Obama administration will not block state marijuana laws, if distribution is regulated
The Obama administration on Thursday said it will not stand in the way of
Colorado,
Washington
and other states where voters have supported legalizing marijuana
either for medical or recreational use, as long as those states maintain
strict rules involving distribution of the drug.
In
a memo sent Thursday to U.S. attorneys
in all 50 states, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole detailed the
administration’s new stance, even as he reiterated that marijuana
remains illegal under federal law.
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The memo directs federal prosecutors to focus their resources
on eight specific areas of enforcement, rather than targeting individual
marijuana users, which even President Obama has acknowledged is not the
best use of federal manpower. Those areas include preventing
distribution of marijuana to minors, preventing the sale of pot to
cartels and gangs, preventing sales to other states where the drug
remains illegal under state law, and stopping the growing of marijuana
on public lands.
A Justice Department official said that Attorney
General Eric H. Holder Jr. had called the governors of Colorado and
Washington around noon Thursday to inform them of the administration’s
stance.
The official said Holder also told them that federal
prosecutors would be watching closely as the two states put in place a
regulatory framework for marijuana in their states, and that prosecutors
would be taking a “trust but verify” approach. The official said the
Justice Department reserves the right to revisit the issue.
Washington
state and Colorado last fall approved initiatives to decriminalize the
possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. Those laws go beyond
provisions for the medical use of marijuana. The District and 18 states
have passed laws making it legal to manufacture, distribute and possess
marijuana for medicinal purposes.
“We’ve
got bigger fish to fry,” Obama said. “It would not make sense for us to
see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that
have determined that it’s legal.”
The issue has been percolating
since Obama took office, and he has repeatedly faced questions about the
tension between differing federal and state laws.
When the White
House created an online petition program called “We the People” in
2011, marijuana-related petitions were so prevalent that the
administration issued four responses to 13 petitions, which had garnered
hundreds of thousands of signatures.
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