Indopedia All Things Marijuana
Photo via Ryan Lackey
The federal government has a budget issue. The last comprehensive spending plan, signed two years ago by then-President Barack Obama, expired in September of this year, but a two-month continuing resolution, followed by another two-week extension, were passed to things afloat until December 22nd. Now, it’s crunch-time on Capitol Hill: In between legislative battles over infrastructure, Obamacare subsidies, and the fate of America’s immigrant ‘Dreamers,’ the standing budget amendment popularly known as Rohrabacher-Farr — which protects the country’s state-legal medical marijuana patients, producers, and caregivers from federal interference — is on the chopping block, with U.S. Attorney General and noted cannabis critic Jeff Sessions possibly chomping at the bit to get past the enforcement muzzle.
First introduced in 2001, but tabled until it ultimately passed on the eighth try in 2014, the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment (now titled Rohrabacher-Blumenauer since Rep. Samuel Farr’s retirement earlier this year) prevents the Department of Justice from spending federal funds to prosecute cannabis-related activities if they are permitted under…
