Attorney General Jeff Sessions seems to have made it his personal M.O. to potentially go after and take down state legal marijuana programs and businesses, medical and recreational alike (he’s made no bones about it that he’s not a fan of marijuana or its users). As of yesterday though, the state-legal marijuana industry can exercise a (slight) sigh of relief on the heels of Sessions finally providing some guidance from the Department of Justice–essentially, according to Sessions, this administration will follow the 2013 Cole Memo in its enforcement of marijuana-related crimes in states that have marijuana legalization and/or medicalization and corresponding regulatory systems.
During the House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing yesterday, Sessions stated on the record that,
Our policy is the same, really, fundamentally as the Holder-Lynch policy, which is that the federal law remains in effect and a state can legalize marijuana for its law enforcement purposes but it still remains illegal with regard to federal purposes.
Hopefully then, cannabis businesses in states with “robust regulation” that adhere to the eight enforcement priorities of the 2013 Cole Memo will be the lowest enforcement priorities for the DOJ. However, neither that Memo nor Sessions’ apparent acceptance of it do anything to change the federal Controlled Substances Act–marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Still, Sessions agreed with Representative Steve Cohen (derived from a line of questioning from the Congressman) that marijuana is not as dangerous as heroin (despite the Schedule I classification they share under the federal Controlled Substances Act). Despite all of Sessions’ anti-marijuana rhetoric (and his poking and prodding of states that have highly regulated recreational marijuana licensing systems), it seems he’s finally coming around to facts and science. Do not though expect this Attorney General to make any effort to reschedule marijuana anytime soon as he toes the Republican Party line on continuing the failed war on drugs.
Another big boon from yesterday’s hearing is that, despite the fact that Sessions requested that Congress essentially undo the state medical marijuana protections set forth in various Congressional budget riders (which have actually shown major teeth in the Ninth Circuit), Sessions ultimately kowtowed to the fact that the DOJ must respect those laws as long as they’re in place. What a shock that the DOJ must abide by current federal laws.
So, for now, the 2013 Cole Memo remains the DOJ’s current enforcement policy when it comes to state legal marijuana, and we can expect states to continue their democratic experiments with marijuana regulatory systems at a regular clip. Do not forget though that the 2013 Cole Memo is meaningless when it comes to the actual state of the law insofar as marijuana remains federally illegal. We’re glad to see that the DOJ will (hopefully) follow the 2013 Cole Memo, but we’re even happier that Sessions plans to respect the federal budget riders (as he should have done from the get go) and that he recognizes that marijuana is not as unsafe as heroin (which is an obvious no brainer at this point for anyone who respects science and empirical data).
source https://www.cannalawblog.com/bfd-alert-2013-cole-memo-is-safe-for-now/
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