01 May Congressional Freeze of Federal Funds to Enforce Cannabis Laws Extended

It’s looking good. The Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment to the last several years of federal budget bills has prevented the federal government from using its money to prevent the implementation of state medical cannabis laws since 2014. However, the amendment must be renewed each year with the annual budget bill.

According to HuffPost, the budget bill agreed upon by Congressional leaders over the weekend, which will fund the government through the end of September and which is expected to be approved this week, includes a renewal of Rohrabacher-Farr. This would mean Attorney General Sessions would not be permitted to use his budget for this purpose. This also means the Republican Congress is not interested in increasing cannabis law enforcement, at least on the medical side.

This is consistent with the President’s statement that he is “100%” in favor of medical marijuana, which was recently backed up by Press Secretary Sean Spicer. However, neither the R-F Amendment nor statements from the Administration prevent them from choosing to step up enforcement of state legal recreational cannabis. Spicer hinted a few months ago that this may happen. But for now, at least a continuation of the status quo.