Attorney General Jeff Sessions is giving U.S. attorneys the green light to aggressively enforce federal laws against marijuana — even in states where pot is legal.
In doing so, Sessions is reversing an Obama administration policy that shielded legalized marijuana from federal intervention and enabled the pot industry to flourish, a senior Justice Department official told NBC News on Thursday.
Federal law prohibits growing, buying and using marijuana. And while Sessions is giving permission to prosecute marijuana cases, he did not explicitly call for it. One official in the Justice Department said the message is not that federal prosecutors should now go after the industry.
The move drew immediate condemnation from Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican whose state legalized pot in 2014. He threatened to retaliate by holding up confirmation of Sessions’ picks for top DOJ positions.
The previous Justice Department policy, which was laid out in a 2013 memo from the deputy attorney general at the time, James Cole, said federal prosecutions would focus on cases of peddling pot to minors, selling marijuana across state borders or growing pot on federal land, or when it involved gangs or organized crime.
A senior Justice Department official said one reason for the change is that the previous policy “was perceived to have created a safe harbor for the industry to operate.”
The move by the nation’s top law enforcement official comes the same week that California began selling recreational marijuana.
It is also legal in Alaska, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. There are also thriving medical marijuana programs in 28 states.
The head of the Drug Policy Alliance said Sessions is defying the 64 percent of the American people who support marijuana legalization.
“Jeff Sessions’ obsession with marijuana prohibition defies logic, threatens successful state-level reforms, and flies in the face of widespread public support for legalization,” said executive director Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno. “It’s now time for Congress to put the brakes on Sessions’ destructive agenda by limiting the Justice Department’s ability to undermine states’ decision-making.”
Related: Opinion: Sessions is on the wrong side of marijuana legalization
Sessions has just shown “how out of touch he is with scientists and taxpayers” and that siccing federal prosecutors on pot offenders will just needlessly jam the jails with more prisoners, said Jasmine Taylor of Human Rights Watch.
“This will no doubt spike arrests and fuel mass incarceration, largely for people of color, but this administration has been clear from their campaign promises of harsh policies that trample rights that this day would eventually come to pass,” Taylor said. “The war on drugs, whether it went away or just slowed down, is now back.”
Amy Margolis of Greenspoon Marder, which has a cannabis practice, warned Sessions’ order “sets up a serious potential battle between the states with legalization and United States attorneys who decide to enforce federal law against the will of the voters and, in some cases, state legislatures.”
“This battle will, unfortunately, play out in the courts while businesses or individuals are facing criminal charges for engaging in conduct that is legal in their state,” Margolis said in an email to NBC News. “And, in large states, like California, federal law could be applied differently in different districts resulting in patchwork prosecutions even within state lines.”
Anti-marijuana activist Kevin Sabet praised Sessions’ order, calling it “a good day for public health.”
“The days of safe harbor for multi-million dollar pot investments are over,” said Sabet, a former Obama Administration drug policy adviser who now heads Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). “DOJ’s move will slow down the rise of Big Marijuana and stop the massive infusion of money going to fund pot candies, cookies, ice creams, and other kid-friendly pot edibles. Investor, banker, funder beware.”
Sessions has long been a cannabis foe who famously said “good people don’t smoke marijuana” during a 2016 Senate hearing. He also was accused of telling late assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Figures that he thought the KKK was “OK until I found out they smoked pot.”
This was after Sessions learned that Klan members had gotten high the night they kidnapped and murdered a young black man. Sessions insisted he was joking.
Filed under: General Problems
Jesus Sessions needs a brain transplant! Obviously his has a major malfunction! The constitution gives the federal government limited powers and I don’t believe control of a plant that can and does grow wild. He needs to fact check the limitations of his power and quit backing an illegal and stupid law against persecuting citizens so that he and his cronies can put more money in their pockets! Marijuana is safe and often effective for medical use! He’d rather destroy lives and families for his own gain! Go after the cartels and leave legal marijuana alone! It would save millions, if not more, taxpayer dollars and free up agents to actually do the jobs they’re supposed to do. While he’s at it he needs to leave the practice of medicine to trained medical providers!!
Actually Ill take ,”colonies,”’ for when we were colonies,,,,ALLLLL PLANTS WERE LEGAL,,,, our forefathers didn’t bother w/NONE OF THERE BUSINESS MATTERS,,,,,,WHEN IT CAME TO US ADULTS—COLONIST,,,RECGONIZED OUR FREEDOM TO CHOOSE AS FREE ADULTS WHAT WE PUT IN OUR OWN BODIES WAS OUR FREE WILL,,,,,WHY PARTLY WE HAD A REVOLUTION,,,,,,YEA,,,ILL DEFINITELY TAKE COLINIES,,,FOR THAT REASON
BUT AS A NATION,,,,,OUR IDEA’S,,THOUGHTS,HUMANITY,,WHAT LEFT OF IT ,,IF ANY,,,,HAS GONE BACKWARDS!!!!! HELL,,WITH INSURANCE COMPANIES DECIDE TO PRCTICE MEDICINE,,WITH DR.GOVERNMENT PRACTICING MEDICINE,,,ALL FOR $$$$$$$ REASON,,NOT,,FOR PROPER CARE REASON,,,,,WE ON’T EVEN NEED DOCTORS ANYMORE,,,U GUYS ARE JUST GETTING IN THE WAY OF THE CONTROL OUR GOVERNMENT WANT FOR THEIR GENOCIDE,,HITLER,,MENTALITY NOW A DAYS!!!!DEFENITLELY HEADING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!!!!!!mary