Enforcement of state pot industry hazy
U.S. attorney issues vague reply to Sessions’ change
The Bay State’s top prosecutor cast the state’s fledgling marijuana industry into further disarray, responding to pleas for clarity with a hard-line response indicating that no one in the state’s now legalized pot market is “immune” from prosecution.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling’s statement yesterday came just hours after weed advocates asked him to further explain how he’d police the industry in the wake of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ move to rescind an Obama-era policy that allowed states to pursue legalized pot.
Sessions’ decision effectively leaves it to federal prosecutors in each state to determine how they’ll enforce a federal law that still bans marijuana sales.
But with legal sales looming on July 1, Lelling offered little comfort, saying he “cannot ... provide assurances that certain categories of participants in the state-level marijuana trade will be immune from federal prosecution.”
He added: “Deciding, in advance, to immunize a certain category of actors from federal prosecution would be to effectively amend the laws Congress has already passed, and that I will not do.”
Lelling is a Trump appointee who took over the Boston office last month.
The announcement immediately sent ripples through the state and nation, where other U.S. attorneys have offered softer, if not more reassuring, responses for those operating in states where marijuana use and sales have been legalized.
That includes Colorado, where the U.S. attorney indicated that rescinding the so-called Cole Memo would change little in that office’s approach.
“It’s difficult to move forward if you’re not sure on the first day of sales whether there will be FBI agents knocking on doors across the state,” said Jim Borghesani, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project and a leader of the group that pushed the 2016 ballot question legalizing recreational pot in Massachusetts.
Lelling offered that he’d approach the industry on a “caseby-case basis” and cited his office’s “limited federal resources.”
Within hours of releasing his statement yesterday, Lelling’s office sent out a press release touting a seven-year sentence it scored against a California man who ran a marijuana ring.
State officials, including Gov. Charlie Baker, have said they intend to stand by the decision of voters to legalize the drug.
Attorney General Maura Healey, too, has prodded Lelling to provide more information, releasing a statement yesterday asking him to “clarify his enforcement priorities to provide guidance to Massachusetts municipalities, residents and businesses.”
Steve Hoffman — chairman of the Cannabis Control Commission, which oversees the industry in the state — is expected to address the developments at a regularly scheduled meeting today, according to board officials.