Washington, DC: Congressmen Sam Farr (D-CA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), and Barney Frank (D-MA) held a press conference today to announce the introduction of the “Truth in Trials Act.” If approved by Congress, the bill would allow medicinal marijuana patients and providers charged under federal law to introduce evidence at trial that their use of marijuana was for medicinal purposes and/or in accordance with state law. Currently, federal judges will not allow such evidence into testimony because Congress has never determined that marijuana has medical value.
“This affirmative defense bill has been introduced because the federal government continues to ignore the laws of eight states that allow the legal use and cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes,” NORML Executive Director Keith Stroup said. He noted that over the eighteen months, federal drug enforcement officials have taken action against approximately 40 medicinal marijuana patients, cooperatives and providers in California. “If a defendant is using medical marijuana in compliance with the laws of his or her state, then a federal jury should be allowed to hear that information, and the patient should not be sent to federal prison.”
Stroup added that a more comprehensive bill seeking to federally reschedule marijuana so that state governments could legally permit its use and distribution without running afoul of federal law will be re-introduced in Congress shortly. A previous version of that bill, “The States’ Rights To Medical Marijuana Act,” gained 42 co-sponsors in the last Congress, but failed to receive a hearing in the House of Representatives.
For more information, please contact Keith Stroup at (202) 483-5500.