An amendment to a budget bill that forbids the federal government from interfering with adult-use cannabis programs that are permitted by state law has been approved by a House legislative subcommittee.
A legislative amendment that would shield participants in state-legal recreational cannabis programs from interference and punishment by the federal government was passed by the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. Before the committee passed the entire bill by a vote of 31–24, the amendment, which adds a budget rider to the 2023 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies appropriations legislation, was approved by voice vote.
Representatives David Joyce, a Republican from Ohio, and Barbara Lee, a Democrat from California, jointly proposed the amendment. Democratic Representatives Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia, as well as Republican Representative Tom McClintock of California, are among the proponents of the legislation who do not serve on the Appropriations Committee.
No Federal Funds Are Available for Weed Enforcement
The Department of Justice is forbidden by the budget rider from interfering with the ability of states, territories, tribal governments, or the District of Columbia to pass laws that control the cultivation, distribution, and use of cannabis. The House-passed legislation forbids the government from taking action against people who are following adult-use cannabis laws that are recognized by state, tribal, or territorial law.
Blumenauer said in a statement that “Congress must respect the decision of the voters and stop costly Department of Justice prosecution of those adhering with their particular state’s or tribe’s cannabis regulations.” “I have led the effort to craft this wording, which safeguards the state and tribal-legal programs that have established laws to stop prohibitionist practices and permit the growth of both adult-use and medical marijuana systems,” the author claims.
Similar changes were accepted by the whole House of Representatives over the past two years as part of omnibus appropriations legislation, but they were not incorporated into the final versions of the measures. Congress has enacted spending bills since 2014 that included safeguards for people abiding by state-legal medical cannabis legislation.
The Cole Memo, which since 2013 has instructed the Department of Justice to give prosecutions for cannabis-related offenses permissible under state law a low priority, was revoked in 2018 by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Although prosecutions continue in many counties, the current attorney general, Merrick Garland, has frequently stated that enforcing marijuana prohibition laws is typically not an efficient use of federal resources.
In a statement released by the organization that advocates for changing marijuana laws, Morgan Fox, the political director of NORML, praised the amendment’s approval.
“The people involved in regulated cannabis programs in the growing number of states that are leading the way on this issue deserve to know whether the federal government will actively get in the way of their continued successes,” said Fox. “As federal lawmakers steadily work to determine the best way to finally end marijuana prohibition and undo the damage it has caused.” The majority of Americans who support the legalization and regulation of cannabis will feel much more heard if these provisions are included in the federal budget, which will help provide people, businesses, and state governments some piece of mind.
Industry Response to House Vote
Although many experts highlighted that the legislation does not go far enough, the majority of responses from representatives of the expanding cannabis business were positive following the passing of the budget rider. According to Katrina Skinner, general counsel and chief banking officer at cannabis compliance platform Simplifya, while the amendment approved by the Appropriations Committee is encouraging evidence that some legislators are prepared to advance policy reform, it lacks the weight of comprehensive legislation that would legalize cannabis across the board. Skinner stated that the Rohrabacher Farr amendment, which was previously enacted to safeguard state-legal medicinal cannabis programs, was not enforced uniformly across the nation.
Despite being another symbolic step in the right direction for defending state-legal cannabis sectors, Skinner told High Times in an email that the House Bill is unlikely to offer actual defenses against meddling from the federal government. Federal law enforcement agencies have taken a limited view of what constitutes “intervention,” and judicial decisions have varied among jurisdictions, as we have previously seen with the Rohrabacher Farr appropriations rider.
Finally, as written, the law provides nothing to support licensed operators’ rights to engage in interstate commerce, such as moving monies from authorized sales over state lines to enable enterprises to use limited banking services, according to Skinner. Federal law enforcement agencies have the right to look into and pursue CSA offenses “so long as marijuana remains illegal on a federal level.”
The amendment will assist safeguard state-level cannabis policy reform, according to Christian Sederberg, founding partner of the cannabis law firm Vicente Sederberg.
In a statement to High Times, Sederberg stated that “this measure represents the increasingly prevalent opinion that the federal government has no business intervening in state cannabis programs.” “It is critical that states continue to establish regulatory programs focused at safeguarding public health and safety as Congress works to find more comprehensive solutions to abolishing federal prohibition,” the statement reads.
