The Assault on States Rights may be Coming for Cannabis

By Congressman Dana Rohrabacher

Original High At 9 News Story

06-05-2025

The assault on States Rights and individual freedom continues; President Trump’s latest budget proposal eliminates my amendment that protected states rights when it came to the use of cannabis.

The Rohrabacher–Farr amendment was first adopted in December 2014 as part of an omnibus spending bill, which passed the House in May 2014 following six previously failed attempts. This marked the first time Congress voted to protect state medical cannabis laws from federal interference, making it a historic milestone for cannabis reform in the United States.

Yes, the vote on the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment dealt with a fundamental states rights/individual freedom issue.  The decision to permit adults to consume cannabis, especially when it is being used to deal with health related challenges, is clearly an issue that should be left to the states. State government belongs to the people who reside within the borders of that state. 

The passage of the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment also clearly reaffirmed that our bodies and our health do not belong to the federal bureaucracy nor to those who would mandate a particular personal lifestyle. American patriots have sacrificed so much to ensure that they, and every generation thereafter would be able to live their lives as they would choose as long as they were not encroaching on the freedom of others. 

What makes this freedom issue even more imperative is that it is clear that there are legitimate uses of cannabis by  people suffering health related challenges. To not even permit state governments to allow the legitimate use of cannabis as part of a health related treatment by its citizens,  is an outrageous assertion of centralized power over and totally contrary to the individual freedom that the USA is supposed to be all about. 

I was proud to have co-authored the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment to the 2014 budget bill. It simply proclaimed that no federal funds were to be spent to prevent any state from using those resources to suppress medical and health related programs because cannabis was part of the treatments. We elected President Trump because we viewed him as a patriot who would uphold the Constitution; as such, he should be on the side of individual freedom and states rights on this issue.