Lawmakers warn DOJ to back off medical marijuana prosecutions

With Capitol Hill and the Justice Department locked in a feud over the future of medical marijuana, two leading congressional marijuana reform advocates are warning Justice that it’s violating a new federal law.

In a letter addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder, Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Sam Farr (D-Calif.) on Wednesday said the Justice Department’s interpretation of their medical marijuana amendment in last year’s spending bill is “emphatically wrong.”


The two succeeded in enshrining in law a provision prohibiting the department from using resources to prevent states from “implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”

But the Justice Department told the Los Angeles Times this month that language won’t shield medical marijuana dispensaries from federal action for violating federal marijuana laws, which remain in conflict with state laws despite a growing push in Congress to reclassify the drug. The Justice Department has de-emphasized raids on medical marijuana dispensaries, but is still trying to shut down the Harborside dispensary in Northern California.

Rohrabacher and Farr say it is clear that the congressional intent of the new law is to “prevent the department from wasting its limited law enforcement resources on prosecutions and asset forfeiture actions against medical marijuana patients and providers, including businesses that operate legally under state law.”

“We respectfully insist that you bring your department back into compliance with federal law by ceasing marijuana prosecutions and forfeiture actions against those acting in accordance with state medical laws,” the bipartisan pair wrote.

The passage of the medical marijuana provision in the spending bill was a major breakthrough for reform advocates who had long sought to pass the “Hinchey amendment” aimed at giving states space to implement their own laws.

The amendment was stymied on the House floor for more than 10 years, passing only after Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) had retired, with Farr picking up lead co-sponsorship with Rohrabacher. It passed as part of the massive cromnibus spending package in December, which also blocked the District of Columbia from implementing its legalization of recreational marijuana.