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The US House of Representatives Wednesday turned back a measure that would have barred the use of federal funds to go after sick people using pot. The vote came just a week after the US Supreme Court gave federal drug law enforcers the okay to resume arresting and prosecuting medical marijuana patients and providers in states where it is legal. The Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, named after cosponsors Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), would have amended the Justice Department appropriations bill for the next fiscal year. But when the smoke cleared after a half-hour of debate Wednesday morning, the measure was defeated by a margin of 161-264.
Although not entirely a party-line vote, the measure fared much better among Democrats, with 146 of 205 voting in favor. On the Republican side of the aisle, only 15 of 229 members voted for Hinchey-Rohrabacher.
While a defeat, Wednesday's vote showed a slow but steady increase in support for medical marijuana on Capitol Hill. The vote count is up by 13 votes over an identical proposal last year.
"Drug czar Walters said medical marijuana was dead as a political issue after the Raich decision, but a week after the Supreme Court decision came down, Congress allocated a lot of time to the issue, and we picked up 13 more votes than last year," said Bill Piper, national affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance, who has been working the Hill on the issue. "It is notable how seriously Congress took this issue," he told DRCNet. "Last year, we only got 10 or 15 minutes; this year only one other amendment out of 440 got more time than Hinchey-Rohrabacher."
"While we're disappointed that the amendment did not pass, a record 161 House members voted today to stop arresting medical marijuana patients," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, in a statement after the vote. "There have been only four House floor votes on medical marijuana in the history of the country, and this one was our best ever."
The House voted 311-94 to oppose medical marijuana in a 1998 non-binding resolution. For the last three years, it has voted on amendments identical to this year's Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, with support dipping slightly last year from 2003's 152 votes in favor. At the same time, opposition to medical marijuana has declined slightly from 273 votes against in 2003 to 268 last year and 264 this year.
The House vote comes in the face of broad public support for medical marijuana, demonstrated most recently with a Mason-Dixon poll released this week. In that poll, 68% of respondents agreed that "the federal government should not prosecute medical marijuana patients," while only 16% said it should.
"With over four-to-one public support for ending medical marijuana arrests, it's astounding that 264 House members would vote to spend taxpayer money to arrest medical marijuana patients in violation of states' rights," said Kampia.
Debate on the measure ran largely as expected, with familiar faces on both sides of the issue staking out their positions. One notable exception was first-time vocal support for the measure by Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). "This is just the compassionate way to go," she said. "Compassion is a bipartisan value. We must not make criminals of seriously ill people."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/391/hinchey.shtml
Although not entirely a party-line vote, the measure fared much better among Democrats, with 146 of 205 voting in favor. On the Republican side of the aisle, only 15 of 229 members voted for Hinchey-Rohrabacher.
While a defeat, Wednesday's vote showed a slow but steady increase in support for medical marijuana on Capitol Hill. The vote count is up by 13 votes over an identical proposal last year.
"Drug czar Walters said medical marijuana was dead as a political issue after the Raich decision, but a week after the Supreme Court decision came down, Congress allocated a lot of time to the issue, and we picked up 13 more votes than last year," said Bill Piper, national affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance, who has been working the Hill on the issue. "It is notable how seriously Congress took this issue," he told DRCNet. "Last year, we only got 10 or 15 minutes; this year only one other amendment out of 440 got more time than Hinchey-Rohrabacher."
"While we're disappointed that the amendment did not pass, a record 161 House members voted today to stop arresting medical marijuana patients," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, in a statement after the vote. "There have been only four House floor votes on medical marijuana in the history of the country, and this one was our best ever."
The House voted 311-94 to oppose medical marijuana in a 1998 non-binding resolution. For the last three years, it has voted on amendments identical to this year's Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, with support dipping slightly last year from 2003's 152 votes in favor. At the same time, opposition to medical marijuana has declined slightly from 273 votes against in 2003 to 268 last year and 264 this year.
The House vote comes in the face of broad public support for medical marijuana, demonstrated most recently with a Mason-Dixon poll released this week. In that poll, 68% of respondents agreed that "the federal government should not prosecute medical marijuana patients," while only 16% said it should.
"With over four-to-one public support for ending medical marijuana arrests, it's astounding that 264 House members would vote to spend taxpayer money to arrest medical marijuana patients in violation of states' rights," said Kampia.
Debate on the measure ran largely as expected, with familiar faces on both sides of the issue staking out their positions. One notable exception was first-time vocal support for the measure by Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). "This is just the compassionate way to go," she said. "Compassion is a bipartisan value. We must not make criminals of seriously ill people."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/391/hinchey.shtml