Feds’ Have “No Respect” For The State Laws, Congressional Coalition Charges
Sacramento, CA: A bi-partisan coalition of federal lawmakers announced this week that they will introduce legislation prohibiting the federal prosecution of medical marijuana patients and providers who reside in states where such activities are legally protected by state law. The pending bill is in response to a recent wave of federal prosecutions of several prominent California medical marijuana patients and providers each of whom were forbidden from introducing evidence at trial regarding either medicinal marijuana or Proposition 215, California’s law legalizing the use and cultivation of medical cannabis.
In the past year and a half, federal drug enforcement officials have taken action against approximately 40 medicinal marijuana patients, cooperatives and providers in the state.
The federal government has “no respect for the laws we here in California [and seven other states] have established to allow patients to live pain-free lives,” said Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) at a press conference Wednesday. He announced that he, along with Reps. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), will be introducing federal legislation next month to create two separate legal categories of marijuana medical and criminal and allow defendants to raise the medical use of marijuana as a legal defense against federal prosecution.
“The purpose of this bill is to allow defendants in federal criminal trials to introduce evidence that their marijuana-related activity was performed for a valid medical purpose under state law,” Farr said. “If a jury finds that a defendant was following [the] state’s medical marijuana law, then the defendant should not be sent to prison. It’s as simple as that.”
Currently, federal defendants cannot introduce evidence regarding the therapeutic use of marijuana or the existence of state laws legalizing it as a defense against federal criminal prosecution because the federal government fails to legally recognize marijuana’s medicinal value.
In the last Congress, bi-partisan legislation introduced by Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ron Paul (R-TX) sought to reschedule marijuana so that states could legally permit its use and distribution without running afoul of federal law. That bill gained 42 co-sponsors, but failed to receive a hearing in the House of Representatives. Representatives Frank and Paul are expected to re-introduce their bill later this month.
For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup or Paul Armentano of NORML at (202) 483-5500.