Federal lawmakers have reintroduced legislation to provide for additional and necessary legal protections for state-authorized medical marijuana patients.
House Bill 1983, the States’ Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act, would ensure that medical cannabis patients in states that have approved its use will no longer have to fear arrest or prosecution from federal law enforcement agencies. It states, “No provision of the Controlled Substances Act shall prohibit or otherwise restrict in a State in which marijuana may be prescribed or recommended by a physician for medical use under applicable State law.”
The measure also calls for an expedited rescheduling review by the federal government that would reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the federal Controlled Substances Act, recognizing the plant’s accepted medical use and streamlining the federal approval process for medical marijuana research.
Sixteen states — Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington — and the District of Columbia have enacted laws protecting medical marijuana patients from state prosecution. Yet in all of these states, patients and providers still face the risk of federal sanction — even when their actions are fully compliant with state law. In fact, in recent months federal officials have stepped up their threats against state recognized patients and providers, stating, “The United States Attorneys Office … will vigorously prosecute individuals and organizations that participate in … activity involving marijuana, even if such activities are permitted under state law.”
It is time that we allowed our unique federalist system to work the way it was intended. Patients and their state representatives should have the authority to enact laws permitting the medical use of cannabis — free from federal interference.
Please write your members of Congress today and tell them to stop targeting and prosecuting medical marijuana patients and providers. For your convenience, a prewritten letter will be e-mailed to your member of Congress when you enter your contact information below.
Thank you for assisting NORML’s federal law reform efforts.
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Support the ‘States’ Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act’
Contact your elected representatives and urge them to 'Stop Arresting Marijuana Smokers'. 
I grow my own. I got caught bring some weed to my brother. Its just weed, man. Go get the real Wallstreet criminals or the drug cartels in Mexico. Why don’t the cops go get real criminals???
I live in Maine where it’s been legalized for medical use; but I think that’s unfair to the recreational user who does not abuse it. I consider it similar to alcohol. My husband has a condition which qualifies him for medical marijuana use… however he has to pay $300 to get a physician (there’s only one in Maine) to give the okay. Let me compare my husband’s situation to a pregnancy: if a woman is pregnant but does not confirm she is through a pregnancy test, does that change the fact that she is pregnant? No. However, in Maine, if someone does not have the money, but does have the debilitating condition which would qualify him for medical marijuana, will the state prosecute them or take their weed if they find it? Oh yes. State law enforcement officers recently searched our home for firearms, even though the felony conviction which apparently forbid my husband from possessing happened THIRTY years ago! Well, while searching, officers found marijuana seeds, and took them. Today, many laws and statutes are in place for the purpose of generating revenue, rather than protecting the public.
I am in full support of H.R. 1983. As an ancillary small-business providing technical and business consulting services to the medical cannabis businesses throughout the Puget Sound area (Seattle) I want to see this industry legitimized. The medical cannabis business community is a turn-key jobs program. There are hundreds of dispensaries, growers, producers and manufacturers that would become licensed, regulated and taxed businesses (just like every other legitimate business in America). These businesses would then legitimize their employees (W-2′s, I-9′s, FICA, L&I, etc.) and many, if not most, would provide high quality health care to their employees. We tend to be a compassionate bunch, on the whole.
This measure protects all the parties involved and the general public. Physicians, caregivers, providers, employers and employees, dispensaries, as well as individual patients are provided with clear protections in states where medical cannabis laws exist. If this were to come to fruition it would generate an economic ripple-effect throughout those states that would spread across America with amazing rapidity. H.R. 1983 is sensible, fair and long overdue. Please support it and tell your elected representatives to support it.
“The measure also calls for an expedited rescheduling review by the federal government that would reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the federal Controlled Substances Act, recognizing the plant’s accepted medical use and streamlining the federal approval process for medical marijuana research.”
I have to say again, Im against any kind of scheduling. Anything below Schedule I gives it to be pharma, and Ive said just about all that I want to say on that subject.
http://slu2.com/AXk
Yes it makes it “medically legitimate”. But the only people/companies/corps in the business of selling controlled substances is big pharma. Not ma and pa.
Once big pharma gets their hands around cannabis, we will have to pry their cold fingers off of it.
Arrests don’t decrease with scheduled drugs in my observation. Seems like I was in jail (for cannabis) with just as many people who illegally possessed prescriptions.
When I think of cannabis I think of ginseng, echinacea… In other words, harmless plants that grow out of the ground, that don’t need regulations, yet can be used medicinally.
My request. Please! Some smart lawyer needs to put a petition together and challenge the constitutionality of prohibition of cannabis.
Prohibition infringes upon a citizens right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”..
Not to mention, the federal government was designed to defend liberty, not regulate morality. Regulation of such things is a states duty, not the feds.
Much love NORML!
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How about getting them to just admit its medicine so everyone in all states can have the same treatment. What other dugs do we limit to certain states? What treatments can you get in CA that you cant get done in OH? Nothing is like that and we should demand they fix this and make it federally medical so no state or county or city can tell someone no you cant have whats keeping you alive! I sure have never seen where if you live in OR you can get cancer treatment yet in TN you just die, its BS!
stop targeting and prosecuting medical marijuana patients and providers