Last Friday, the U.S. congress approved a measure that prevents the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration from spending money to interfere with state laws on medical marijuana. The move has been heralded as tantamount to essentially lifting the federal ban on medical marijuana and a major blow to the war on drugs.

The measure lets states implement their own medical marijuana policy without the fear of federal interference. And this is big news, considering that the majority of U.S. citizens now live in states where medical marijuana is legal.

“I think it is a step in the right direction and it shows the willingness to respect the will of the people,” Amanda Reiman, manager of Marijuana Law and Policy at the Drug Policy Alliance, told teleSUR English.

The provision was approved as part of the massive 1,603-page US$1.1 trillion spending bill for 2016—the amendment had been passed temporarily in 2015, but its approval in the 2016 spending bill locked it into law—and it comes as national views on cannabis and mass incarceration have shifted in recent years. More lawmakers are now open to rolling back strict federal drug policy, which still holds that marijuana is more dangerous than cocaine.

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Still, drug reform activists worry that federal opposition to medical marijuana will nonetheless continue and say several battles have yet to be won.

“The war on drugs is way more about the punishments handed down to vulnerable communities than about access to drugs,” said Reiman. “Arrests of doctors and patients, raids on dispensaries—it’s been a long time waiting for the federal government to pull back and respect the will of voters in the states (where medical marijuana is) approved.”

Congress Adopts Significant Drug Policy Reforms in New Spending Bill https://t.co/THsvEAngdL #syringeaccess #medicalmarijuana #NoMoreDrugWar

— Drug Policy Alliance (@DrugPolicyOrg) December 18, 2015

But overall, the change is welcomed from local growers. Will Feetham, a marijuana reform activist and board member of the Oregon-based Sungrown Growers Guild, told teleSUR English that state lawmakers have used the pretext of avoiding federal raids to rewrite medical marijuana law, ultimately harming the industry.

“The little upticks of paranoia from state lawmakers and regulators will basically be eliminated once they see everything is working smoothly,” said Feetham.

A more lax ban would prevent federal policy from playing into the hands of “antagonistic” state legislators, but Feetham is still skeptical. Recreational marijuana programs might continue to be promoted at the expense of patients who need the drug, which is still seen as “suspect and not real medicine,” he said.

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While less federal intrusion could mean less anxiety on the part of states, other obstacles remain, such as the continued block on financing or bank services to marijuana businesses, which increases the risks to owners who become targets for thieves who know they conduct their business in cash.

Reiman, who is from California—the first state to legalize medical marijuana back in 1996—said that while the measure may be a step in the right direction, the national drug criminalization policy and the ensuing epidemic of mass incarceration seems set to continue.

Feetham, however, is optimistic.

“This issue is only heading in one direction,” he said. “The whole thing will resolve itself.”