Senate Sends Trump Bill That Would Continue Protecting Medical Marijuana States...

The Senate has given final approval to a spending bill that would continue
protecting state medical marijuana programs from federal intervention—while
excluding a provision that previously advanced to block the Justice
Department from rescheduling cannabis.

About a week after the appropriations legislation was negotiated on a
bicameral basis and advanced through the House, the opposite chamber voted
82-15 on Thursday to send it to President Donald Trump’s desk.

Advocates and industry stakeholders were encouraged to see the rescheduling
language stripped from the final deal after it had been approved by the
House Appropriations Committee last year, as well as the preservation of a
longstanding rider preventing DOJ from using its funds to interfere in
state medical marijuana laws.

Two GOP senators filed an amendment to add the cannabis rescheduling
restrictions back in this week, but it was not considered on the floor.

The bill that’s heading to Trump is part of a package that covers Fiscal
Year 2026 spending for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
(CJS), Interior, Environment and Energy and Water Development.

The move comes weeks after the president issued an executive order
directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to expeditiously complete the process
of moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled
Substances Act (CSA).

*Here’s the language of the provision advanced by the House but excluded
from the final bill: *

“SEC. 607. None of the funds appropriated or other wise made available by
this Act may be used to reschedule marijuana (as such term is defined in
section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802)) or to remove
marijuana from the schedules established under section 202 of the
Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812).”

GOP senators have separately tried to block the administration from
rescheduling cannabis as part of a standalone bill filed in 2023, but that
proposal did not receive a hearing or vote.

Meanwhile, last week, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said a
marijuana rescheduling appeal process “remains pending” despite Trump’s
executive order.

The package also contains a rider that’s been annually renewed since 2014
barring the Justice Department from using its funds to interfere in the
implementation of state medical marijuana laws.

However, for reasons that are unclear, the rider that lists each state that
would be protected excludes Nebraska.

*Here’s the text of that provision: *

“SEC. 531. None of the funds made available under this Act to the
Department of Justice may be used, with respect to any of the States of
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut,
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,
Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New
Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas,
Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming,
or with respect to the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, or Puerto
Rico, to prevent any of them from implementing their own laws that
authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical
marijuana.”

Missing from the final version is an addition to the anti-rescheduling
rider the House previously included that would have authorized enhanced
penalties for sales near schools and parks.

That provision specifically stipulated that the Justice Department could
still enforce a section of U.S. code that calls for increased penalties for
distributing cannabis within 1,000 feet of an elementary school, vocational
school, college, playground or public housing unit.

However, a joint explanatory statement for the spending package also says
Congress “directs the Department to appropriately enforce the Federal
Drug-Free School Zones Act (2 1 U.S.C. 860), to ensure that areas with
young children, including schools and playgrounds remain drug-free.”

That appears to be related to a report from the Senate committee that was
released last year stating that the medical marijuana protection rider
“does not explicitly preclude” U.S. attorneys from enforcing a federal
statute on selling or manufacturing controlled substances in “areas with
young children, including schools and playgrounds.”

The bill also maintains protections for state industrial hemp research
programs under the 2014 Farm Bill:

“SEC. 530. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used in
contravention of section 7606 (‘Legitimacy of Industrial Hemp Research’) of
the Agricultural Act of 2014 (Public Law 113–79) by the Department of
Justice or the Drug Enforcement Administration.”

Advocates may welcome the exclusion of the rescheduling provision and
inclusion of medical marijuana protections in the CJS bill, but many
cannabis stakeholders have protested Trump’s signing of a separate
appropriations measure in November that includes provisions to ban most
consumable hemp products.

However, when the president issued the marijuana rescheduling order last
month, he also directed Congress to reevaluate that policy and ensure that
people can continue to access full-spectrum CBD products. A federal agency
will also be moving to cover such products for certain patients under
Medicare and Medicaid.

*Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.*

The post Senate Sends Trump Bill That Would Continue Protecting Medical
Marijuana States, Without Anti-Rescheduling Provisions appeared first on Marijuana
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