{"id":8128,"date":"2018-03-10T17:15:48","date_gmt":"2018-03-10T17:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=2979221&amp;preview_id=2979221"},"modified":"2018-03-10T17:15:48","modified_gmt":"2018-03-10T17:15:48","slug":"jeff-sessions-u-s-prosecutors-wont-take-on-small-time-marijuana-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/jeff-sessions-u-s-prosecutors-wont-take-on-small-time-marijuana-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Sessions: U.S. prosecutors won\u2019t take on small-time marijuana cases"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/jeff-sessions-u-s-prosecutors-wont-take-on-small-time-marijuana-cases\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-10 large-centered small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: Mar 10, 2018, 10:01 am \u2022 Updated: Mar 11, 2018, 9:32 pm <span class=\"single-comments-link\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <strong>Sadie Gurman<\/strong>, <em> The Associated Press<\/em><\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 Federal prosecutors won\u2019t take on small-time marijuana cases, despite the Justice Department\u2019s decision to lift an Obama-era policy that discouraged U.S. authorities from cracking down on the pot trade in states where the drug is legal, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Federal law enforcement lacks the resources to take on \u201croutine cases\u201d and will continue to focus on drug gangs and larger conspiracies, Sessions said. The comments come after the Trump administration in January threw the burgeoning marijuana legalization movement into uncertainty by reversing the largely hands-off approach that prevailed during the Obama administration, saying federal prosecutors should instead handle marijuana cases however they see fit.<\/p>\n<p>The Obama-era policy allowed the pot trade to flourish, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2016\/10\/14\/legal-marijuana-laws-by-state-map-united-states\/62772\/\">eight states legalizing marijuana for recreational use.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The reversal added to confusion about whether it\u2019s OK to grow, buy or use marijuana in states where pot is legal, since long-standing federal law prohibits it. And it caused concern that prosecutors would feel empowered to jail individuals for marijuana possession.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am not going to tell Colorado or California or someone else that possession of marijuana is legal under United States law,\u201d Sessions said, answering student questions after a speech at Georgetown\u2019s law school. But, he added, federal prosecutors \u201chaven\u2019t been working small marijuana cases before, they are not going to be working them now.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Related:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2018\/01\/05\/jeff-sessions-marijuana-legalization-movement\/96124\/\">Op-ed: Jeff Sessions\u2019 marijuana crackdown makes national legalization more likely<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Of particular interest are problems that federal authorities have tried for years to tackle, like illegal marijuana-growing operations on national parklands and gangs that peddle pot along with more harmful drugs. Some law enforcement officials in pot-legal states argue the legal trade has caused unintended problems like black-market marijuana growing and dealing by people who don\u2019t even try to conform to the legal framework.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose are the kinds of things each one of those U.S. attorneys will decide how to handle,\u201d Sessions said.<\/p>\n<p>&#013; &#013; <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal prosecutors won&#8217;t take on small-time marijuana cases, despite the Justice Department&#8217;s decision to lift an Obama-era policy that discouraged U.S. authorities from cracking down on the pot trade in states where the drug is legal, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Saturday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6964,77,6815,5667,9,6855,5019,441,1,3,6963,61,1736],"tags":[6967,2655,6820,5673,6856,5022,3015,6966],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8128"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}