Bay State leaders slam fed decision
Bay State officials are blasting Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to eliminate Obama-era protections for states that have legalized marijuana, a move industry experts say could put a damper on the state’s nascent weed industry.
“The administration believes this is the wrong decision and will review any potential impacts from any policy changes by the local U.S. Attorney’s Office,” a spokesman for Gov. Charlie Baker said.
Sessions yesterday said he has rescinded guidelines that directed federal prosecutors to focus marijuana prosecutions on cases that crossed state lines or involved children or gangs. Without the policy, put in place in 2013, prosecutors are now free to prosecute any violation of federal drug law, including in states that have voted to legalize the drug.
Sessions is now allowing U.S. attorneys across the country to decide what kinds of federal resources to devote to marijuana enforcement based on what they see as priorities in their districts, according to The Associated Press.
Andrew Lelling, President Trump’s newly tapped U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, said in a statement yesterday that he will “continue to pursue federal marijuana crimes, especially bulk trafficking.”
Lelling also sought to defend the Department of Justice’s focus on marijuana, arguing that it doesn’t impact his office’s efforts on battling the opioid crisis.
“As the Justice Department has highlighted, medical studies confirm that marijuana is in fact a dangerous drug, and it is illegal under federal law,” he added.
Walpole police Chief John Carmichael, one of Baker’s appointees to Massachusetts’ Cannabis Advisory Board, said the new federal stance on marijuana will likely cause a crackdown on weed crossing the Bay State border into jurisdictions that still consider the drug illegal. He also expected it will prompt the feds to take a closer look at who is funding Massachusetts dispensaries and where the businesses’ revenues go.
“I don’t think the federal government is going to come in and do search warrants on retail stores in Massachusetts,” he said. “But I do think if Massachusetts’ legal product starts illegally supplying other states, I think the federal government will come in and squash it.”
Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, the five-member panel created last year to oversee the state’s new law, said its role “remains the same” and still plans to develop regulations so dispensaries can open in July.
Recreational marijuana has been expected to bring in between $44 million and $82 million in taxes, according to state officials, and Bay State residents are forecast to buy $1 billion in marijuana products by 2020, according to marijuana analysis firm New Frontier.