The amendment was to the fiscal year 2020 Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill.
Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the amendment with a 267-165 vote with 226 democrats supporting the bill and 41 republicans on board. The amendment to protect the lawful adult-use industry as well as medical cannabis programs was submitted by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, and Tom McClintock, a California Republican. Blumenauer submitted several other cannabis-related amendments, including one that would prevent the Justice Department from interfering with Veterans Affairs doctors who recommend medical cannabis to patients in states with medical cannabis programs.
As NORML stated this past week, “Since 2014, members of Congress have passed annual spending bills that have included a provision protecting those who engage in the state-sanctioned use and dispensing of medical cannabis from undue prosecution by the Department of Justice. The amendment maintains that federal funds cannot be used to prevent states from “implementing their own state laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana.”
This time the amendment removed the word medical from the language to state the following:
“None of the funds made available by this Act to the Department of Justice may be used, with respect to any of the States of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, to prevent any of them from implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of marijuana.”.
The amendment relating to Veterans Affairs was unfortunately removed as Rep. Blumenauer told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview that the VA “blindsided” lawmakers by arguing for the first time that their physicians “would have been professionally liable” if they issued medical cannabis recommendations.
“This is a new wrinkle from the VA,” he said. “If we’d known, I’m absolutely convinced we could have” passed the measure.
The downside to this amendment is that it will only last for one year before it has to be re-added to another Justice Department spending measure, or a bill such as the STATES Act (Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States) is passed as law. That measure was reintroduced in the House by Reps. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, and David Joyce, an Ohio Republican, co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus on April 4th, 2019. That senate bill not only promises to solve the banking crisis but would protect state cannabis laws from federal interference and simultaneously address the 280E tax conundrum.
If you wish to see how your representative voted, you can visit the US Congress clerk website to take a look at the roll call on the vote.