The U.S. Senate blocked an effort Dec. 18, 2018, to attach far-reaching marijuana reforms to bipartisan criminal justice legislation.

Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado sought unanimous consent of the body to amend the prison-and-sentencing reform bill being considered by Congress the week of Dec. 17, 2018, by adding provisions to protect people who are acting in compliance with state cannabis laws from federal criminalization.

But fellow Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa objected, stopping the measure dead in its tracks without a formal roll call vote.

Following the procedural defeat, Gardner took to the floor for a roughly 10-minute speech in which he pointed to problems caused by the gulf between ongoing federal marijuana prohibition and the growing number of states that allow cannabis for medical or recreational use.

“It’s hard to think about federal criminal justice reform without thinking about the biggest problem that federal criminal law creates for Colorado: the refusal to respect the will of Coloradans when it comes to their decision on marijuana,” he said. “Every day, Coloradans of good faith follow Colorado law to a tee but they are still criminals in the eyes of the federal government.”

“You shouldn’t go to federal prison for following state law. That in its essence is sentencing reform.”

Grassley, in his objection, said Gardner’s amendment amounted to a “backdoor to legalization” and is “inconsistent with current federal law and allows states the right to break existing law.”

The outing Judiciary Committee chairman and longtime marijuana opponent said the amendment’s effect of allowing cannabis businesses to access banks would be “inappropriate to consider in the context of a criminal justice reform bill.”

Grassley did, however, concede that Gardner “worked hard on this and he may be ahead of the time when there will be a real debate on this.”

“Maybe there will be, at that point, an opportunity to consider his approach as something lesser than the legalization of marijuana generally,” he said.

The amendment Gardner sought to attach to the criminal justice reform bill, which mirrors a standalone bill he and Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts filed earlier this year, would have exempted state-legal marijuana activity from the Federal Controlled Substances Act.

President Donald Trump gave his verbal support for the Gardner-Warren standalone bill, titled the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act, in June 2018.

Earlier on Dec. 18, 2018, Gardner all but conceded that the push to attach marijuana language to the sentencing and prison reform bill would not succeed.

“I think we’re probably going to be blocked today by people who don’t want to have this voted on,” he said in an interview with Cheddar. “They can use a procedure in the Senate to block our effort to offer the amendment, which is too bad because it does have, I believe, majority support in the U.S. Senate.”

Over the past week, several advocates had expressed skepticism that Gardner would be able to successfully insert his marijuana language into the criminal justice bill, which has been advancing under an already tenuous bipartisan agreement.

But they are hopeful that 2019 will provide more opportunities to advance the STATES Act or similar cannabis reform legislation.

“The hundreds of thousands of Americans working in the state-legal cannabis industry deeply appreciate Sen. Gardner’s leadership, and we look forward to working with all of our sponsors to pass the STATES Act into law during the next Congress,” Neal Levine of the Cannabis Trade Federation told Marijuana Moment.

This article has been republished from Marijuana Moment under a content syndication agreement. Read the original article here.

Featured Image: Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, speaking during the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s 2018 Update from Capitol Hill in Phoenix, delivered a speech lasting roughly 10 minutes from the U.S. Senate floor Dec. 18, 2018, calling for the federal government to reform its laws against marijuana possession and use in states that have legalized cannabis. Gardner sought unanimous consent for his sentencing reform bill, but fellow Sen. Charles Grassley, the Republican chair of the Judiciary Committee, refused to allow a roll call vote. (Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr; used with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license)

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