“The Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment, was extended under the provisions of an aid package for victims of Hurricane Harvey approved by Congress.
The law bars the U.S. Justice Department from using federal funds to interfere with state medical marijuana programs or prosecuting medical marijuana businesses following state laws. It must be renewed yearly and had been set to expire Sept. 30.
The law’s future was in doubt when it was blocked from receiving a vote in the House this week. However, it was extended without a direct vote as part of the extension of government funding that was part of the aid deal.”
TRUCE take: Whatever anyone’s feelings about whether medical cannabis should be legal, this annual cutoff threat dance cruelly holds over a million current patients hostage (with many more just starting to enter new state systems) over a purely political fight that really has nothing to do with the value of cannabis in medicine..
It also holds a sword of Damocles over the heads of sizable and growing business sectors in nearly all of the 29 legal states.
A permanent version of this fragile protection and other reforms need to be passed as a non-expiring law to avoid patients being national political footballs every fall. These rights are actually implied in the 10th amendment in the first place, however, historically, the federal government hasn’t much ceded any claimable rights to be sovereign over all the states.
So it would take legislation we may not see anytime soon…Or perhaps a lawsuit on the constitutionality of federal control over what botanical medicines states can distribute without federal permission.
…The sooner the better.
#MMJ #USpol #UTpol #TRUCE
See full article – Law protecting medical pot businesses extended by Congress
