"Tucked deep inside the 1,603-page federal spending measure
is a provision that effectively ends the federal government's prohibition on
medical marijuana and signals a major shift in drug policy.
The bill's passage over the weekend marks the first time
Congress has approved nationally significant legislation backed by legalization
advocates. It brings almost to a close two decades of tension between the
states and Washington over medical use of marijuana.
Under the provision, states where medical marijuana is legal
would no longer need to worry about federal drug agents raiding retail
operations. Agents would be prohibited from doing so.
The Obama administration has largely followed that rule
since last year as a matter of policy. But the measure approved as part of the
spending bill, which President Obama plans to sign this week, will codify it as
a matter of law.
MMJ advocates had lobbied Congress to embrace the
administration's policy, which they warned was vulnerable to revision under a
less tolerant future administration.
More important, from the standpoint of activists, Congress'
action marked the emergence of a new alliance in marijuana politics:
Republicans are taking a prominent role in backing states' right to allow use
of a drug the federal government still officially classifies as more dangerous
than cocaine.
"This is a victory for so many," said the
measure's coauthor, Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa. The
measure's approval, he said, represents "the first time in decades that
the federal government has curtailed its oppressive prohibition of marijuana."
By now, 32 states and the District of Columbia have
legalized marijuana or its ingredients to treat ailments, a movement that began
in the 1990s. Even back then, some states had been approving broader
decriminalization measures for two decades.
The medical marijuana movement has picked up considerable
momentum in recent years. The Drug Enforcement Administration, however,
continues to place marijuana in the most dangerous category of narcotics, with
no accepted medical use.
Congress for years had resisted calls to allow states to
chart their own path on marijuana. The marijuana measure, which forbids the
federal government from using any of its resources to impede state medical
marijuana laws, was previously rejected half a dozen times. When Washington,
D.C., voters approved medical marijuana in 1998, Congress used its authority
over the city's affairs to block the law from taking effect for 11 years.
Even as Congress has shifted ground on medical marijuana,
lawmakers remain uneasy about full legalization. A separate amendment to the
spending package, tacked on at the behest of anti-marijuana crusader Rep. Andy
Harris (R-Md.), will jeopardize the legalization of recreational marijuana in
Washington, D.C., which voters approved last month.
Marijuana proponents nonetheless said they felt more
confident than ever that Congress was drifting toward their point of view.
"The war on medical marijuana is over," said Bill
Piper, a lobbyist with the Drug Policy Alliance, who called the move historic.
"Now the fight moves on to legalization of all
marijuana," he said. "This is the strongest signal we have received
from Congress [that] the politics have really shifted. ... Congress has been
slow to catch up with the states and American people, but it is catching up."
The measure, which Rohrabacher championed with Rep. Sam
Farr, a Democrat from Carmel, had the support of large numbers of Democrats for
years. Enough Republicans joined them this year to put it over the top. When
the House first passed the measure earlier this year, 49 Republicans voted aye.
Some Republicans are pivoting off their traditional
anti-drug platform at a time when most voters live in states where medical
marijuana is legal, in many cases as a result of ballot measures.
Polls show that while Republican voters are far less likely
than the broader public to support outright legalization, they favor allowing
marijuana for medical use by a commanding majority. Legalization also has great
appeal to millennials, a demographic group with which Republicans are aggressively
trying to make inroads.
Approval of the marijuana measure comes after the Obama
administration directed federal prosecutors last year to stop enforcing drug
laws that contradict state marijuana policies. Since then, federal raids of
marijuana merchants and growers who are operating legally in their states have
been limited to those accused of other violations, such as money laundering.
"The federal government should never get in between
patients and their medicine," said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland)."
Story by:
Twitter: @evanhalper
No comments:
Post a Comment