Congress has just recently passed a new budgetary spending bill that included a very small yet highly important section.
Within the 1,603 pages of Bill H.R. 83 is Section 538 which marks a huge step forward for all advocates of legalizing marijuana legalization, medical marijuana patients, and the medical dispensaries.
Section 538 states:
“Sec. 538. None of the funds made available in this Act to the Department of Justice may be used, with respect to the States of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, to prevent such States from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana. Sec. 539. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used in contravention of section 7606 (“Legitimacy of Industrial Hemp Research”) of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (Public Law 113-79) by the Department of Justice or the Drug Enforcement Administration.”
What this means is that the federal prohibition against medical marijuana has essentially come to an end.
Any dispensaries in states that permit medicinal marijuana should no longer have to worry about the federal government interrupting their operations any longer.
Furthermore, the passing of this new law should also help dispensaries have an easier time finding banks that are open to doing business with them.
Until now, most banks would not do business with medical dispensaries due to the federal ban on medical marijuana. However, now that Congress has lifted the ban, it seems only natural that more banks will now be more willing to open their doors for business to the medical marijuana industry.
This new law and other recent changes made by the federal government in regards to their stance on medical marijuana are all great wins for the cannabis community and show that that the healing power of this medicine is becoming much more widely accepted.
