Barbara Lee Hails Passage of Medical Marijuana Amendment
For Immediate Release:
June 2, 2014
Contact: Katherine Jolly (510) 763-0370
Oakland, CA – Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) joined Salwa Ibrahim, CEO/Executive Director of Blum Oakland and Amanda Reiman, California Policy Manager for the Drug Policy Alliance, for a tour and press conference to highlight the passage of the Commerce-Science-Justice Appropriations Bill that included an amendment she co-sponsored to advance medical marijuana protections. This event took place at Blum Oakland located at 578 West Grand, Oakland, CA.
“I am proud that the decade plus effort with my bi-partisan colleagues, supported by the strong grassroots advocacy for advancing marijuana protections has finally succeeded, said Congresswoman Barbara Lee. “Today, we are one step closer to providing relief to people with multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, cancer and HIV/AIDS and other medical issues when it comes to accessing their medicine. This is the humanitarian thing to do, it's the democratic thing to do.”
Congresswoman Barbara Lee was a leading co-sponsor of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Congressman Sam Farr's (D-CA) amendment which prohibits the use of funds by the U.S. Department of Justice to prevent states from implementing their own state laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana. Just after midnight, on May 30th, the amendment passed the U.S. House of Representatives with a vote of 219 to 189.
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Follow Barbara Lee on Facebook and Twitter at @RepBarbaraLee. To learn more, visit lee.house.gov.
Congresswoman Lee is a member of the Appropriations and Budget Committees, the Steering and Policy Committee, is a Senior Democratic Whip, as well as the Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), where she serves as the Co-Chair of the CPC Peace and Security Task Force.