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Congress Adds Critical Federal Protections on Cannabis

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[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]L[/dropcap]aw abiding patients, caregivers and businesspeople in states that allow medical cannabis will be protected from the long arm of The United States Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Federal protections on state medical cannabis laws, what is known as the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment, now the Leahy amendment, have been included in a federal spending bill. On March 22, The House has passed the spending measure with a vote of 256-167. The Senate passed the bill late Thursday. Those provisions have been included in an extensive $1.3 trillion federal funding bill which runs through Sept. 30. The 2,232-page omnibus spending bill will fund the government through the remainder of FY2018.

“Good work by @DanaRohrabacher@repblumenauer and everyone else who fought to continue these important medical marijuana protections,” Marijuana Majority Founder Tom Angell tweeted Wednesday.

The Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment has been federal law since 2014. Each time the House has voted on it since 2014, the bill has gained more traction.

The provisions have been extended in federal omnibus bills at least eight times. The rider bill can only be extended in short increments, and Rep. Blumenauer told CULTURE on March 14 that it is “a reflection of how seriously flawed the budget process has been here in Congress. It is tied to Prohibition on expending federal money to interfere with otherwise state-legal activities. It has been limited, in some cases, to a few months or a few weeks because that is how the federal government has been funding its operations. Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment is a victim of the dysfunctional budget process.”

“While I’m glad that our medical marijuana protections are included,” Blumenauer said in a press release posted on his website, “there is nothing to celebrate since Congress only maintained the status quo. These protections have been law since 2014. This matter should be settled once and for all. Poll after poll shows that the majority of Americans, across every party, strongly favor the right to use medical marijuana.”

The “must-pass” spending bill’s only threat now is if President Donald Trump vetoes the entire spending bill.

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