Attorney General Jeff Sessions
Credit: AP Andrew Harnik
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Thursday that he was rescinding an Obama-era policy that had paved the way for legalized marijuana to flourish in states across the country, prompting quick pushback from at least two Republican senators from states that allow its use.
In a long-awaited move, the Justice Department chief withdrew federal guidelines that effectively limited prosecutions of businesses and individuals who sold pot in a legal manner under state law, even though the drug remains illegal under federal law.
Sessions said future prosecutions would be up to individual U.S. attorneys. However, the announcement appeared intended to discourage marijuana-related business by being deliberately vague about future federal enforcement efforts.
The new approach will probably increase confusion about the legal risk of marijuana-related activity in states that have passed legislation allowing people to grow, buy or use pot.
“Given the Department’s well-established general principles, previous nationwide guidance specific to marijuana enforcement is unnecessary and is rescinded, effective immediately,” Sessions said in a one-page memo sent to federal prosecutors nationwide.
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Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch. The administration of incompetance, chaos and confrontation supported by 35%+ of Americans may finally lose some of the base on this issue.
It is time to send the District of Corruption a message that we won’t accept federal authoritarian decrees and unjust laws anymore. We must decentralize and stop letting criminals run our lives, our economy and determine how we live our lives. Cannabis may be issue which becomes the straw that breaks the back of the criminal elite.
Unfortunately for some of us decentralization would give even more power to the republican scum that control most of government in north Carolina.