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A key House committee on Tuesday approved an amendment to provide broad protections for states, U.S. territories and tribes that have legalized marijuana.<\/p>\n
While lawmakers had pushed Appropriations Committee leadership to include the cannabis language in the base Fiscal Year 2023 spending legislation for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CSJ) as introduced, that didn\u2019t end up happening, much to their disappointment. Supporters, therefore, launched a backup plan to\u00a0pursue the rider as an amendment<\/a> in committee, as Marijuana Moment first reported on Monday.<\/p>\n Jointly introduced by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Dave Joyce (R-OH), co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, the amendment passed on a voice vote. Now the CJS bill includes provisions preventing the Justice Department from using federal funds from interfering in the implementation of any cannabis programs.<\/p>\n \u201cToday the majority of Americans reside in a jurisdiction where the medical or adult use of cannabis is legal under state law,\u201d Lee told fellow panel members ahead of the vote. \u201cWe believe that the federal government should not interfere with these programs and should respect the will of the people residing in these states, territories and tribal jurisdictions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is critically important that we protect state territories and tribes that have made progress toward restorative justice by not interfering with their local laws,\u201d the congresswoman said.<\/p>\n Lee, as well as key champions of reform like Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Tom McClintock (R-CA) and 44 other House lawmakers had previously sent a letter to Appropriations Committee leaders asking for the cannabis language in the base bill<\/a> to avoid the amendment process.<\/p>\n \u201cCongress must honor the will of the voters and prevent wasteful Department of Justice prosecution of those complying with their respective state\u2019s or tribe\u2019s cannabis regulations,\u201d Blumenauer said in a statement to Marijuana Moment. \u201cI have spearheaded the work to develop this language, which protects the state and tribal-legal programs that have been enacted laws to end prohibitionary policies and allow the development of both adult-use and medical marijuana programs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUsing federal resources to go after lawful operators that function within the legal framework of their state or tribe is problematic on two fronts: One, it is an infringement on state and tribal rights. Two, it is a waste of resources that could instead be targeted at actual problems,\u201d Joyce said at the committee meeting. \u201cLet\u2019s let the DEA return its attention to substances that are actually killing scores of people like fentanyl and opioids.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInaction on this amendment allows illegal operations to thrive and outcompete the legal businesses which are forced to navigate the costly discrepancies between state and federal regulators,\u201d the congressman said. \u201cLet\u2019s stop allowing this to happen. Regulated cannabis is not the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the marijuana protections text that was adopted:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cSEC.__. None of the funds made available by this Act to the Department of Justice may be used to prevent an Indian Tribe (as such term is defined in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304)) from enacting or implementing a tribal law that authorizes the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of marijuana.<\/p>\n SEC.__. None of the funds made available by this Act to the Department of Justice may be used to prevent a State, the District of Columbia, or a Territory of the United States from implementing a law authorizing the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis historic action by the Appropriations Committee marks the first time the federal budget heads to the full House while including protections for adult state-legal marijuana programs,\u201d Justin Strekal, founder of the BOWL PAC, told Marijuana Moment. \u201cWith bipartisan support, it is critical that the Senate concur with the House and respect the existing adult-use programs accessible to 45 percent of the American population.\u201d<\/p>\n (Disclosure: Strekal supports Marijuana Moment\u2019s work through a\u00a0monthly pledge on Patreon<\/a>.)<\/p>\n NORML Political Director Morgan Fox said in a press release that \u201cthe people involved in regulated cannabis programs in the growing number of states that are leading the way on this issue deserve to know whether the federal government will actively get in the way of their continued successes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIncluding these protections in the federal budget will go a long way toward giving individuals, businesses, and state governments some peace of mind while signaling to the vast majority of Americans who support legalizing and regulating cannabis that their elected representatives are actually listening to them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A narrower rider preventing DOJ only from using its federal funds to interfere in the implementation of medical cannabis legalization has been annually renewed since 2014, but the lawmakers have been pushing for broader protections in the CJS appropriations measure.<\/p>\n After the base CJS bill was released last week without the broader protections language, Blumenauer told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview that\u00a0it \u201cshould be not a heavy lift.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt makes so much sense to have the federal government not interfere,\u201d he said. \u201cThe principle has been embraced. It should be low-hanging fruit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPolitically, this is something that\u2014it\u2019s not just Democrats, there are a number of Republicans that support this concept,\u201d the congressman said. \u201cI\u2019m disappointed. And that\u2019s another thing we\u2019re working on.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2019 and 2020, the House\u00a0attached the sweeping state and tribal protections<\/a>\u00a0to its version of the appropriations legislation as amendments adopted on the floor, but they\u2019ve yet to be incorporated into any final package enacted into law. CJS legislation didn\u2019t end up making it to the floor in 2021, but supporters had planned an amendment that year as well.<\/p>\n In general, Democratic members have broadly supported the broad state protections language as amendments, while most Republicans have opposed it\u2014with key exceptions.<\/p>\n \u2014 Blumenauer testified before the CJS appropriations subcommittee during a members day in April, describing his request for the inclusion of the cannabis language as his \u201ctop priority\u201d in the bill this year.<\/p>\n \u201cStates from coast to coast\u2014across the political spectrum, red and blue have\u2014have taken meaningful action to end prohibitory policies and allow the development of both adult use and medical marijuana programs,\u201d the congressman said. \u201cThe federal government should not interfere with these programs and the will of the voters.\u201d<\/p>\n He also cited remarks from Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has said on multiple occasions that he believes prosecuting people over cannabis is a waste of Justice Department resources. The top prosecutor also\u00a0recently disclosed to Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI)<\/a>\u00a0that DOJ would be addressing cannabis issues \u201cin the days ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n The recent letter to appropriators also asked that the tribe-specific language be included in the base bill for Fiscal Year 2023, which it ultimately was. In past years, the House has approved\u00a0language on protections for tribal marijuana programs<\/a>\u00a0as floor amendments.<\/p>\n Similar language on\u00a0tribal cannabis protections for cannabis programs<\/a>\u00a0was included in a separate appropriations base bill that was released this month, though it included a caveat that laid out guidelines for eligibility for those protections. For example, tribes located in states where marijuana hasn\u2019t yet been legalized would not be eligible.<\/p>\n In a related development, a Senate committee recently held a listening session\u00a0that explored cannabis issues for Native Americans<\/a>, touching on areas such as tribal sovereignty in the marijuana space, agreements with state governments and taxation.<\/p>\n A coalition of nine U.S. senators also\u00a0sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland<\/a>\u00a0in March, urging him to direct federal prosecutors to not interfere with marijuana legalization policies enacted by Native American tribes.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, there have been numerous drug policy provisions included in other appropriations bills and attached reports that have been released over recent weeks.<\/p>\n For example, House Appropriations Committee leaders are calling for a federal review of psilocybin policy, utilizing hemp as an alternative to Chinese plastics and letting researchers study marijuana from dispensaries\u00a0in new spending bill reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are other notable cannabis provisions that have been\u00a0included in recently released spending bills and attached reports<\/a>, including one submitted last week that encourages sports regulators to push international officials to \u201cchange how cannabis is treated\u201d when it comes to suspending athletes from competition over positive tests.<\/p>\n The FSGG report also more broadly addresses drug testing requirement for federal workers, as previous versions have done in the past. But this time, there\u2019s a new line that specifically urges the executive branch to apply drug testing standards with \u201cconsistency and fairness.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in an education spending bill, there\u2019s again a section that would prevent the Department of Education from penalizing universities simply because the institutions are conducting research into marijuana.<\/p>\n The House Appropriations Committee\u00a0also released other spending bills and reports<\/a>\u00a0last week, with lawmakers pushing multiagency coordination to create guidance on hemp manufacturing, better guidance on the marketing of CBD, updates on research into medical marijuana for veterans and investigations into \u201calternative treatments\u201d for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) such as psychedelics.<\/p>\n Those provisions came out of Fiscal Year 2023 spending legislation for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Related Agencies, as well as Military Construction, Veterans Affairs (VA), and Related Agencies.<\/p>\n Another\u00a0set of spending bills and reports<\/a>\u00a0that were recently released call for protections for immigrants who use cannabis, freeing up marijuana-related advertising and providing the industry with access to the banking system.<\/p>\n Importantly, it remains to be seen whether the Senate will accept any of the House-led cannabis and drug policy proposals. Senate appropriators have not yet released their spending bills for FY23, and typically wait until after the House has acted, so it\u2019s not yet clear which issues will ultimately get reconciled by the two chambers and adopted into law.<\/p>\n White House Drug Czar Recognizes Medical Value Of Marijuana And Says Biden Admin Remains Committed To Cannabis Reform<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Congressional Committee Votes To Protect State Marijuana Programs From Federal Interference<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A key House committee on Tuesday approved an amendment to provide broad protections for states, U.S. territories and tribes that have legalized marijuana. While lawmakers had pushed Appropriations Committee leadership to include the cannabis language in the base Fiscal Year 2023 spending legislation for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related AgenciesContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":55537,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55536"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55538,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55536\/revisions\/55538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Congressional Committee Votes To Protect State Marijuana Programs From Federal Interference<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"