A resolution in Michigan’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives is asking the federal government to both decriminalize cannabis federally and allow states to implement their own policies, or enforce federal law, according to a report from news talk radio station WSJM.
The resolution is sponsored by Macomb Country Rep. Jeff Yaroch, a Republican, who indicated that part of the state’s medical cannabis industry reforms include a patient database and, without clarification by Congress, that database could be used by the federal government to target enrolled patients in the event of a crackdown.
“What do we do if the federal government decides this year to change its position?” Yaroch said in the report. “We’ve kind of had a bury the head in the sand kind of attitude. So, the resolution is to try to put some pressure on Congress. Just make a decision so we know how to legislate in our state.”
The move comes as advocates in the state are collecting signatures to put a recreational legalization question on state-wide ballots next year.
Several bills have been introduced in Congress to reform the nation’s cannabis laws, ranging from descheduling to removing CBD from the federal definition of ‘marihuana,’ to allowing operations in legal states to access services such as banking.
Currently, legal programs have little federal protection, and the Trump Administration – namely Attorney General Jeff Sessions – is seeking to undo what protection they do have by asking Congress to rescind the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment which prohibits the Department of Justice from using federal funds to enforce federal law in legal states.
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