Medical Marijuana Legislation
Why was Proposition 215 important in the crusade to legalize medical marijuana?
Prior to the passage of Proposition 215 in California in 1996, which was the first actionable medical marijuana law, the first enforceable medical marijuana law among the states in terms of this issue; prior to that time what you saw were quote “compassionate use laws” in certain states. Which basically said that medical marijuana has some value and it can be prescribed to a patient. Well for anybody who knows about how doctors write prescriptions of course that is a federally licensed thing, they're licensed by the Drug Enforcement Administration physicians. Even if they are state they're licensed by their state level medical board, when they're writing those prescriptions to you they have a DEA registration number that they have to put on their prescription pads, they're tracked. And they are not allowed to write prescriptions that are illegal under federal law they're not allowed to write prescriptions for compounds that are listed in Schedule One of the Controlled Substance Act. So those laws that were passed prior to 1996 which said state level laws, which said that a doctor could prescribe it, were basically inoperable because the doctors of course in those states are not going risk losing their licenses to write a prescription for a drug that a pharmacy couldn't fill. So there was this concept and this percolation of the issue of medical marijuana prior to the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996 but it wasn't really an effective way of addressing the issue of getting medicine to the people who needed it, it was purely symbolic.
What is Senate Bill 420?
Senate Bill 420 was California's attempt to ameliorate or clarify some of the provisions that were left a little bit ambiguous after the passage of Proposition 215, which was a voter-initiated proposition. When you have people putting together an initiative that they would like to see and it's an initiative that's broadly voted on, you don't get the legislators who are used to writing the laws and the legislative councils who are used to finding problems or loopholes, and so this Proposition 215 passed and left floating out there some major questions about the implementation of medical marijuana in the state, primary how are people going to get it. And so Senate Bill 420 basically was concerned with the access of it and the licensing of dispensaries throughout the state.
Are there organizations fighting to legalize medical marijuana?
Well the marijuana policy project fights to protect medical marijuana patients and their caregivers who are taking marijuana for serious illnesses, who are providing to it to a loved one who needs it for some illness. And we also just want to keep people out of jail for marijuana. We just do not think that people should go to jail for marijuana. We think that from a public health standpoint jail, prison is much, much more harmful than the substances itself. At MPP we believe that the collateral consequences of the marijuana prohibition is the real problem. Jail prison, aids, assault all these things that come along with incarceration all these dangers that come along with incarceration - hepatitis c, these things are much, much more dangerous than marijuana itself - then the actual substance itself; and I would defy any physician or any expert on this to disprove that. It's much more harmful to be thrown in prison and to be subjected to these diseases and the possibility of getting assaulted. And the fact that we don't talk honestly about these issues inhibits the debate. We need to talk more honestly about what some of these collateral consequences of marijuana prohibition are and we need to remind people, and this is what Marijuana Policy Project does, we remind people that people are actually going to prison for marijuana.
What is the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment?
The Hinchey-Rohrabacher medical marijuana amendment is a provision that proponents of medical marijuana have attempted to attach to a spending bill that funds the Department of Justice--particularly the Drug Enforcement Administration. Very simply, the amendment would limit the Department of Justice's ability to spend any funds from the bill to raid or arrest medical marijuana patients in the 13 states that currently allow it. The Hinchey amendment names those states by name and says that no funds from the act shall be used to enforce federal law against the medical marijuana patients in those states.
How has the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment performed in Congress?
The Hinchey Amendment has been offered for five years from 2003 to 2007 and most recently garnered, in 2007, one hundred and sixty seven votes on the floor of the House of Representatives. By and large, the supporters of the Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment are Democratic members of the House of Representatives, but there are between about fifteen and twenty or so Republicans who support medical marijuana, as well.
Who could introduce a medical marijuana bill in The House of Representatives?
Only members of Congress are actually allowed to introduce legislation. Part of the reason that the Hinchey Medical Marijuana amendment originates in the House is because the House constitutionally and historically has this authority to bring spending bills up, and any member of Congress, in fact, has the right, the Constitutionally derived right, to offer amendments to the spending bills. Which is why the Hinchey Amendment is convenient and helpful for us, because any member can bring an amendment to that bill. That's not always the case. In many cases, the House of Representatives does not allow amendments to come forward on other bills. People don't often realize that on larger pieces of legislation that are not spending bills, like the bill that the Hinchey Amendment is attached to, Representatives are not allowed to offer amendments to those bills. So, the spending bills allow Representatives a very unique opportunity to attach an amendment to a bill, to at least offer an amendment to a bill. There's a guarantee, a Constitutionally derived guarantee, that a member of Congress will have their time on the floor, as it were, will have their day in court, as it were, for those spending bills, during consideration of those spending bills.
What is the biggest hurdle in getting a medical marijuana bill passed?
The Senate in many ways is a much more difficult chamber to operate in than is the House. The House is the peoples' house, the peoples' chamber. 435 members of Congress in the House—obviously it's supposed to be the popular chamber, the populist chamber. The senate is supposed to be the upper body, the staid upper body which has great figures like Senator Bird in it who are historians; they know the history of the Senate deeply, they know the history of the country. They're supposed to be the conscience of the country. And in many ways, the senate is a much more contemplative body than the House is, taking nothing away from the House, but the senate in many ways is much more contemplative than the House. They view themselves a little bit more that way. And therefore, there's this great sense of responsibility among senators to the country, to their constituents, and therefore it can sometimes be difficult to get anything done in the Senate, actually.
