Medical marijuana deductions for food stamps are up in smoke following an order from the feds.
States have received instructions from the United States Department of Agriculture to cease medical marijuana income deductions for food stamps — that were already prohibited under federal law.
Prior to the edict, quietly issued in mid-July, some states with statutory provisions giving doctors the ability to prescribe medical marijuana had allowed applicants to deduct the marijuana expenses from their incomes to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, based on a provision in the 2008 Food and Nutrition Act which allowed deductions of “allowable medical expenses” for households with elderly or disabled members.
According to the memo sent to all regional directors of SNAP, USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service has had a “long standing policy that a household may not utilize the SNAP medical deduction for the cost of any substance considered illegal under Federal law.”
“States that currently allow for the deduction of medical marijuana must cease this practice immediately and make any necessary corrections to their State policy manuals and instructions,” the director of the Food and Nutrition Service’s Program Development Division, Lizbeth Silbermann, wrote in the memo. “Cases that cannot be readily identified must be corrected at the time of recertification or periodic report, whichever is sooner. States that are not in compliance may face penalties for any over issuance of SNAP benefits.”
While the memo explains that 18 states have provisions allowing for medical marijuana, three states, which had previously given applicants the ability to use the deduction, were affected by this edict — Maine, Oregon and New Mexico.
Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services spokesman John Martins explained to The Daily Caller that Maine’s deduction allowance was not restricted to just the elderly and disabled, but anybody who had received a doctor’s order for medical marijuana. The state has now ended all such deductions.
States have received instructions from the United States Department of Agriculture to cease medical marijuana income deductions for food stamps — that were already prohibited under federal law.
Prior to the edict, quietly issued in mid-July, some states with statutory provisions giving doctors the ability to prescribe medical marijuana had allowed applicants to deduct the marijuana expenses from their incomes to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, based on a provision in the 2008 Food and Nutrition Act which allowed deductions of “allowable medical expenses” for households with elderly or disabled members.
According to the memo sent to all regional directors of SNAP, USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service has had a “long standing policy that a household may not utilize the SNAP medical deduction for the cost of any substance considered illegal under Federal law.”
“States that currently allow for the deduction of medical marijuana must cease this practice immediately and make any necessary corrections to their State policy manuals and instructions,” the director of the Food and Nutrition Service’s Program Development Division, Lizbeth Silbermann, wrote in the memo. “Cases that cannot be readily identified must be corrected at the time of recertification or periodic report, whichever is sooner. States that are not in compliance may face penalties for any over issuance of SNAP benefits.”
While the memo explains that 18 states have provisions allowing for medical marijuana, three states, which had previously given applicants the ability to use the deduction, were affected by this edict — Maine, Oregon and New Mexico.
Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services spokesman John Martins explained to The Daily Caller that Maine’s deduction allowance was not restricted to just the elderly and disabled, but anybody who had received a doctor’s order for medical marijuana. The state has now ended all such deductions.
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