Marijuana Policy Project

On June 28, a record 163 members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of a bipartisan amendment to prohibit the U.S. Justice Department -- which includes the DEA -- from spending taxpayer money to arrest or prosecute medical marijuana patients in the eleven states where medical marijuana is legal: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, and the amendment failed 163-259.

However, it's notable that the vote was a stronger showing than political observers had predicted, considering the fact that it is an election year. Fully 72% of House Democrats voted for the amendment, and 18 House Republicans bucked the White House to vote "yes." Among the new "yes" votes were Republicans John Campbell of California and Dan Burton of Indiana. New Democratic supporters included Congressmen John Murtha of Pennsylvania and James Langevin of Rhode Island, the state with America's newest medical marijuana law. Readers who want to find out how their own representative voted can check the official roll call.

This was only the fifth time in history that the U.S. House has voted on medical marijuana (the U.S. Senate never has). The first time the issue was brought up was in 1998, when the House passed a non-binding resolution opposing medical marijuana by a vote of 311-94. Since then, the House has voted four times on an amendment that would protect medical marijuana patients in states with medical marijuana laws from the threat of federal arrest and prosecution. In 2004, the amendment failed 148-268, and in 2005 it was defeated 161-264. This year's vote was a record vote for medical marijuana - we closed the margin by seven votes compared to last year, and we received two-thirds of the votes we needed to pass the amendment. Each year, the amendment is gaining more and more legislative support from representatives on both sides of the aisle.

To gain support for the amendment, the Marijuana Policy Project's staffers and lobbyists held more than 250 meetings with House members over the course of the year, including visiting every single Republican House office, which had never happened before. In the days leading up to the vote, we delivered plastic handcuffs to more than 100 House offices with "evidence tags" asking them to vote for the amendment. We also placed grassroots organizers in key Congressional districts throughout the country to conduct high-pressure campaigns targeting swing votes and generated thousands of constituent phone calls and letters to members of Congress.

We also worked hard to nurture connections within the conservative movement for months leading up to the vote, and worked with groups such as the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative to bring new supporters on board. Indeed, just days before the vote took place, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Citizens Against Government Waste both publicly endorsed the medical marijuana amendment, and a host of prominent conservative organizations blasted the federal government for wasting tax dollars on raiding medical marijuana patients.

Now that the amendment has 163 votes, in the next year we'll be targeting a smaller number of districts to pick up the remaining fifty-five votes we need to reach a 218-vote majority. The momentum is on our side, and we'll keep fighting until Congress listens to the American people and ends the government's cruel and needless war on sick people. To join the effort, please visit MPP on the Web at www.mpp.org and sign up for our free e-mail alerts.