MMJ Protection Extended to Dec 8 by Trump-Democrats Budget Deal

September 12, 2017

Thanks to an understanding reached by President Trump and leaders in Congress, users, growers and establishments dealing in medical marijuana have gotten three month lifeline where they will be protected from the wrath of Attorney General and federal crackdowns.

The agreement between President Trump and democrats, which has been ratified by the House, has clauses about federal spending, debt ceiling and hurricane relief efforts. This agreement also includes a Rohrabacher–Blumenauer clause, which will provide protection to all the medical marijuana programs in different states until Dec 8, 2017 from any type of federal interference.

The body of the text in the deal clearly indicates that the Department of Justice is not going to use funds to stop states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico from “implementing a law that authorizes the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”

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The deal between Trump and democrats have shell-shocked the Republican leaders because a move by House Republicans nullified the Rohrabacher–Blumenauer Amendment, which was around in different forms since 2014. This provision allows the prevention of actions of different Justice Department agencies, including the DEA, from apprehending and indicting people who are allowed to use medical cannabis under state laws.

What happened actually?

The House endorsed a separate measure to provide $8 billion in relief to victims of Hurricane Harvey. The House then sent this bill to the Senate with 419-3 vote. Democratic senators added the provisions of the extension of debt ceiling and federal spending package. Republic leaders didn’t like the idea of fusing different bills together, particularly Speaker Paul Ryan terming the idea “ridiculous”.

However, President Trump is trying to pass a tax reform package by circumventing the budget and debt debate, and for that he might have seen Democrat’s offering as a help to achieve that.

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Democratic and Republic congressmen proposed President Trump with contrasting offers, but Trump provided presidential approval to the democratic package. The package funded Hurricane Harvey Relief and provided extensions to debt ceiling and federal spending till Dec 8. With the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) moving quickly towards bankruptcy, Congress was under great pressure to pass hurricane relief. So, congressmen yielded to the pressure by passing the Harvey-budget-debt deal in both the House and Senate, with more democratic support and negligible opposition from the Republicans.

What’s the status of medical cannabis in the bill?

The key development for medical cannabis in the recently passed bill is to get the extension of the current version of federal spending package. The bill includes the protection language for medical marijuana. The provisions of debt ceiling and federal spending will expire in three months and we will be back to square one in the first week of December.

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In the future, there are chances that the Senate is going to reach an agreement with the House on the version of federal spending that will not prevent the federal intrusion in state laws regarding medical cannabis. The man behind this maneuver is the House Rules Committee Chairman, Rep. Pete Sessions.

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