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As far as I understand, your state says it’s legal but the federal government says it’s illegal. However, there’s a standing directive from the Justice departme
by cosmie 9y ago
As far as I understand, your state says it’s legal but the federal government says it’s illegal. However, there’s a standing directive from the Justice department that they won’t prosecute individuals complying with state laws (when those state laws legalize marijuana).
So it’s still illegal at a federal level, but the department that would ostensibly enforce that simply let it be known that they would defer to state law and not prosecute when state law legalized it.
But since it was never actually legalized at the federal level, it’s little more than a gentleman’s agreement (which could be pointed to as a valid defense if someone was prosecuted federally). But since the directive came from the executive branch, it can also revoke/revise that directive as it wants, and begin enforcing those federal laws regardless of state level legalization. Congress still has the power to pass actual laws that decriminalize it federally, but they’ve conveniently been spared from that politically charged topic by the Justice Department directive. Now they’ll be forced to address it. And with hundreds of millions of dollars in state tax revenue at stake, there will likely be more pressure to not white wash over it than their has been previously.
- PhasmaFelis 9y ago> there’s a standing directive from the Justice department that they won’t prosecute individuals complying with state laws (when those state laws legalize marijuana). Until today. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-justice-marijuana/trump-administration-drops-obama-era-easing-of-marijuana-prosecutions-idUSKBN1ET1MU https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-justice-marijuana/tru...
- lutorm 9y agoit can also revoke/revise that directive as it wants Which Sessions just did.
- dx034 9y agoDoes that the DEA will start busting shops that are legal under state law?
- dragonwriter 9y agoIt might. That happened in legalizing states prior to the policy; Rohrabacher-Farr, as long as it keeps getting renewed, legally limits this for state-authorized medical marijuana, but the effect in states with broader legalization is unclear.
- phiskk 9y agoThe state could just arrest the federal agents for breaking state law, and throw them in with the drug dealers and stall the fed's efforts to spring them with maximal paperwork. Let the 'system' sort them out and see how keen they are.
- greenleafjacob 9y agoFederal law preempts state law.
- mindcrime 9y agoOnly in regards to things where the federal government has authority to begin with. There are very good reasons (the Enumerated Powers clause, the 9th and 10 amendments, etc.) to question if the federal government actually has all the authority it claims for itself.
- greenleafjacob 9y agoThat’s true, but it’s been squarely presented and decided in Reich v Gonzales, relying on Wickard v Filburn that Congress does have this power. And through application of stare decisis / precedent it will be difficult to undo that.
- imbur 9y agoNo, what Sessions specifically said is it will be up to the state attorneys. In most cases their goals are aligned with the citizens who voted these laws into place.