Sessions Unleashes the Hounds on Pro-Pot States
"The Department of Justice is committed to reducing violent crime and enforcing the laws as enacted by Congress".
"In the short term, this news will further scare away investors, which will, in turn, slow down cannabis entrepreneurship", said Nicolas Ruiz, co-founder of Cloudponics, a San Francisco startup whose technology can be used to grow marijuana.
Another is the ability of federal prosecutors to win over juries in states where marijuana is legal.
The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday rescinded an Obama administration policy that had eased enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states that legalized the drug, instead giving federal prosecutors wide latitude to pursue criminal charges.
"Today's memo on federal marijuana enforcement simply directs all US attorneys to use previously established prosecutorial principles that provide them all the necessary tools to disrupt criminal organizations, tackle the growing drug crisis, and thwart violent crime across our country", Sessions said. Bottom line - Justice officials say there's no safe harbor anymore.
"In states with legalized cannabis, as long as businesses are compliant, they'll be left alone". California users of medical marijuana insisted that the law should not apply to them because their state had legalized their behavior. California's went into effect earlier this week.
The move raised questions about how it might impact tax revenues in states that permit some form of legal marijuana use.
Senator Jeff Merkley said, "There is nothing to be gained from going back to an era when federal resources were wasted prosecuting nonviolent cannabis crimes". It's all kind of confusing, and that may be intentional. "With the state regulating, it should take a lot of pressure off the federal government in worrying about bad actors".
In practice, the previous guidance meant US attorneys in jurisdictions that had legalized marijuana at the state level were often reluctant to bring marijuana cases - though Cole's memo stressed Congress had determined it to be an illegal drug that provided significant revenue to gangs.
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Arcview Group, an Oakland investment and market research firm that studies the cannabis industry, forecast an $11 billion US market for legal marijuana this year - just over 60 percent for medical use, the rest for recreational use - and said it would continue to expand.
One state, Colorado, reported about $500 million in taxes on weed sales between 2014 and previous year; nearly half supported the state's public schools. Trump seemed convinced that former president Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, had shielded Obama - a conviction Trump related to Schmidt during an interview the Times published last month. I'm a states person. Joe Pennacchio (R-Morris). "I think it should help us hit the pause button, which is what I've been saying all along".
Federal laws banning the cultivation, distribution and possession of marijuana "reflect Congress' determination that marijuana is a risky drug and that marijuana activity is a serious crime", Sessions said in a memo to US attorneys. To hear her tell it, the Justice Department move simply gives prosecutors the tools to target large-scale distributors. However, she doesn't expect much change in the way they already handle marijuana.
Republican lawmaker Cory Gardner of Colorado quickly voiced opposition to Sessions' plan.
Justice Antonin Scalia, concurring in the decision, started from the premise that the federal government has the power to prohibit commerce in marijuana among the states. "He will be hurting the grandfather with Alzheimer's, the soccer mom with breast cancer, the college student with Crohn's disease, the young child with seizures - these are the people that will be impacted by this action by the attorney general".
Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions.
If Cory Gardner and Nancy Pelosi want the federal government to leave most of this field to the states, their proper course is not to make life hard for the Justice Department until it agrees to stop enforcing the laws Congress has enacted.
A majority of New Jerseyans (53 percent) support legalizing and taxing marijuana, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released in December.
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