The CARERS Act: Federal Marijuana

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The CARERS Act: Federal Marijuana


The CARERS Act

The Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States (CARERS) Act is a ground breaking federal bill that will allow states develop laws on medical marijuana without federal interference. It is a law gaining bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress.

The Act was filed in the House of Congress on March 2015 by Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee with the cosponsor being Rep. Don Young of Arkansas.  Other members of Congress who have signed on to cosponsor the bill are Reps. Jon Conyers of Michigan, Richard Hanna of New York, Duncan Hunter of California, Zoe Lofgren of California, Jerrold Nadler of New York, and Dana Rohrabacher of California. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the sole Congressional representative for Washington, DC, has also cosponsored the bill (Clarke, 2015).
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The Senate version of the CARERS Act was also introduced in March by Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.  Senators Dean Heller of Nevada and Barbara Boxer of California have signed on as co-sponsors (Clarke, 2015)

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (2015), if passed, the CARERS Act will:

·        Allow states to legalize marijuana for medical use without federal interference

·        Permit interstate commerce in cannabidiol (CBD) oils

·        Reschedule marijuana to schedule II

·        Allow banks to provide checking accounts and other financial services to marijuana dispensaries

·        Allow Veterans Administration physicians to recommend medical marijuana to veterans

·        Eliminate barriers to medical marijuana research

While the House of Congress passed an amendment to a spending bill prohibiting the Department of Justice from undermining state medical marijuana laws that was signed by President Barack Obama in December 2014, the amendment expires at the end of the current fiscal year, making legislation of the CARERS Act crucial.

As of May 2015, there are twenty four states, the District of Columbia and Guam that have laws legalizing and regulating marijuana for medicinal purposes, with the legislation pending in seven other jurisdictions. Fourteen states have laws regulating use of CBD oils, a non-psychotropic component of medical marijuana increasingly being used to treat children’s seizures (LawAtlas, 2015). These are however not comprehensive medical marijuana programs, though these jurisdictions have various patient registries that provide some form of protection against arrest for possession of medical marijuana for personal use up to a certain amount.

State vs Federal

The Institute of Medicine responded to California’s Prop 215, the first state legislation to be passed to allow use of medical marijuana thus, "Scientific data indicate the potential therapeutic value of cannabinoid drugs, primarily THC, for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation… ” Further studies have shown that marijuana is effective in relieving some symptoms in a myriad of diseases including HIV/AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, PTSD, hepatitis C, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, anorexia, Parkinson’s disease, Tourette syndrome, cachexia, Crohn’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (LawAtlas, 2015).

As of now, marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act of the Federal government, where Schedule I substances are considered to have a high potential for dependency and no accepted medical use, making distribution of marijuana a federal offense. However, the Obama Administration sent a memo to federal prosecutors in October 2009 encouraging them not to prosecute people who distribute marijuana for medical purposes in accordance with state law.

The US Department of Justice (USDOJ) updated its marijuana enforcement policy in August 2013, noting that while marijuana remains illegal federally, the USDOJ expects states like Colorado and Washington to create "strong, state-based enforcement efforts.... and will defer the right to challenge their legalization laws at this time." USDOJ also reserves the right to challenge the states at any time (Wikipedia, 2015). This is in line with earlier vetoes by the federal government of initiatives passed by Arizona and District of Columbia voters to legalize medical marijuana use. The Congress was later to rescind the vetoes after modifications to the initiatives. A notable sticking point in the earlier Arizona initiative of 1996 was allowing doctors to write a "prescription" for marijuana, whereas federal law prohibits its prescription, making the initiative invalid. Hence, medical marijuana "prescriptions" are often referred to as "recommendations" or "referrals”.

Some of the most common policy questions regarding medical marijuana include how to regulate its recommendation, dispensing, and registration of approved patients.  Some states and localities without dispensary regulation are benefiting from this grey area, looking forward to being approved before presumably stricter regulations are made (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2015).  Medical marijuana growers and dispensaries are referred to as "caregivers" and are usually limited to a certain number of plants or products per patient. 

The federal CARERS Act is a comprehensive medical marijuana program that will align federal and state legislation by:

•          Protecting medical marijuana use from criminal penalties

•          Allowing access to marijuana through home cultivation, dispensaries or other system

•          Allowing use of a variety of strains

•          Allowing smoking or vaporization of marijuana products, plant material or extract

References

Clarke, T H, 2015. ‘CARERS Act’ Federal Medical Marijuana Bill Adds Co-Sponsors in The Daily Chronic of March 30, 2015. Available at http://www.thedailychronic.net/2015/41975/carers-act-federal-medical-marijuana-bill-adds-co-sponsors/. Retrieved May 18, 2015.

LawAtlas, 2015. Medical Marijuana Laws for Patients Map. Available at http://lawatlas.org/query?dataset=medical-marijuana-patient-related-laws. Retrieved May 17, 2015.

National Conference of State Legislatures, 2015. State Medical Marijuana Laws. Available at http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-medical-marijuana-laws.aspx. Retrieved May 18, 2015.

Wikipedia, 2015. Medical cannabis in the United States. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_cannabis_in_the_United_States. Retrieved May 18, 2015.


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