Senate panel votes to protect medical marijuana - major buzzkill for Jeff Sessions

The overwhelming majority of Americans think medical marijuana should be legal. Even Donald Trump pretended to be in favor of states' rights to make their own cannabis laws when he was campaigning. That hasn't stopped attorney general Jeff Sessions from trying to revive the disastrous drug war policies of the 80s and cracking down on the devil weed. Today, he was soundly defeated by the Senate Appropriations Committee, which voted in favor of a renewing a spending rider that blocks the Justice Department from interfering with state medical marijuana laws.

From Reason:

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the rider, known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, by a voice vote, indicating that it was not controversial among the panel's members, who include 16 Republicans. The committee thereby rejected a personal plea by Sessions to let the amendment lapse.

"I write to renew the Department of Justice's opposition to the inclusion of language in any appropriations legislation that would prohibit the use of Department of Justice funds or in any way inhibit its authority to enforce the Controlled Substances Act," Sessions said in a May 1 letter to Senate and House leaders. "I believe it would be unwise to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime."

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