This story was updated Jan. 4 at 3:49 p.m.
[U].S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded an Obama-era policy that shielded states with legalized marijuana from federal action Thursday.
The direction came at the same time that lawmakers in Vermont debated a measure that would legalize possession of one ounce of marijuana and home cultivation of two plants. The bill appears poised for full passage in the first few weeks of the session.
Under a 2013 Obama administration memo, federal prosecutors were directed to place a low priority on enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states that had legalized the drug.
Sessions has reversed that decision in a memo issued Thursday. He wrote that the previous guidance on marijuana is “unnecessary” and declared it is rescinded “effective immediately.”
The U.S. attorney general said federal laws banning cultivation, sale and possession of pot “reflect Congress’s determination that marijuana is a dangerous drug and that marijuana activity is a serious crime.”
Christina Nolan, the recently named U.S. attorney for Vermont, said she believes the Sessions guidance “clarifies the broad discretion” federal prosecutors have in jurisdictions across the country.
She said she plans to continue to prioritize cases as she has in the past, including under the Obama-era memo. It is possible her office would take a marijuana case depending on the facts involved. “We have to take every case as it arises,” she said.
However, Nolan said her priorities are focusing resources on the opiate crisis and quelling what she perceives to be an increase in drug cases involving stimulants, such as crack cocaine or methamphetamine.
Nolan said the bill the Legislature is considering on legalization also will not change her approach to federal marijuana enforcement.
“We’re going to follow the principles we’ve always followed, which is focusing on what the state needs,” Nolan said. “What the Legislature does or doesn’t do this week is not going to change the way we decide what cases need to be addressed on a federal level.”
Asked whether the memo would change her office’s approach to the medical marijuana dispensary system in place in Vermont, Nolan responded: “It will not change the way that we evaluate … which drug cases should be charged by my office.”
Sessions’ move could jeopardize the marijuana industry that has grown in the six states that allow the recreational sale of the drug. California just began allowing legal sales on Monday. It also increases murkiness about the federal approach to enforcement in states where possession and cultivation have been legalized.
Two states plus Washington, D.C., have legalized without allowing sales — similar to the model currently up for debate in Vermont. More than a dozen other states, including Vermont, have decriminalized pot, and a majority of states allow marijuana for medical purposes.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., lambasted the announcement in a statement, firing back at a claim Sessions made that pot is “only slightly less awful” than heroin.
“No, Attorney General Sessions. Marijuana is not the same as heroin,” Sanders said in a statement Thursday. “No one who has seriously studied the issue believes that marijuana should be classified as a Schedule 1 drug beside killer drugs like heroin. Quite the contrary.”
“We should allow states the right to move toward the decriminalization of marijuana, not reverse the progress that has been made in recent years,” he continued.
In a series of posts on Twitter, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said called Sessions’ announcement “a terrible, facts-backwards decision.”
In 2013, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I held a hearing on the conflict betw. federal laws and evolving state laws on marijuana. That hg. prompted DOJ to release the Cole memo. Rescinding that memo is a terrible, facts-backwards decision by Atty Gen Sessions.
— Sen. Patrick Leahy (@SenatorLeahy) January 4, 2018
(2/4) Make no mistake, the Cole memo NEVER PREVENTED the gov from going after bad actors, like those who traffic marijuana to minors or across state lines. ONLY reason to rescind the memo is because the AG wants to target patients & businesses that are COMPLIANT with state laws.
— Sen. Patrick Leahy (@SenatorLeahy) January 4, 2018
(3/4) We need to protect the patients and dispensaries in the 46 states with medical marijuana and CBD laws. As Vice Chair of Appropriations, I offered an amdt in Committee to do just that – and it was approved with a bipartisan voice vote.
— Sen. Patrick Leahy (@SenatorLeahy) January 4, 2018
(4/4) I’m now fighting to include my amdt in the final omnibus Approps bill so we can protect patients and law-abiding businesses. With an AG determined to waste finite DOJ resources to prosecute even those who are compliant with state law, this amdt is more important than ever
— Sen. Patrick Leahy (@SenatorLeahy) January 4, 2018
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said in a statement that Sessions “cast aside a longstanding Republican principle of deference to the states in order to impose his misguided moral judgment on the medical and recreational use of marijuana.”
He argued the federal government should defer to states on this issue.
Vermont Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, a Progressive/Democrat, derided the federal decision in a statement.
“Another day, another dysfunctional move by the Trump administration,” Ashe said. “Attorney General Sessions, who actually believes marijuana is comparable to heroin, has just introduced a new level of uncertainty for dozens of states, including many red ones. Apparently, he’s more troubled by an 80-year-old using medical marijuana to treat a terminal health condition than he is by coordinating election strategy with Russians.”
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, a leading proponent of reforming Vermont’s marijuana laws, said the Justice Department’s change in direction does not alter his opinion on legalization.
“I don’t know what possibly the federal government has in mind, if they’re going to bring marshals in to seize California,” Sears said.
Sears does not anticipate the action will impact the bill the Vermont Legislature is currently considering, because that proposal does not create a legalized market. However, Sears said he stands by his support for establishing a tax-and-regulate structure.
“I just wish the federal government would stay out of the way,” he said.
Opponents of legalized marijuana celebrated the announcement.
Kevin Sabet of Smart Approaches to Marijuana — a group that has been active in opposing legalization proposals in Vermont — lauded the Justice Department’s move.
“This is a good day for public health. The days of safe harbor for multimillion-dollar pot investments are over,” he said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Gov. Phil Scott said the administration was aware of the new guidance but that the governor had not looked into it deeply. Scott’s priority for the day was on the State of the State address, to be delivered Thursday afternoon, she said.
