Recreational Marijuana Protections Not Included In Justice Department Funding Bill

A collection of 48 different congressional representatives had recently sent a letter calling on the senate appropriations subcommittee.

They asked them to include provisions for marijuana in their budget for the Fiscal Year 2023. Specifically, they asked them to include language that would prevent the Justice Department from interfering with state legal recreational marijuana programs.

But unfortunately that didn’t happen. The new Fiscal Year 2023 spending bill’s text was released on Tuesday, and it did not include the requested protections.

Instead, it simply maintained an existing rider which prevents the Justice Department from using its federal funds to interfere with state medical cannabis programs. They did not extend those protections to state recreational marijuana programs.

​So now it’s back to the drawing board. Cannabis advocate lawmakers will need to try to get such protections included and passed in separate amendments.  

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