A little later this month, when the appropriations bill for the Justice Department comes up, the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, pushed by Democrat Maurice Hinchey of New York and Republican Dana Rohrabacher of Huntington Beach, will be offered yet again. It would specify that no money could be used by the DEA to go after patients in states with medical marijuana laws. It should be a no-brainer for conservatives who claim to believe in states-rights, but in years past (of course) it has gotten little Republican support. It has, however, gotten more votes each year it has been introduced. It hasn’t received as much publicity as in some previous years (though here’s a Seattle Post-Intelligencer piece) but I would expect at least more votes for genuine compassion this year than last year. I’d love to see this issue inserted into the presidential race (Obama has expressed sympathy for the idea in the past), but with Obama wildly triangulating and “centering,” I expect he’ll be too cautious. Too bad.

Posted in: Conservatism • Medical Marijuana • Nanny State |

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.