Over the years, federal spending for the prosecution of medical marijuana businesses has been curtailed by the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment to the spending bills. Now that Farr is retired, the question remained whether there would be further support for such a bipartisan effort.

It turns out that Rohrabacher has found some new bipartisan support for the effort. Rohrabacher and Earl Blumenauer from Oregon have proposed to include similar limiting language to the 2018 spending bill. If such limiting language were included, it would appear as though the Sessions Justice Department will not have the funds to go after legitimate medical marijuana businesses.

Although this is a positive development, one should not immediately jump to conclusions about the potential inactivity of the Justice Department. The Justice Department would not be stripped of its ability to go after those businesses who do not comply with state laws. In other words, there would presumably be funding to prosecute those businesses.

Assuming the spending limit gets enough votes, where does that leave us. The Justice Department will not have the resources to go after legitimate medical marijuana businesses. All others will be fair game. Accordingly, you had better make sure that you are doing everything to comply with the law of the state in which you are located. Otherwise, there will be no happy 420.

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