At press time, just one week after the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution allows the feds to enforce the
federal Controlled Substances Act by arresting and prosecuting sick medi-pot users, the U.S. House of Representatives is preparing to vote on a bipartisan amendment to the
Justice Department appropriation bill that would end the practice. The so-called
Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment, sponsored by Reps.
Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and
Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., would forbid the DOJ from using federal resources to enforce the government's drug prohibition laws against sick patients in the 10 states that have legalized medi-pot. In their ruling last week, the U.S. Supreme Court wrote that the medi-pot question was one for Congress to answer. While there may be other legal recourse, Justice
John Paul Stevens wrote for the six-justice majority, "perhaps more important … is the democratic process, in which the voices of the voters allied with [medi-pot patients
Angel Raich and
Diane Monson] may one day be heard in the halls of Congress." Raich and fellow California medi-mari patient Monson – who sued the feds in 2002 seeking an end to the enforcement actions – did just that by traveling to D.C. this week to lobby for the amendment. Raich joined former Clinton-era Surgeon General
Jocelyn Elders,
Jim Winkler of the United Methodist Church, and
Don Murphy, executive director of
Republicans for Compassionate Access, for a press teleconference on June 13 urging lawmakers to vote for the amendment. "I am very, very ill," but "not a criminal," said Raich. The federal government, she said, needs to "stop locking up sick, dying, and disabled patients."
As a GOP state assemblyman, Murphy authored Maryland's medical cannabis law, making medi-pot possession punishable by a $100 fine only. Murphy told reporters that the medi-pot question is being embraced by increasing numbers of Republicans in various states – including Texas, where Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, filed the state's first medi-mari bill in 2001. (So far, Texas' attempted medi-pot measures have all died in committee in spite of polls that show overwhelming voter support for medi-pot protections.) Banning federal intrusion into state-decided medi-pot matters should appeal to "Republicans in particular because that is consistent with everything we say we believe," said Murphy – specifically, the notion of a smaller, less-intrusive federal government. "I find it odd that we trust law-abiding citizens with the right to carry weapons, but not the right to medicate. That is odd and inconsistent."
