Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling has issued a statement regarding the legalization of recreational marijuana in the state. In the statement,\u00a0Lelling noted that while adult-use marijuana has been legalized for distribution by the state and the ball is rolling on licensing new cannabis businesses, those activities are still very illegal at the federal level.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I have a constitutional obligation to enforce the laws passed by Congress, I will not effectively immunize the residents of the Commonwealth from federal marijuana enforcement,\u201d\u00a0Lelling\u00a0said in the statement<\/a>. \u201cMy office\u2019s resources, however, are primarily focused on combating the opioid epidemic that claims thousands of lives in the Commonwealth each year.\u201d<\/p>\n Lelling went on to outline the areas where cannabis companies can expect to still see enforcement, given the experience of the federal Department of Justice in other states. He started by claiming that the overproduction of cannabis could still create a significant risk for diversion to other states, despite the best efforts of regulators trying to clamp down.<\/p>\n \u201cThese out-of-state sales are nearly always cash transactions and so often involve federal tax fraud designed to hide the illicit cash or its true source,\u201d said Lelling.<\/p>\n The other two areas of focus he outlined were targeted sales to minors \u2014 already an ultra-red flag and dealbreaker anywhere you can sell marijuana \u2014 along with targeting international criminal organizations. He even made a reference to MS-13, an international gang that originated in Los Angeles recently making headlines thanks to President Donald Trump\u2019s rhetoric against immigrants from Central America. Taking the marijuana industry out of the hands of international criminal organizations was one of the big selling points of legalization in the first place, which Lelling did not acknowledge.<\/p>\n Those preparing Massachusetts for recreational marijuana think they\u2019ve already covered those concern areas that Lelling identified, as many states have done before them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Speaking for herself, Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission member Shaleen Title told Cannabis Now, \u201cWe appreciate the U.S. Attorney\u2019s statement. During the Commission\u2019s regulatory process, we put in place strong mechanisms to address the priorities the U.S. Attorney has identified, and intend to enforce our regulations vigorously.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside the Commonwealth, industry experts are betting regulators surely checked the boxes covered by the U.S. attorney.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite his misleading claims that use by minors is going to increase, Mr. Lelling seems to simply reiterate what federal prosecutors in Colorado and other legal states already know \u2014 that it is a waste of resources to target cannabis businesses operating in compliance with state law,\u201d\u00a0National Cannabis Industry Association\u00a0<\/a>Media Relations Director Morgan Fox told Cannabis Now. \u201cAs it becomes clearer to him that members of this heavily regulated industry also have an interest in preventing the types of activity he is worried about, he will find that there will be little to no work for him to do that involves licensed cannabis businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0Marijuana Policy Project<\/a>\u00a0also found Lelling\u2019s approach to be in line with recent moves by other federal attorneys in districts where cannabis is now legal.<\/p>\n \u201cThe U.S. attorney\u2019s statement does not appear to stray very far from the enforcement guidelines that were laid out in the Cole Memo back in 2013,\u201d MPP Spokesperson Mason Tvert told Cannabis Now. \u201cLike that Obama-era guidance, he identifies certain priority areas on which he intends to focus enforcement efforts. Fortunately, these priority areas are all being addressed by state and local laws and regulations, and licensed businesses have generally demonstrated a strong desire to follow them.\u201d<\/p>\n Tvert is hopeful that Lelling will \u201cstick to his word, focus his office\u2019s drug-related enforcement efforts on the opioid epidemic and leave marijuana enforcement primarily to state and local governments.\u201d<\/p>\n Massachusetts issued its\u00a0first recreational marijuana license<\/a>\u00a0last month to cultivators Sira Naturals. Earlier this month, the\u00a0first retail license was awarded<\/a>\u00a0to a Leicester storefront called Cultivate. They will be able to sell marijuana to adults after they finish the final phase of licensing.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>,\u00a0do you think the federal government should interfere with state cannabis?<\/p>\n The post The DOJ Warns Massachusetts Over Legal Pot Program, But Says Opioid Epidemic a Priority<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling has issued a statement regarding the legalization of recreational marijuana in the state. In the statement,\u00a0Lelling noted that while adult-use marijuana has been legalized for distribution by the state and the ball is rolling on licensing new cannabis businesses, those activities are still very illegalContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[363,50,897,814,485,90,292,25,1334,1419,356],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27756,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27755\/revisions\/27756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: The DOJ Warns Massachusetts Over Legal Pot Program, But Says Opioid Epidemic a Priority<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"