Feds shift pot policy

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ policy announcement Thursday giving federal prosecutors more leeway to crack down on legal marijuana set off a political firestorm in Colorado, with some of the state’s fellow Republicans charging the Trump administration with trampling on the will of voters and even overreach.

But the immediate impact of Sessions’ unraveling of several Obama-era policy memos — which set out guidelines for states to follow, such as keeping marijuana from crossing state borders — still was unclear. Across the board, the change caught officials by surprise.

“I would encourage people not to freak out,” Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman told reporters, adding that she called the state’s interim U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer after Sessions made his announcement.

She was reassured by their conversation, she said, believing that Troyer and the federal prosecutors he oversees would remain focused on the black and gray markets — and not shift to a crack-

down on legal recreational or medical marijuana sales in Colorado. A statement from Troyer also said he anticipated no major change in his office’s enforcement priorities.

But Colorado’s elected officials, from both sides of the aisle and from the Denver mayor’s office to the state Capitol and the halls of Congress, saw Sessions’ announcement as a shot across the bow that threatened to interfere with Colorado’s legal markets.

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican, was among those who lashed out at Sessions, saying the nation’s top law enforcement officer had “trampled on the will of the voters.”

In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, Gardner said thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue were at risk.

“Before I voted to confirm Attorney General Sessions, he assured me that marijuana would not be a priority for this administration,” Gardner said in a statement. “Today’s action directly contradicts what I was told, and I am prepared to take all steps necessary, including holding (Justice Department) nominees, until the attorney general lives up to the commitment he made to me prior to his confirmation.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, was similarly angry, telling The Denver Post in an interview that Sessions’ move amounted to a “reversal of the progress we’ve been making to get the federal government to respect decisions that states have made.” He added: “I just think this is federal overreach.”

“Even without this decision we still had a long ways to go, particularly in financial regulation — federal banking regulation,” Coffman said, referring to marijuana businesses’ inability to open accounts because of federal laws. He added: “I think we’re back at square one. I think it makes it a lot harder.”

The controversy left the cannabis industry in a state of uncertainty, with pot stocks plunging and some experts predicting more fallout.

“I don’t think that the attorney general is doing this for window dressing,” said John Hudak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an author and expert on marijuana policy. “I think this is an area of policy that he considers dangerous, that he considers problematic, and that he wants something done about.”

Sessions set aside three memos, including the socalled “Cole Memo,” that gave guidance to federal prosecutors on how and when to enforce the federal prohibition on marijuana in the 30 or so states where pot has been legalized in some form. Those documents put states on notice that federal officials would not interfere so long as local officials worked to keep marijuana from crossing state lines, from falling into the hands of children and from being swept up by criminal organizations, among other considerations.

Sessions’ statement said the Obama-era memos undermined the rule of law and stressed that his new guidance — referred to as a “return to the rule of law” — was based on “established prosecutorial principles that provide (federal prosecutors with) all the necessary tools to disrupt criminal organizations, tackle the growing drug crisis and thwart violent crime across our country.”

The Post asked Troyer about how Sessions’ new directive might change the approach of the Denverbased U.S. attorney’s office. A spokesman provided this response from Troyer:

“Here is the question we ask every time we consider allocating our finite resources to prosecute any of the vast number of federal crimes we can prosecute, from violent crime to immigration crime to opioid crime: Will this prosecution make Colorado safer?” Troyer said. “Under the attorney general’s new memo, we have more freedom and flexibility to make decisions that make Colorado safer by prosecuting individuals and organizations for marijuana crimes that significantly threaten our community safety.”

Despite lingering uncertainty over how that might look in practice, Cynthia Coffman said she saw the marijuana laws approved by Colorado voters as secure, for now.

“Truly, I don’t see any sweeps coming,” the Republican official said during a news conference in downtown Denver. “I don’t see the Department of Justice changing its enforcement priorities. I have … asked (Troyer) to please notify me in the Attorney General’s Office if there is going to be any change in those priorities or in those actions so that we have a heads-up. And I have his agreement that he will do that.”

In the governor’s office, Democrat John Hickenlooper said he would consider suing the federal government — but said he wanted to be cautious “because I don’t think there is any benefit to getting into a controversy, finger-pointing.”

Both Mike Coffman and Gardner — who, like Hickenlooper and some Democrats, opposed the legalization of marijuana — were especially frustrated that they were given no headsup about the changes.

Other Democrats across the state pounced on Sessions’ announcement. U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, DDenver, called it “unconscionable,” and Boulderbased Rep. Jared Polis said “the Trump administration needs to back off.” U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet predicted Sessions’ announcement would “create unnecessary chaos and confusion.”

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock also criticized Sessions and said Colorado’s experience had demonstrated that “the sky has not fallen like many of us thought it would.”

Sessions’ decision seems to mark a departure from a campaign promise President Donald Trump made during a Colorado stopover in July 2016. He told Denver television station 9News that he wouldn’t use federal authority to shut down recreational marijuana sales because “I think it should be up to the states, absolutely.”

But during a White House press briefing on Thursday, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared to walk that statement back.

“The president believes in enforcing federal law. That would be his top priority, and that is regardless of what the topic is,” she said. “Whether it’s marijuana or whether it’s immigration, the president strongly believes that we should enforce federal law. The move that the Department of Justice has made … simply gives prosecutors the tools to take on large-scale distributors and enforce federal law. The president’s position hasn’t changed, but he does strongly believe that we have to enforce federal law.”

Congressman Coffman predicted that there could be blowback from Sessions’ decision in Colorado.

“This is a purple state with a libertarian streak,” he said. “This decision is not going to go over well.”

Staff writers John Frank, Mark K. Matthews and Alicia Wallace contributed to this story.