Sessions’ decree on marijuana baffles Pennsylvania lawmakers
A defiant response by lawmakers from across the political spectrum followed an announcement Thursday that the Trump administration was rescinding an Obama-era policy that had paved the way for legalized marijuana to flourish in states nationwide.
“I’m a Republican and I don’t understand this,” said Pennsylvania state Sen. Mike Folmer, RLebanon, who was a co-sponsor of the bill that legalized medical marijuana last year in the Keystone State. “I think it’s cruel. If you think this is going to make America safe, cut me a break. This decision is just dumb.”
His anger came in the wake of a memo in which U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions stated that he was ending the hands-off policy that had steered U.S. agencies on the enforcement of federal marijuana laws.
“Previous nationwide guidance specific to marijuana enforcement is unnecessary and
rescinded, effective immediately” Mr. Sessions wrote. Instead, Mr. Sessions said he will let U.S. prosecutors decide how aggressively they want to enforce federal marijuana law in states that have dropped prohibitions on the plant and its products.
The announcement came just days after California launched what is expected to become the world’s largest market for legal marijuana. It sparked fears of a federal crackdown on the burgeoning legal marijuana industry and the eight states where voters have approved recreational use.
Federal law has banned marijuana since 1937. But in the last decade 29 states and the District of Columbia have relaxed or eliminated laws restricting its use.
In 2013, the Obama administration said it would not stand in the way of states that legalized marijuana, as long as officials kept it from migrating to places where it remained outlawed and out of the hands of children and criminal gangs.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, DN.J., addressed the Senate floor Thursday afternoon, echoing remarks he made when he introduced a bill to legalize cannabis federally in August.
“This is an attack on our most sacred ideals,” Mr. Booker said. “It is a failure of this administration, who said, as our president did during his campaign, that he would honor what states are doing, it’s a betrayal by our attorney general, who gave a commitment to at least one Republican member of this body [that he would not make marijuana a priority], but mostly significantly it hurts Americans.”
Coincidentally, Pennsylvania officials on Thursday announced the first all-clear for a medical marijuana dispensary — Keystone Canna Remedies dispensary in Bethlehem — to begin providing the drug once it becomes available from a licensed grower.
Pennsylvania is making medicinal cannabis available for patients suffering from any one of 17 serious health conditions. It was unclear how Mr. Sessions’ move will impact the state programs.
Gov. Tom Wolf vowed in a statement to protect patients in Pennsylvania “from any overreach by the federal government.”
“We legalized medical marijuana in an overwhelming and bipartisan fashion, and we are months away from getting this medicine to patients who need it,” Mr. Wolf said.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, DPa., said he had “serious concerns” about how the decision could disrupt Pennsylvania’s nascent medicinal program.
“Bureaucrats in Washington should not interfere with the medical care these patients are receiving,” Mr. Casey said.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said his staff was reviewing the legal implications, but that the senator “continues to believe that the federal government should help facilitate research into marijuana for legitimate medical purposes.”
State Attorney Josh Shapiro said the directive could thwart Pennsylvania’s law that “provides medicinal marijuana to those in need’’ of it.
Many outside of government also reacted to the Sessions decision.
“Will Sessions singlehandedly crush a $7.2 billion industry spanning 30 states, generating millions in taxes, and providing tens of thousands of jobs?” said Steve Schain, an attorney with the Hoban Law Group, a national firm with dozens of marijuana business clients.
But cannabis industry analysts largely shrugged at the news.
“Despite the negative headlines, we do not think this will result in a meaningful change relative to the current, more-lenient Obama-era policy, and it will not affect the industry’s trajectory,” Stefanie Miller of Height Securities told Bloomberg News.
Mr. Sessions, who has assailed marijuana as comparable to heroin and has blamed it for spikes in violence, had been expected to ramp up enforcement. Cannabis advocates argue that legalizing the drug eliminates the need for a black market and would likely reduce violence, since criminals would no longer control the marijuana trade.
Scott Brady, a Trump appointee who was sworn in last month as the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, released a statement on Mr. Sessions’ announcement that said in part: This office will continue to deploy all prosecutorial tools at our disposal to protect the citizens of Western Pennsylvania from those individuals and criminal organizations which traffic in all illegal controlled substances, including marijuana.”
The pot business has become a sophisticated, multimillion-dollar industry. Eight states and Washington D.C. have legalized marijuana for recreational use, with Vermont and New Hampshire expected to approve legalization in the coming weeks.
But Mr. Sessions and some law enforcement officials blame legalization for a number of problems. They claim drug traffickers have taken advantage of lax marijuana laws to hide in plain sight, illegally growing and shipping the drug across state lines, where it can sell for much more. His announcement was a win for pot opponents who had been urging the Department of Justice to take action.
“There is no more safe haven with regard to the federal government and marijuana, but it’s also the beginning of the story and not the end,” said Kevin Sabet, president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, who was among several antimarijuana advocates who met with Mr. Sessions last month. “This is a victory. It’s going to dry up a lot of the institutional investment that has gone toward marijuana in the last five years.”