10 ms·

What are the headaches and how do they solve it? Just interested what it means in practice with different state and federal laws.

by Kiro 4y ago

danso 4y ago
Here's an ancient example from 2013: https://www.denverpost.com/2013/08/29/federal-government-wont-block-colorado-marijuana-legalization/ https://www.denverpost.com/2013/08/29/federal-government-won... > Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole wrote in a memo sent Thursday to federal prosecutors that it will not be a priority to block landmark marijuana-legalization laws in the two states. The federal government also will not make it a priority to close down recreational marijuana stores, so long as the stores abide by state regulations, according to the memo. The Attorney General de-prioritizing a crime sounds like a cop-out, but eliminating the incentive for federal agents to chase down a type of crime means those agents effectively won't enforce those laws...because they'll get dinged for wasting time that should be spent on actual priorities. Here's an example of how the federal restriction can still be a pain to Colorado pot stores: > Because pot is still illegal federally, banks will likely continue to refuse marijuana business accounts, employers can continue to fire workers who smoke pot off-the-job and marijuana users who receive federal aid or live in federal housing will remain at risk. IIRC, it wasn't at all uncommon for state residents to think that they could smoke worry free b/c of state legalization, only to realize too late that their employer technically receives federal aid and now had the right to fire them. And even if the the U.S. Attorney General says "nah we probably won't care about that"...a lot of employers are going to err on the side of caution. Since Biden said that he's directed the government to look into things that are on the path to legalization, that mentality is likely to trickle down to every part of the government. Private employers might still be anal though.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
csa 4y ago
> What are the headaches and how do they solve it? I live in California, where marijuana is legal. The headaches here are that federal police sometimes go bonkers if they find totally minor stuff like edibles or paraphernalia during some sort of inspection or traffic stop that they do on federal land. Oh, easy, just don’t carry anything on federal land. Not so easy. - Any BLM land is federal. Some people take their guns to BLM land for shooting. Better not have any marijuana related stuff on you when you do that (even if you’re just accompanying and not shooting). - Any national park is federal land. - Some local extracurricular activities happen on federal lands. Little league sports teams, Boy Scouts, etc. Again, not that you have to be using at the time, but if you get into an accident at one of these facilities and the federal police sees the state-legal stuff in your car, you can be charged with a federal crime for that. - Any federal building and attached properties like parking lots. For example, if you’re going to the VA to pick up a friend who just had some medical treatment and have an accident, the investigating federal officer can charge you if you have state-legal marijuana goods. - Sometimes you don’t even know when you are on or are traveling through federal land, so you can’t always prepare. For example, the Laguna Seca race track is near (borders on?) federal lands with federal roads and federal police, but the scope of the federal lands is not always clearly marked. So choosing which roads you take to the track determines whether you are breaking the law or not. - Most major airports are federal. As such, even a flight from SFO to LA is supposed to be free of state-legal marijuana. I don’t know how often possession is prosecuted in these situations, but there are enough stories bouncing around that it’s slightly concerning given that, imho, the number of stories should be zero. The solution is to have the message from the top being that they don’t want to see these charges ever in CA and similar stares (waste of time), and any extracurricular behavior like roughing someone up or treating them like a criminal will result in an administrative action against the officer. I doubt this will happen soon. I think the best we can hope for is for prosecutors and senior officers to be consistently dismissive about any low key possession charges that junior officers make.
- HWR_14 4y ago
  For what it's worth, the only thing stopping the federal agents from arresting you off of federal land for a joint is that it's not a priority for them, and they aren't going to be giving you a traffic ticket to notice it in passing. If you yelled that you were smoking weed across the street from FBI headquarters but on CA land they totally could go arrest you. Or, to put it a different way. It's not that it's legal in CA. It's that the state won't do anything about it.

What are the headaches and how do they solve it? Just interested what it means in practice with different state and federal laws.

by Kiro 4y ago

What are the headaches and how do they solve it? Just interested what it means in practice with different state and federal laws.

danso 4y ago

Here's an ancient example from 2013: https://www.denverpost.com/2013/08/29/federal-government-wont-block-colorado-marijuana-legalization/ https://www.denverpost.com/2013/08/29/federal-government-won... > Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole wrote in a memo sent Thursday to federal prosecutors that it will not be a priority to block landmark marijuana-legalization laws in the two states. The federal government also will not make it a priority to close down recreational marijuana stores, so long as the stores abide by state regulations, according to the memo. The Attorney General de-prioritizing a crime sounds like a cop-out, but eliminating the incentive for federal agents to chase down a type of crime means those agents effectively won't enforce those laws...because they'll get dinged for wasting time that should be spent on actual priorities. Here's an example of how the federal restriction can still be a pain to Colorado pot stores: > Because pot is still illegal federally, banks will likely continue to refuse marijuana business accounts, employers can continue to fire workers who smoke pot off-the-job and marijuana users who receive federal aid or live in federal housing will remain at risk. IIRC, it wasn't at all uncommon for state residents to think that they could smoke worry free b/c of state legalization, only to realize too late that their employer technically receives federal aid and now had the right to fire them. And even if the the U.S. Attorney General says "nah we probably won't care about that"...a lot of employers are going to err on the side of caution. Since Biden said that he's directed the government to look into things that are on the path to legalization, that mentality is likely to trickle down to every part of the government. Private employers might still be anal though.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

csa 4y ago

> What are the headaches and how do they solve it? I live in California, where marijuana is legal. The headaches here are that federal police sometimes go bonkers if they find totally minor stuff like edibles or paraphernalia during some sort of inspection or traffic stop that they do on federal land. Oh, easy, just don’t carry anything on federal land. Not so easy. - Any BLM land is federal. Some people take their guns to BLM land for shooting. Better not have any marijuana related stuff on you when you do that (even if you’re just accompanying and not shooting). - Any national park is federal land. - Some local extracurricular activities happen on federal lands. Little league sports teams, Boy Scouts, etc. Again, not that you have to be using at the time, but if you get into an accident at one of these facilities and the federal police sees the state-legal stuff in your car, you can be charged with a federal crime for that. - Any federal building and attached properties like parking lots. For example, if you’re going to the VA to pick up a friend who just had some medical treatment and have an accident, the investigating federal officer can charge you if you have state-legal marijuana goods. - Sometimes you don’t even know when you are on or are traveling through federal land, so you can’t always prepare. For example, the Laguna Seca race track is near (borders on?) federal lands with federal roads and federal police, but the scope of the federal lands is not always clearly marked. So choosing which roads you take to the track determines whether you are breaking the law or not. - Most major airports are federal. As such, even a flight from SFO to LA is supposed to be free of state-legal marijuana. I don’t know how often possession is prosecuted in these situations, but there are enough stories bouncing around that it’s slightly concerning given that, imho, the number of stories should be zero. The solution is to have the message from the top being that they don’t want to see these charges ever in CA and similar stares (waste of time), and any extracurricular behavior like roughing someone up or treating them like a criminal will result in an administrative action against the officer. I doubt this will happen soon. I think the best we can hope for is for prosecutors and senior officers to be consistently dismissive about any low key possession charges that junior officers make.

HWR_14 4y ago
For what it's worth, the only thing stopping the federal agents from arresting you off of federal land for a joint is that it's not a priority for them, and they aren't going to be giving you a traffic ticket to notice it in passing. If you yelled that you were smoking weed across the street from FBI headquarters but on CA land they totally could go arrest you. Or, to put it a different way. It's not that it's legal in CA. It's that the state won't do anything about it.