WASHINGTON
— The viability of the multibillion-dollar marijuana legalization
movement was thrown into new doubt on Thursday when the Trump
administration freed prosecutors to more aggressively enforce federal
laws against the drug in states that have decriminalized its production
and sale, most recently California.
Attorney
General Jeff Sessions, long a vocal opponent of the legalization of
marijuana, rescinded an Obama-era policy that discouraged federal
prosecutors in most cases from bringing charges wherever the drug is
legal under state laws.
“It
is the mission of the Department of Justice to enforce the laws of the
United States, and the previous issuance of guidance undermines the rule
of law,” he said in a statement. In his memo to United States attorneys,
he called the earlier policy “unnecessary” and pointed to federal laws
that “reflect Congress’s determination that marijuana is a dangerous
drug and that marijuana activity is a serious crime.”
Democrats
and some Republicans condemned the move. Senator Cory Gardner,
Republican of Colorado, threatened to retaliate by holding up Justice
Department appointments that required Senate approval. Gavin Newsom, the
Democratic lieutenant governor of California, vowed to encourage
cooperation among states that have legalized marijuana.
“This
brings states together around issues of freedom, individual liberty,
states’ rights,” he said in an interview, “all of the principles that
transcend red and blue.”
California began allowing the sale
of recreational marijuana on Monday, joining Alaska, Colorado, Nevada,
Oregon and Washington. Massachusetts and possibly Maine are expected to
begin sales this year. In all, 29 states and the District of Columbia
have at least partly legalized the substance — including for medicinal
use — though it remains illegal under federal law.
The
move seemed certain to increase the confusion surrounding whether it is
legal to sell, buy or possess marijuana in those parts of the United
States where state and federal law conflict. Federal law has long
prohibited those activities.
In
2013, after voters in Colorado and Washington State voted to
decriminalize marijuana for recreational use, the Justice Department
deliberated about how to handle the resulting disconnect between state
and federal law. Ultimately, federal prosecutors were instructed to
deprioritize most marijuana-related prosecutions in those states.
Justice
Department officials would not say whether they intended to carry out a
crackdown and begin prosecuting commercial growers, distributors and
shopkeepers, or were instead merely trying to sow doubt and slow growth
in the semilegal industry.
The
dissonance between federal laws that outlaw marijuana and a growing
number of state laws that allow and regulate it make uncertainty a fact
of life for marijuana businesses and consumers.
They say they live
constantly with shifting legal terrain, losing their bank accounts and
lines of credit and never knowing how vulnerable they may be to losing
their business or being federally prosecuted.
“It’s
a really scary time for us,” said Jaime Lewis, whose Denver-based
company, Mountain Medicine, sells marijuana-infused honey sticks,
chocolates and cookie bites across Colorado.
Ms.
Lewis said that she emailed her 15 employees on Thursday to tell them
that things were “business as usual,” and added that she still had
access to her credit union and had no plans to close her business.
Mr. Gardner accused Mr. Sessions of violating promises he had made not to interfere.
“With no prior notice to Congress, the Justice Department has trampled on the will of the voters in CO and other states,” Mr. Gardner wrote on Twitter, adding:
“I am prepared to take all steps necessary, including holding DOJ
nominees, until the Attorney General lives up to the commitment he made
to me prior to his confirmation.”
The
White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, maintained that
President Trump was not going back on a campaign promise to refrain from
using federal authority to shut down sales of recreational marijuana in
states where they were legal.
The
Justice Department move, she said, “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.”
Gov.
Kate Brown of Oregon, a Democrat, said in an interview that she was
still exploring her options, but that the net effect of Mr. Sessions’s
move was to “rip the framework from underneath us.”
Marijuana
has become an important industry in Oregon, she said, with 19,000 new
jobs, many in rural areas, and $100 million in state tax revenue over
the past year and a half put toward schools, law enforcement and other
programs.
Gov.
John W. Hickenlooper of Colorado, a Democrat, said he doubted that the
move would have much immediate effect on his state’s legalized marijuana
industry. He expressed skepticism that United States attorneys would
want to siphon resources from other prosecutions so they could close a
marijuana dispensary operating under state regulations.
“What
are you going to cut back on: heroin enforcement or sex trafficking, to
shut down a little marijuana shop?” he asked in an interview.
He
said he hoped Congress would pass legislation giving individual states
some federal latitude to write their own marijuana regulations, taxes
and other programs when their voters did approve legalization.
But
during a conference call with reporters, Patrick J. Kennedy, a former
Democratic congressman from Rhode Island who serves as an adviser to
Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group against the legalization of the
substance, praised the move as a boon to public health. Marijuana users
should receive treatment, not go to jail, Mr. Kennedy said, adding that
the country should not allow a new profit-driven commercial push for
drug consumption akin to the liquor and tobacco industries.
Mr.
Sessions has put the industry on notice, said the group’s president,
Kevin Sabet, a prominent critic of legalized marijuana and former
drug-control policy official in the Obama administration. Mr. Sabet
referred to marijuana sellers as the “new tobacco industry,” and said
the drug posed more harm to brain function and public health —
particularly for younger users — than legalization advocates cared to
discuss.
No comments:
Post a Comment