Indopedia All Things Marijuana
Although there was a great deal of faith that the medical marijuana protections known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment would be renewed, without issue, for inclusion in the 2018 federal budget, a House committee recently made the decision to block the rider – putting cannabis operations and patients at risk of being harassed next year by the DEA.
On Wednesday, the House Rules Committee opted not to allow these protections to go before the full chamber for a vote. It is a move that could end up sabotaging the quasi-safe zone that the medical marijuana community has enjoyed since 2014, as a spending budget without the language of Rohrabacher-Farr would give the Justice Department the freedom to investigate, raid and prosecute people and businesses connected to the medicinal cannabis trade.
The committee’s decision not to support the protections comes just days after California Representative Dana Rohrabacher, one of the originators of the amendment, penned an op-ed for The Washington Post reminding his Republican cohorts “If we bury state autonomy in order to deny patients an alternative to opioids, and ominously federalize our police, our hypocrisy will deserve the…
