Legal Limbo
Congressman Sam Farr hopes to help medical marijuana users caught in Catch-22.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Last week, the Justice Department announced it would no longer prosecute medical marijuana users who abide by state laws. But the announcement comes too late to help those who already face charges.
Enter Congressman Farr, who introduced the Medical Marijuana Fair Trial Bill this week. The bill would allow defendants to use state medical marijuana laws as a defense in federal trials.
"It's a states rights issue, a fairness issue," Farr spokesman Tom Mentzer says.
The bill is now in the Judiciary Committee, and Mentzer says it may fare better in a Democrat-controlled Congress than two similar bills Farr introduced in 2003 and 2005, which were never granted hearings.
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