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Tag: states rights

  • House Votes To Prevent Feds From Enforcing Pot Laws In Legal States

    House Votes To Prevent Feds From Enforcing Pot Laws In Legal States

    The Democrat-led arm of Congress seeks to keep federal marijuana enforcement out of places where citizens have voted it legal.

    The feds at the Department of Justice will no longer be able to enforce marijuana laws in legal states if the House of Representatives gets its way, Marijuana Moment reports.

    While the House is majority Democrat, the measure passed with a floor vote of 267 to 165, meaning the effort was bipartisan. If it passes, the DOJ will no longer have a say regarding state laws that govern recreational use, growing pot or selling the stuff.

    “This is the most significant vote on marijuana reform policy that the House of Representatives has ever taken,” said Justin Strekal, Political Director at NORML. “Today’s action by Congress highlights the growing power of the marijuana law reform movement and the increasing awareness by political leaders that the policy of prohibition and criminalization has failed.”

    Members of the marijuana industry welcomed the news.

    “The historic nature of this vote cannot be overstated,” said Neal Levine, CEO of the Cannabis Trade Federation. “For the first time, a chamber of Congress has declared that the federal government should defer to state cannabis laws.”

    The bill had bipartisan sponsorship coming from Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Tom McClintock (R-CA).

    “I do not believe the federal government has that authority, but even if it did, states should determine their own criminal justice policies,” wrote Rep. McClintock to his colleagues before the vote. “This is how our constitutional system was designed to function.”

    A similar measure failed the floor vote in 2015, but widespread support for legalization has only grown since then.

    “The end of marijuana prohibition has never been closer. When Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and a small band of allies first worked on this amendment in 2015, we were told that we didn’t stand a chance,” said the DPA Director of National Affairs, Michael Collins. “But we convinced members this was the right thing to do, and four years on, victory is sweet.”

    This isn’t the only victory for sensible drug policy that has recently made its way through the House. On Thursday, the House voted in favor of the establishment of regulations for CBD. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was also able to divert $5 million from the DEA to opioid treatment programs, but failed to push through a measure that would allow more research on the effects of psychedelics.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Is The White House Waging A "Secret War" On Marijuana?

    Is The White House Waging A "Secret War" On Marijuana?

    The administration’s Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee may be responsible for hindering marijuana legalization. 

    Trump has said in the past that he supports states’ rights to establish their own marijuana policies—yet according to a report by BuzzFeed News, administration officials are waging a “secret war on weed” to push back on support of marijuana legalization across the country.

    Rolling Stone says the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) confirmed the existence of the Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee, but “stopped short of confirming” that the goal of the coalition of federal agencies was to shed a negative light on marijuana legalization.

    Members of Congress confirm that the White House’s actions contradict what Trump has said about marijuana policy—leading them to wonder: “Is there someone within the Trump administration directing a negative marijuana message?” as a senior congressional staffer put it.

    “Every time I speak to someone in the administration, despite what the president has said, they tell me it isn’t happening. My question is, who is in charge over there? It borders on ridiculous,” Rep. Tom Garrett of Virginia told Rolling Stone.

    On multiple occasions, Trump has said that he supports a state’s right to choose how it handles marijuana policy. “In terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state,” he said at a 2015 campaign rally in Sparks, Nevada.

    “The president is right on this issue,” said Garrett. “The gatekeepers need to do their job, not undermine good policy.”

    Some point to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions as the main force within the administration that’s fighting marijuana policy reform. “I’ve discussed marijuana policy with senior White House officials, cabinet members and the president,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida. “My personal assessment is that the attorney general is the problem.”

    Jeff Sessions is notoriously anti-marijuana. The 71-year-old former senator from Alabama—who once said “Good people don’t smoke marijuana”—has made it a point to enforce, and enhance, the federal prohibition of marijuana.

    “I don’t think America is going to be a better place when people of all ages, and particularly young people, are smoking pot,” the attorney general said in February 2017. “I believe it’s an unhealthy practice, and current levels of THC in marijuana are very high compared to what they were a few years ago, and we’re seeing real violence around that.”

    In response to Sessions’ renewed “war on drugs,” bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the Senate to protect state marijuana policy.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Bipartisan Bill To Protect States With Legalized Marijuana Gains Traction

    Bipartisan Bill To Protect States With Legalized Marijuana Gains Traction

    The bill would allow states to determine “the best approach to marijuana within [their own] borders.”

    Though Attorney General Jeff Sessions continues to wage war against marijuana, President Donald Trump has said that he is willing to support bipartisan legislation that would allow states to determine their own rules regarding the legalization and regulation of marijuana.

    The bill was introduced by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Cory Gardner (R-CO), who, as High Times noted, have taken distinctly opposite stances regarding marijuana in their respective states. But the pair has united over federal cannabis prohibition, which they view as impugning on not only states’ rights to determine their own laws, but also the legal cannabis industry’s ability to access safe banking and insurance.

    Their efforts appear to have earned a positive response from Trump, who told reporters that he would “probably” support the bill.

    The bill, called the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States, or STATES Act, would allow individual states, Washington, D.C., U.S. territories and federally recognized tribes to determine for themselves “the best approach to marijuana within [their own] borders.”

    This would be accomplished by amending the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) so that those states or tribes that comply with basic protection would be considered exempt from federal law regarding the “manufacture, production, possession, dispensation, administration, or delivery of marijuana.”

    The STATES Act would also remove industrial hemp from the CSA, and would implement several “common-sense guardrails” to ensure that states continue to regulate marijuana in a “safe and respectful manner” that is compliant with federal standards. These include prohibiting individuals under the age of 18 to work in marijuana operations and preventing sale or distribution of marijuana to individuals under the age of 21 for reasons other than medical purposes.

    Additionally, and most crucially for legal cannabis business, the bill would allow federally insured banks to do business with such entities.

    In a statement, Senator Warren wrote, “The federal government needs to get out of the business of outlawing marijuana.” She added that current federal laws have negatively impacted the criminal justice system, scientific research and economic development, while states like Massachusetts have implemented commonsense marijuana legislation that has supported these categories. “They have the right to enforce their own marijuana policies,” she wrote.

    Senator Gardner took similar aim at government policies in his statement while focusing his argument on states’ rights issues.

    “The federal government is closing its eyes and plugging its ears while 46 states have acted,” he wrote. “The bipartisan, commonsense bill ensures the federal government will respect the will of the voters—whether that is legalization or prohibition—and not interfere in an states’ legal marijuana industry.”

    At a press conference on June 6, President Trump said that he knew “exactly what [Senator Gardner’s] doing,” and “probably will end up supporting” the STATES Act.

    Given Trump’s penchant for spur-of-the-moment decisions that often take his cabinet and party by surprise, it remains unclear whether he will ultimately voice approval for the bill, but the statement flies in the face of Attorney General Sessions’ stance on marijuana, which was crystallized in a January 2018 memo granting federal prosecutors the “necessary tools” to crack down on cannabis.

    View the original article at thefix.com