The days of jackbooted feds raiding legit medical marijuana operations are mostly a thing of the past under the omnibus federal spending bill signed by President Obama this week. An amendment slipped into the bill denies funding for federal anti-pot raids of legit marijuana businesses in states where cannabis has been legalized for medical or recreational purposes. That would include nearly 32 states and the District of Columbia.
The addition to the $1.1 trillion spending bill, hammered out by the House and approved by the Senate last week, was written in part by a Southern California congressman.
The idea was mostly the brainchild of U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, an otherwise conservative, Latino-challenged Republican from Huntington Beach.
His office explained the legislation:
The amendment would require the federal government to respect state sovereignty over medical marijuana, depriving the Department of Justice of taxpayers’ dollars to prevent states from carrying out their medical marijuana laws. Thirty-two states and the District of Columbia are listed in the amendment as having legalized marijuana or its ingredients for medical purposes.