Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., wants Congress to help states and the cannabis industry take the next step in the legalization process by preventing the federal government from superseding state laws regarding marijuana.
“We need to make sure that recreational marijuana protections are considered seriously, but also in those states” that have some form of legalized marijuana, the relevant “federal agencies and departments have to treat that entity consistent with that state law,” he told the Washington Examiner.
His “respect state marijuana laws” legislation would prevent the federal government from interfering with the “production, possession, distribution, dispensation, administration or delivery of marijuana” if it is in compliance with state law.
Congress needs to help the country make major changes in how it treats cannabis, he said. “And If we do, many people are going to live better lives,” Rohrabacher said. “It is going to be better for our country, better for people. And it makes economic sense at a time when every penny must count for government.”
His bill has attracted a dozen co-sponsors so far. Last month, Rohrabacher and Reps. Don Young, R-Alaska, Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Jared Polis, D-Colo., founded the Congressional Cannabis Caucus. Since then, many colleagues have shown interest in the group’s work, he said.
“Only 15 years ago, everyone would never have admitted they were involved,” he said.
It’s up to the caucus to offer lawmakers and the country a “professional presentation” about how to “keep the momentum going that we’ve established in these last four and five years,” he said.
Now that 44 states have legalized marijuana to some extent, the federal government needs to look at the failed drug policies of the past and operate differently, Rohrabacher said.
Rohrabacher and the cannabis caucus also want to adjust the banking laws that force legal marijuana growers and sellers to deal only in cash, ensure that federal laws don’t block cannabis research and make the products available to veterans. And they want the Drug Enforcement Agency and Health and Human Services Department to lower the drug’s classification from Schedule I, the most severe, to Schedule II.
The first step is his bill, Rohrabacher said.
“We’re going to do our part to continue the progress of making sure that people have a right to live their lives, that adults have a right of freedom and should have freedom to basically consume cannabis for medical purposes” or however is consistent with state law, he said.
Rohrabacher said Republicans should gladly support his bill, as it respects states’ rights.
“If you go down to fundamental principles … every one of those principles would lead them to support individual freedom,” he said. “We talk about limited government. We’re constitutionalists.
“We’re going to have battles where Republicans are going to be say: ‘We’re doing this because we’re going to leave it up to the states,’ including my friend Jeff Sessions,” Rohrabacher said, adding that the attorney general should direct federal law enforcement agencies to stand down where federal laws and state laws regarding cannabis are in conflict.
“I think that Republicans use the states’ right argument to explain why they do things, but if they are not consistent in it, if they leave out marijuana laws, I don’t see how they can use that same principle to defend other decisions,” Rohrabacher said, explaining that he’s had the hypocrisy conversation with colleagues “lots of times.”
