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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...-of-jeff-sessions_us_597a4177e4b02a4ebb7420a1
A congressional committee voted Thursday [July 27] to extend protections of state medical marijuana programs against federal interference, in defiance of a request from Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier this year urging his former colleagues to abandon the policy.
The Senate Appropriations Committee passed an amendment, introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), that would add a clause to the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) fiscal year 2018 budget that blocks the Department of Justice from using funding for federal prosecutions of medical marijuana providers that are legalized by individual states or jurisdictions.
Twenty-nine states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories of Guam and Puerto Rico have all enacted medical marijuana laws (17 other states have laws allowing limited use of cannabidiol, or CBD, the non-psychoactive ingredient in pot that holds promise for therapeutic use). Despite the majority of states’ efforts to move away from prohibition, the plant remains illegal at the federal level.
Lawmakers have been renewing the medical marijuana provision, commonly known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which prohibits DOJ from prosecuting state-legal medical marijuana operations, in every consecutive budget since it first passed in 2014. The amendment requires annual renewal and has been every year since it first passed.
Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit unanimously ruled that the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment blocks federal officials from prosecuting state-legal marijuana operators and patients.