The DOJ told Congress this past year that the proposed attachment of the Rohrabacher Farr amendment to a federal spending bill would “limit or possibly eliminate the department’s ability to enforce federal law in recreational marijuana cases.” To make a point, the department sent out a list of “informal talking points,” which were “intended to discourage passage” of the measure, in reference to a document obtained by Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority.
However, almost 2 months after the provision was given a green light in the House of Representatives and signed into law by the Head of State, a memo released by Patty Merkamp Stemler, chief of the DOJ appellate division, confesses the talking points do not “reflecting our current thinking,” and that the amendment does not provide “any limitations on our ability to investigate and prosecute crimes involving recreational marijuana.”
Yet a good amount of House members spoke up about their worries this past year over the reach of the Rohrabacher Farr amendment, expressed that it would cripple the DEA’s potential to enforce federal law, the DOJ memo, which is dated February 27, 2015, implies that the provision does nothing of its kind. Indeed, while lawmakers who stand behind the measure were in grew belief that they were taking the heat off marijuana shops and patients in medical marijuana states, it has unfolded to be that the full scope of the provision does not provide ant defense for the community of medical marijuana.
Rather, the memo debates that the DOJ is plainly not allowed to use federal funding to prevent states from passing medical marijuana laws.
“It prohibits the Department from preventing the implementation of State laws—that is, from impeding the ability of States to carry out their medical marijuana laws, not from taking actions against particular individuals or entities, even if they are acting compliant with State law,” according to the memo.
MAPH Enterprises, LLC | (305) 414-0128 | 1501 Venera Ave, Coral Gables, FL 33146 | new@marijuanastocks.com
