Congress votes emergency resolution to prevent medical pot crackdown

Posted by Sagar Satapathy on December 26, 2017.

Federal protections for medical marijuana patients are safe for now, after Congress leadership voted an emergency resolution that maintains present federal spending levels and priorities through January 19, 2018

Protections offered under the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment give a four-week extension to the medical cannabis patients protection under the act.

The emergency resolution was signed by President Donald Trump on Friday. This is cited to be a temporary measure that keeps the government running even as the federal lawmakers contemplate on the details of their 2018 fiscal-year spending plan.

Representative Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, in a statement said such a move has given an amount of certainty to the medical marijuana patients.

“Patients around the country who rely on medical marijuana for treatment — and the businesses that serve them — now have some measure of certainty. Our fight, however, continues to maintain these important protections in the next funding bill passed by Congress,” he said.

Cannabis is illegal under Federal Law but the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment can stay the Justice Department from cracking down on medical pot patients in the State which has permitted the use of medical marijuana. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has also condemned use of the drug.

The move has been welcomed by medical pot patients and marijuana growers. Jered DeCamp, co-owner of Herbal Remedies, a marijuana outlet, and a patient, is hopeful that the provisions are extended beyond January.

“It's nice to know they're protecting us," DeCamp said.

A similar continuing resolution was passed on December 7 by the Congress lawmakers.

Meanwhile, US Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, has announced he would cosponsor a bill ‘Passage of the Marijuana Justice Act of 2017,’ which would decriminalize marijuana across the nation.

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