Pubdate: Wed, 17 Dec 2014
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Evan Halper

QUIET END TO MEDICAL POT BAN

The Spending Bill Passed by Congress Contains a Significant Change in 
the Federal Government's Policy.

WASHINGTON - Tucked deep inside the 1,603-page federal spending 
measure is a provision that effectively ends the federal government's 
prohibition on medical marijuana and signals a major shift in drug policy.

The bill's passage over the weekend marks the first time Congress has 
approved nationally significant legislation backed by legalization 
advocates. It brings almost to a close two decades of tension between 
the states and Washington over medical use of marijuana.

Under the provision, states where medical pot is legal would no 
longer need to worry about federal drug agents raiding retail 
operations. Agents would be prohibited from doing so.

The Obama administration has largely followed that rule since last 
year as a matter of policy. But the measure approved as part of the 
spending bill, which President Obama plans to sign this week, will 
codify it as a matter of law.

Pot advocates had lobbied Congress to embrace the administration's 
policy, which they warned was vulnerable to revision under a less 
tolerant future administration.

More important, from the standpoint of activists, Congress' action 
marked the emergence of a new alliance in marijuana politics: 
Republicans are taking a prominent role in backing states' right to 
allow use of a drug the federal government still officially 
classifies as more dangerous than cocaine.

"This is a victory for so many," said the measure's coauthor, 
Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa. The measure's 
approval, he said, represents "the first time in decades that the 
federal government has curtailed its oppressive prohibition of marijuana."

By now, 32 states and the District of Colombia have legalized pot or 
its ingredients to treat ailments, a movement that began in the 
1990s. Even back then, some states had been approving broader 
decriminalization measures for two decades.

The medical marijuana movement has picked up considerable momentum in 
recent years. The Drug Enforcement Administration, however, continues 
to place marijuana in the most dangerous category of narcotics, with 
no accepted medical use.

Congress for years had resisted calls to allow states to chart their 
own path on pot. The marijuana measure, which forbids the federal 
government from using any of its resources to impede state medical 
marijuana laws, was previously rejected half a dozen times. When 
Washington, D.C., voters approved medical marijuana in 1998, Congress 
used its authority over the city's affairs to block the law from 
taking effect for 11 years.

Even as Congress has shifted ground on medical marijuana, lawmakers 
remain uneasy about full legalization. A separate amendment to the 
spending package, tacked on at the behest of anti-marijuana crusader 
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), will jeopardize the legalization of 
recreational pot in Washington, D.C., which voters approved last month.

Marijuana proponents nonetheless said they felt more confident than 
ever that Congress was drifting toward their point of view.

"The war on medical marijuana is over," said Bill Piper, a lobbyist 
with the Drug Policy Alliance, who called the move historic.

"Now the fight moves on to legalization of all marijuana," he said. 
"This is the strongest signal we have received from Congress [that] 
the politics have really shifted. ... Congress has been slow to catch 
up with the states and American people, but it is catching up."

The measure, which Rohrabacher championed with Rep. Sam Farr, a 
Democrat from Carmel, had the support of large numbers of Democrats 
for years. Enough Republicans joined them this year to put it over 
the top. When the House first passed the measure earlier this year, 
49 Republicans voted aye.

Some Republicans are pivoting off their traditional anti-drug 
platform at a time when most voters live in states where medical 
marijuana is legal, in many cases as a result of ballot measures.

Polls show that while Republican voters are far less likely than the 
broader public to support outright legalization, they favor allowing 
marijuana for medical use by a commanding majority. Legalization also 
has great appeal to millennials, a demographic group with which 
Republicans are trying to make inroads.

Approval of the pot measure comes after the Obama administration 
directed federal prosecutors last year to stop enforcing drug laws 
that contradict state marijuana policies. Since then, federal raids 
of marijuana merchants and growers who are operating legally in their 
states have been limited to those accused of other violations, such 
as money laundering.

"The federal government should never get in between patients and 
their medicine," said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland).
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom