Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced this week that the federal government would no longer be acting on the policies for Marijuana set forth by previous president Barack Obama. Whereas Obama opted to allow states to determine the legal status of marijuana within their borders, Sessions will instruct attorney generals in each state to decide if the federal law will take precedent over the state law.
The sudden abrupt change, despite the overwhelming public momentum in favor of legalization, is sure to add major confusion for a variety of people. From those who use marijuana medically and grow their own, to legitimate businesses that now find themselves operating illegally, it is hard to tell who will be targeted.
Is marijuana illegal again?
This is where the recent decision-making is confusing everyone. To be honest, it is completely unclear what the true legality of marijuana is at this time.
Attorney General Sessions has gone on the record that he regards marijuana to be equally as addicting and dangerous as heroin.
This type of fear mongering scare tactic is what originally made marijuana illegal during the days of "Reefer Maddness." It is unfathomable to believe that the general public would agree so easily as they did then.
Currently, support for full marijuana legalization in the United States is somewhere north of 60%. The momentum of support has been exponentially increasing in recent years.
What Sessions believes
With Sessions believing that marijuana is basically the devil, it is hard to see who exactly he is targeting with this policy change. Instructing everyday officers to begin policing marijuana use in the same manner that they did before their respective states legalized it would be counterproductive at best.
The complaints about wasting resources and manpower on issues like marijuana when they could be better served elsewhere in the community is well documented, and going back to targeting small time users seems unlikely.
The real concern is with the blossoming marijuana industry in Colorado and California. There was already a time where everyday business owners would be arrested and their businesses raided and shut down for violating federal law even though they were abiding by state law. This is what prompted Obama to interject and declare that states have a right to police this issue as they see fit.
Now that we've gone back in time to the wild west days of marijuana regulation, it is going to be a scary time for those profiting from what is supposed to be one of America's biggest tax revenue generators.