding victory for medical marijuana patients, their families, and their care providers. Congress is making it clear that the Department of Justice and the DEA have no business interfering in state medical marijuana laws," said Dan Riffle, director of federal policy for the Marijuana Policy Project.
"The goal of this amendment is to provide deference to the states, making it strikingly similar to the operative provisions of the CARERS Act. Unfortunately, that bipartisan bill has languished for months in the Senate Judiciary Committee because Chairman Chuck Grassley has refused to hold hearings on it. The Senate spoke loudly and clearly today. Hopefully Sen. Grassley was listening," Riffle continued.
"With so many votes going our way these days, each new one gets less and less exciting. But that's a good problem to have," said Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority. "We're entering an era where marijuana reform is accepted as mainstream and not seen as controversial, and that's exactly where we want to be. With this vote, it's now clear that a growing bipartisan group of lawmakers in both chambers are ready to get the federal government out of the way of the effective implementation of state marijuana laws. These temporary funding restrictions certainly help us to demonstrate political momentum, but the next step should be passing legislation to permanently change federal law."
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Comments
The DEA will still interfere,
The DEA will still interfere, this will only give a comeback avenue when the DEA do as they've done before, settle whether it is a case of Medical, or for 'not medical'.. after the raid, entry, seizure process.
The individual will have to appeal as a comeback, with their own money, if they have any after seizure, or earn more in another job if fired because they didn't show up to work as being in jail. If successful, good luck getting your seized possessions or money back, or criminal arrest record expunged.
So 3 -4 months later, its decided you were 'legal', but your life is in a shamble.
"With this vote, it's now clear that a growing bipartisan group of lawmakers in both chambers are ready to get the federal government out of the way of the effective implementation of state marijuana laws."
Things have a real long ways to go yet.. and yet we then have to have testing standards and insurability for the workplace... long long ways to go.
Only by a popular vote!
Our elected officials will never do anything. Its called a safe move. If they do nothing they don't make anybody mad. Almost guaranteeing reelection. When the people are allowed to vote marijuana legislation will pass.
In reply to Only by a popular vote! by Stan (not verified)
Unfortunately in many states
Unfortunately in many states there is no ballot initiative process to use, and there is none for federal legislation. So we have to get members of Congress and of many states legislatures to move on this. But we are making great progress, and the lengthy series of amendments passed by the Senate recently makes us all very optimistic here.
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