Cannabis protections & Federal shutdowns: The saga of Jared Polis

thesouthface (34)in #cannabis • 6 years ago (edited)

Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) triggered a media frenzy among the usual fake cannabis news outlets last week with promises of adding the McClintock-Polis amendment to the continued resolution spending bill. The amendment was temporally offered at the emergency budget hearing last Wednesday as an urgent reply to Attorney General Jeff Sessions's rescinding of the Cole memo, and would have withheld funding from Federal agencies in the prosecution of recreational marijuana in legal States. During the hearing several lawmakers proclaimed that the budget meeting was no place to raise the matter of this amendment which specifically addresses federal expenditures

As the six and a half hour session came to an end, Congressman Ken Buck (R-CO) lead the final afront. He charged that the McClintock-Polis Amendment was redundant given that the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment was already attached to the bill. His point fell flat when Congressman Polis contended that the proposed amendment addresses recreational marijuana, and that the currently attached one was only for medical marijuana.

Congressman Buck then moved on to reminding Congressman Polis of a phone conversation that apparently transpired between the two Colorado Congressmen, and their district U.S. Attorney assuring them that enforcement policies in Colorado would not change. This prompted Congressman Polis to immediately withdraw the marijuana amendment at 6:20:45, and abandon his pursuit of legislative protection for States with recreational marijuana industries across the nation in lue of an alleged, unofficial assurances.

It does not appear that any other guarantees regarding Federal enforcement restrictions in States who have legalized marijuana have been made, nor do the attitudes of their Federal prosecutors necessarily mirror the alleged sentiments of Colorado's U.S. Attorney. On Jan 12th, 2018 Oregon’s U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams pinned a column in The Oregonian calling for "transparency and action on marijuana". In it he expresses “significant concerns about the state's current regulatory framework and the [lack of] resources allocated to policing [legal] marijuana in Oregon”, and particularly in the rural areas. He further stated that he believes Oregon has a "massive marijuana overproduction problem" that "brings money laundering, violence, and environmental degradation" into the community, and it needs to be addressed.

During the budget meeting Congressman Jared Polis also introduced the DREAM ACT at 1:45:10. He goes on to speak in favor of it at length several times with the ultimate goal of having attached to the spending bill being presented before the legislature. Upon his rescintion of the marijuana amendment, Congressman Polis stipulated that he hoped in doing so it would open opposing lawmakers up to working him in other areas of the bill, and it likley that this is what he was referring to. Most of the Democrat party, including Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), let it be known that the DREAM ACT was their line in the sand on aiding the passage of the continuing resolution.

Congressman Polis has been crusading for the DREAM ACT since 2009, and it should come as no surprise that he would focus on illegal immigrants ahead of protecting his own constituents. Democracy alliance, the organization behind the 2008 Polis campaign for Congress, was founded by open boarders activist, and Monsanto stalk holder George Soros. A suspicious analysis is required of anything, and anyone with financial ties to the billion hedge-fund mogul who has forged a trail of economic devastation around the world. George Soros has funded numerous crony marijuana legalization efforts across the United States, and even some in other regions, including Uruguay.

Thursday saw the continuing budget resolution pass in the house, but the measure died late Friday night by a narrow margin of 49-50 in the Senate. The majority of Democrats, and a few Republicans, did not support the bill leading to a government shutdown until which time a resolution could be reached. With the expiration of the spending bill, so went the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment which had been attached to the continuing resolution since 2014, and barred the use of Federal funds for the prosecution of State lawful medical marijuana. The shutdown was unfortunatly short lived, with the continuing resolution sailing through the House, and then the Senate on Monday. It's passage reinstated the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment, guaranteeing its protection until Febuary 19th, 2018 when bill is to be brought back before the legislature.

Elsewhere in the nation’s Capital H. R. 4816 the Stop Civil Asset Forfeiture Funding for Marijuana Suppression Act of 2018 was also newly introduced last Wednesday. Sponsors of the bill include Congressmen Polis, Amash and Blumenauer, and it has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

--All photographs are original edits by thesouthface--

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