Last Friday,
the U.S. congress approved a measure that prevents the Department of
Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration from spending money
to interfere with state laws on medical marijuana. The move has been
heralded as tantamount to essentially lifting the federal ban on
medical marijuana and a major blow to the war on drugs.
The measure
lets states implement their own medical marijuana policy without the
fear of federal interference. And this is big news, considering that
the majority of U.S. citizens now live in states where medical
marijuana is legal.
“I
think it is a step in the right direction and it shows the
willingness to respect the will of the people,” Amanda Reiman,
manager of Marijuana Law and Policy at the Drug Policy Alliance, told
teleSUR English.
The
provision was approved as part of the massive 1,603-page US$1.1
trillion spending bill for 2016—the amendment had been passed
temporarily in 2015, but its approval in the 2016 spending bill
locked it into law—and it comes as national views on cannabis and
mass incarceration have shifted in recent years. More lawmakers are
now open to rolling back strict federal drug policy, which still
holds that marijuana is more dangerous than cocaine.
Still, drug
reform activists worry that federal opposition to medical marijuana
will nonetheless continue and say several battles have yet to be won.
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