Really High Dudgeon

Will Jeff Sessions put an end to medical marijuana?

- Melina Delkic

TEARS STREAMED DOWN CLAUDIA JENDRON’S face as her doctor patted her hand. “This is going to work,” the doctor said. Eight years ago, a spinal-fusion-gone-wrong left Jendron—a 66-year-old resident of Rochester, New York—ailing. She’d tried a number of options—acupuncture, opioids, epidural shots. Anything to relieve the pain. She wished to sit comfortably at her grandchildren’s birthday parties, but nothing worked. Now, the doctor wanted to try a new treatment, one involving medical marijuana.

To Jendron’s surprise, her doctor was right. Two days after starting a tincture (a liquid cannabis extract dropped under the tongue), her crushing pain subsided to something more manageable. “It’s just. It’s amazing,” she says, “I can lean over and hug my grandkids without screaming anymore.”

New York is one of 29 states (plus the District of Columbia) where medical marijuana is legal. But Congress has until December 22 to decide whether a federal law permitting it—subject to state approval—will be part of legislation to fund the government through the next fiscal year.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is hoping the law, known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, will change. In May, he sent a strongly worded letter to Congress, asking lawmakers to oppose protections for legal weed and allow him to prosecute the use, distribution and possession of medical marijuana. In November, he also announced that the Justice Department would review the current policies on legal pot enacted by the previous administration.