Trump Administration Takes Step That Could Threaten Marijuana Legalization Movement
- 6 years ago
Trump Administration Takes Step That Could Threaten Marijuana Legalization Movement
The president’s position hasn’t changed, but he does strongly believe that we have to enforce federal law.”
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.
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.
“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 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.
“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.
The president’s position hasn’t changed, but he does strongly believe that we have to enforce federal law.”
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.
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.
“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 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.
“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.