Jeff Sessions Doesn't Receive a Dime From Congress for His Fight Against Medical Marijuana Laws

You mad?

Jeff Sessions during U.S. Attorney General hearing.
USA Today Sports

Image via USA Today Sports/Jack Gruber

Jeff Sessions during U.S. Attorney General hearing.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions isn't getting any help from Congress in his battle against medical marijuana laws. A provision known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment tucked away in the legislature's new budget bill ensures that the Department of Justice will not be allowed to use any money at all to attempt to fight state laws allowing weed for medicinal use. 

The amendment says that the government will not allocate any funds to the Department of Justice to "prevent any [states] from implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana."

Sessions has never been shy about his disdain for marijuana use. Back in February, the U.S. Attorney General issued a warning to states that either passed or planned to pursue marijuana legalization. “States, they can pass the laws they choose,” he said. “I would just say it does remain a violation of federal law to distribute marijuana throughout any place in the United States, whether a state legalizes it or not.”

One month later, Sessions attacked the idea of marijuana being used to help treat people with heroin addiction by calling weed "only slightly less awful" than a drug that resulted in nearly 13,000 deaths from overdose last year. 

If Sessions is motivated to take action of some form against weed use in the United States, he could take aim at the eight states and District of Columbia which have laws allowing recreational marijuana by exploring loopholes in the budget bill. Regardless, the states with medical marijuana laws in place are still safe, and Sessions can't do anything about it. 

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