GAGE SKIDMORE
Attorney General Jeff Sessions
crime and enforcing the laws as enacted by Congress,” he explained. “The cultivation, distribution and possession of marijuana has long been and remains a violation of federal law. We’ll continue to utilize longestablished prosecutorial priorities to carry out our mission to combat violent crime, disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations and stem the rising tide of the drug crisis.”
PRESERVING WHAT’S LEFT OF FEDERAL PROTECTIONS WITH THE ROHRABACHERBLUMENAUER AMENDMENT Since December 2014, the RohrabacherFarr amendment to the federal appropriations bill, now known as the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment for the two House members who sponsor it, has prohibited the Department of Justice from using funds to prevent states from implementing their own state laws that authorize the use, possession, cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana. The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2016 decision in the U.S. v. McIntosh case interpreted this to provide de facto protection for anyone facing federal criminal prosecution for medical-mar-
ijuana activity allowed by state law. It effectively prevents U.S. attorneys from prosecuting any such cases in court, even though marijuana use, possession, cultivation and distribution remain crimes in all circumstances under federal law. The Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment has been included in various shortterm spending bills. Unfortunately, the most recent extension expired on Feb. 9. Based on the number of times it’s already been extended and the shifting public opinion in favor of marijuana legalization since the amendment was first implemented, it will probably be extended again. An appropriations-bill amendment sponsored by Reps. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) would override Sessions’ nullification of the Cole Memo and expand the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment’s protections to recreational-marijuana states. For now, medical-marijuana use, possession, cultivation and distribution remain protected from federal prosecution by the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment and the U.S. v. McIntosh decision. But recreational marijuana is in a gray area, clearly legal under state law, but illegal under federal law, and without any protection from federal prosecution. WINTER 2018
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