Public pot boils a little too fiercely on Sessions’ marijuana policy
Perhaps the greatest advantage Donald Trump has, heading into the second year of his presidency, is that his most ferocious critics tend to be among the most indiscriminate.
Last year, for example, they opposed his decision to nominate Jeff Sessions for attorney general. They were right to do so, in my view, given that many Americans had very valid concerns about his commitment to voting rights and due process, among other things. In fairness, Senate Democrats who raised these concerns during the confirmation process may have been outvoted regardless. Still, it surely didn’t help that Trump’s critics were equally vehement in their opposition to nominees such as Betsy DeVos, Rick Perry and Jim Mattis.
Similarly, the reaction to a memo Sessions released this week struck me as a bit overheated.
“Given the Department’s well-established general principles, previous nationwide guidance specific to marijuana enforcement is unnecessary,” Sessions writes, explaining why he was rescinding the memos offering such guidance that have been issued since 2009.
It’s no secret that the attorney general would like to revive the “war on drugs,” in part by resuming the battle against marijuana — with which Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, effectively declared a truce. And I’ll admit that when I first heard about this memo, my thoughts turned to Colorado. It’s a beautiful state, and I’ve been hoping to visit it again soon. I love looking at snow-capped mountains, and it’s fun to ski down them, too.
Technically speaking, it’d be illegal to do so after enjoying the products that can be readily acquired at dispensaries all over Denver. Federal law lists marijuana as a Schedule I drug, alongside ecstasy and heroin.
But over the past 20 years, most states have acknowledged
that the drug itself and derivatives like cannabidiol have legitimate therapeutic uses; more than half have legalized medical marijuana on that basis. Many have also decriminalized minor possession for recreational purposes, and on Jan. 1, California became the sixth state to legalize sales of marijuana for “adult use.” According to an October poll from Gallup, 64 percent of Americans, including 51 percent of Republicans, are in favor of doing so at the federal level, as well.
In other words, there is a broad consensus among American adults that although marijuana may not be as innocuous as most of the very amazing plants you can find at the Denver Botanic Garden, for example, it’s really not as dangerous as heroin, for goodness’s sake — and the people who produce and distribute it, in states where voters have decided it should be legal to do so, are not, for the most part, hardened criminals.
The will of the voters
During the Obama administration, the Department of Justice took a similarly nuanced view. That’s evident from the memos that Sessions has now rescinded, the most well-known of which was authored by Jim Cole, then the deputy attorney general, in 2013.
The administration had already advised federal prosecutors that it probably wasn’t an efficient use of resources to focus their efforts on Americans who had already begun using, or providing, medical marijuana.
The “Cole memo” updated that guidance, in light of the fact that voters in Colorado and Washington state had, in the November 2012 elections, decided to legalize small amounts of marijuana for recreational use.
“The previous guidance drew a distinction between the seriously ill and their caregivers, on the one hand, and large-scale, for-profit commercial enterprises, on the other,” wrote Cole.
As a matter of common sense, he explained, the latter were more likely to be engaged in the kind of business practices that law enforcement officials do find objectionable.
Still, DOJ had concluded that prosecutors “should not consider the size or commercial nature of a marijuana operation alone as a proxy” for such concerns.
That’s reasonable. So I can understand why many Americans were alarmed by Sessions’ memo — and why Cory Gardner, a Republican senator from Colorado, was angered by it.
“With no prior notice to Congress, the Justice Department has trampled on the will of the voters in CO and other states,” Gardner said on Twitter.
He said on the Senate floor that Sessions had promised him, prior to being confirmed, that he had no plans to reverse the Cole memo and that Trump was planning to leave states like Colorado alone.
Keep it in perspective
But here’s the thing: Federal prosecutors still don’t have to crack down on commercial marijuana operations. The Cole memo didn’t prevent them from doing so. It basically said, with a wink, that the hard-working men and women who had launched marijuana-centric businesses in response to new state laws didn’t have to worry, because the Department of Justice was going to be cool.
That is the last word anyone would use to describe the agency, now that Sessions is at its helm. And that probably won’t change even if Trump decides that he’s tired of the current attorney general and would like to replace him with someone new.
In the meantime, let’s keep things in perspective. Our federal laws regarding marijuana will be revisited someday, and that day may come soon. Until then, law enforcement officials can still use their discretion in enforcing them, and most of us, Sessions notwithstanding, agree that they should.