Thursday, January 04, 2018

End of Cole Memorandum regarding Federal-State marijuana "stand off" 1st news

Associated Press has reported that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is planning to suspend the 2013 U.S. Department of Justice Memorandum (known as the "Cole Memorandum") that has been interpreted to give the states the green light to legalize and regulate marijuana within their borders after Colorado and Washington voters adopted laws to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana and the growth and distribution of marijuana for that purpose.

Here is the new memorandum from A.G. Sessions issued on Jan. 4, 2018. It says that all the general criteria that U.S. Attorneys are supposed to use in deciding what cases to prosecute should be applied to marijuana cases.

U.S. Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) has said that this move violates a pledge that Sessions made to him. Gardner is threatening to start blocking Senate confirmation of Department of Justice nominations in retaliation.

The 2013 Memorandum expanded on earlier memoranda from 2009 and 2011("Ogden Memorandum") that were limited to state medical marijuana programs.

Sessions, as a Federal prosecutor, was especially hostile to drug offenders, and as U.S. Senator, regularly spoke out against any kind of marijuana law reform.

Stay tuned to see what the actual details of the Session's new policy look like.

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