Sessions cracks down on legalized marijuana
Attorney general’s policy reversal puts the pot industry at risk
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration threw the burgeoning movement to legalize marijuana into uncertainty Thursday as it lifted an Obama-era leniency policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the pot trade in states where the drug is legal.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions will now leave it up to federal prosecutors to decide what to do when state rules collide with federal drug law.
Sessions’ action, days after a legalization law went into effect in California, threatened the future of the industry, created confusion in states where the drug is legal and outraged both marijuana advocates and some members of Congress, including Sessions’ fellow Republicans.
Many conservatives are wary of what they see as federal intrusion in areas they believe must be left to the states.
Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., said
the change contradicts a pledge Sessions made to him before being confirmed as attorney general.
Eight states and the District of Columbia have legalized non-medical use of marijuana: Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. A larger group, 29, have legalized pot for medical purposes.
Gardner vowed to push legislation to protect pot sales, saying he was prepared “to take all steps necessary” to fight the change, including holding up the confirmation of Justice Department nominees. Another GOP senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, called the announcement “disruptive” and “regrettable.”
Colorado’s U.S. attorney, Bob Troyer, said his office won’t change its approach to prosecution, despite Sessions’ guidance. Prosecutors there have always focused on marijuana crimes that “create the greatest safety threats” and will continue to be guided by that, Troyer said.
The largely hands-off approach to marijuana enforcement set forth by Barack Obama’s Justice Department allowed the pot business to flourish into a multimillion-dollar industry that helps fund some state government programs. What happens now is in doubt. “In deciding which marijuana activities to prosecute under these laws with the Department’s finite resources, prosecutors should follow the well-established principles that govern all federal prosecutions,” considering the seriousness of a crime and its impact on the community, Sessions told prosecutors in a one-page memo.
While Sessions, a marijuana opponent, has been carrying out a Justice Department agenda that follows Trump’s top priorities on such issues as immigration and opioids, this change reflects his own concerns. Sessions railed against pot as an Alabama senator and has assailed it as comparable to heroin.
Trump, as a candidate, said pot should be left up to the states, but his personal views on marijuana remain largely unknown.
It is not clear how the change might affect states where marijuana is legal for medical purposes.
A congressional amendment blocks the Justice Department from interfering with medical marijuana programs in states where it is allowed. Justice officials said they would follow the law, but would not preclude the possibility of medicalmarijuana related prosecutions.
Officials wouldn’t say if federal prosecutors would target marijuana shops and legal growers, nor would they speculate on whether pot prosecutions would increase.
They denied the timing was connected to the opening of California sales, which are projected to bring in $1 billion annually in tax revenue within several years.
The officials said Thursday’s action may not be the only step toward greater pot enforcement. The department has the authority to sue states on the grounds that state laws regulating pot are unconstitutional, pre-empted by federal law.
Asked about the change, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said only that Trump’s top priority is enforcing federal law “and that is regardless of what the topic is, whether it’s marijuana or whether it’s immigration.”
The Obama administration in 2013 announced it would not stand in the way of states that legalize marijuana, so long as officials acted to keep it from migrating to places where it remained outlawed and keep it out of the hands of criminal gangs and children. That memo, written by then-Deputy Attorney General James Cole, cleared up some uncertainty about how the federal government would respond as states began allowing sales for recreational and medical purposes.
But the Sessions Justice Department believed the Cole memo created a “safe harbor” for pot by allowing states to flout federal law, Justice Department officials said. Sessions, in his memo, called the Obama guidance “unnecessary.”