Cannabis chaos — Sessions has no exit strategy for his war on drugs
The Cole Memo was a strategic retreat from a full-frontal assault on marijuana criminalization
Sunday, January 7, 2018
One of the great social and political experiments of this decade, marijuana legalization, faces its greatest existential threat: Jeff Sessions. Twenty-nine states have exercised their rights and legalized marijuana for medical or adult use, despite marijuana possession remaining a federal crime. The anti-commandeering doctrine, long recognized as part of the 10 amendment, protects states from having to use resources to enforce federal law. State laws contradicting federal laws come at the cost of political and policy tensions that can only be eased by federal guidance. For the last four years, that relied on Obama era guidance like the Cole Memo’s objectives and goals as a way to proceed with state-legal marijuana without fear of overreaching federal intervention. (See also: Attorney General’s Memorandum on Federal Marijuana Enforcement: Possible Impacts)
