U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland says that the Justice Department is \u201cexamining\u201d marijuana policy and will be addressing the issue \u201cin the days ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comments come in response to one of several questions that Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) submitted to the nation\u2019s top prosecutor as a follow-up to a congressional hearing that was held in April<\/a>.<\/p>\n The senator wanted to know whether DOJ intended to reissue Obama-era guidance to federal prosecutors on cannabis enforcement priorities, which generally urged discretion in marijuana cases in states and territories where the plant is legal, that was rescinded under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n Garland didn\u2019t directly answer the question. Rather, he more vaguely revealed that \u201cthe Department is examining a range of issues that relate to marijuana and its production, sale, and use, and we intend to address these issues in the days ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n He also reiterated that he feels that federal \u201cenforcement resources are not put to their best use prosecuting nonviolent, low-level marijuana offenses, even in jurisdictions where marijuana use remains illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWith respect to those jurisdictions where marijuana use and sales are lawfully regulated, there is even greater reason to conserve prosecutorial resources so that we can focus our attention on violent crimes and other crimes that cause societal harm and endanger our communities,\u201d he said in the response to Schatz, which was noted earlier by Politico.<\/p>\n In a related development, the White House drug czar also said this week that the Biden administration is \u201cmonitoring\u201d states that have legalized marijuana<\/a> to inform federal policy, recognizing the failures of the current prohibitionist approach.<\/p>\n Presumably, given Garland\u2019s consistent stance on cannabis enforcement priorities<\/a>, DOJ under Biden isn\u2019t planning to change course and crack down on state-legal industries. But it\u2019s unclear if the attorney general is hinting at plans to provide specific updated guidance on the issue that could give assurances to states that have opted to legalize.<\/p>\n President Joe Biden campaigned on a cannabis platform of decriminalization, rescheduling, respecting states\u2019 rights and other modest reforms, though he remains opposed to adult-use legalization and has\u00a0yet to take meaningful action on his prior pledges<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing where Schatz first raised the question of a possible reissuing of the Cole or Wilkinson memos, Garland said that the Justice Department \u201chas almost never prosecuted use of marijuana, and it\u2019s not going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Marijuana prosecutions are \u201cnot an efficient use of the resources given the opioid and methamphetamine epidemic that we have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Garland\u2019s reaffirmation of the Justice Department\u2019s discretionary enforcement protocol for marijuana at the hearing came on the same day that President Joe Biden made his first clemency action<\/a>\u00a0since taking office more than a year ago. The president granted clemency to dozens of people with non-violent federal drug convictions on their records.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers filed a bill in April that would direct the attorney general to create a commission charged with making recommendations on a regulatory system for marijuana<\/a>\u00a0that models what\u2019s currently in place for alcohol.<\/p>\n Reps. Dave Joyce (R-OH), Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Brian Mast (R-FL) teamed up on what\u2019s titled the Preparing Regulators Effectively for a Post-Prohibition Adult-Use Regulated Environment Act (PREPARE) Act\u2014an incremental reform meant to inform comprehensive cannabis policy changes in the future.<\/p>\n While Garland has made clear that he doesn\u2019t feel it\u2019s appropriate to federally prosecute people who use marijuana, he hasn\u2019t acted on calls from certain lawmakers to\u00a0initiate the process to decriminalize marijuana<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, efforts in Congress to end federal cannabis prohibition are ongoing.<\/p>\n In April, the House for the second time passed a comprehensive legalization bill<\/a>, the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act. On the Senate side, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and colleagues are working to finalize similar legislation, which they plan to file ahead of the August recess.<\/p>\n High-level talks are reportedly underway for an alternative, and arguably more passable, approach, with bicameral and bipartisan lawmakers discussing the possibility of moving a package of incremental cannabis reform measures<\/a> that would stop short of descheduling marijuana.<\/p>\n Separately, several Republican members of Congress\u00a0introduced a bill last November to federally legalize and tax marijuana<\/a>\u00a0as an alternative to far-reaching Democratic-led reform proposals and scaled-down GOP cannabis descheduling legislation. The sponsor of that bill, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), said she expects a committee hearing on her proposal.<\/p>\n Mace won her primary race on Tuesday<\/a>, which advocates view as positive news, as it positions her to champion reform should Republicans win a majority in the House following the November midterm election.<\/p>\n Read DOJ\u2019s response<\/a> to Schatz\u2019s marijuana guidance question below:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Top Federal Drug Agency Wants To Create A National Medical Marijuana Registry To Track How Patients Use Cannabis<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Attorney General Says Justice Department Will Address Marijuana Issues \u2018In The Days Ahead\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland says that the Justice Department is \u201cexamining\u201d marijuana policy and will be addressing the issue \u201cin the days ahead.\u201d The comments come in response to one of several questions that Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) submitted to the nation\u2019s top prosecutor as a follow-up to aContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55281"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55282,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55281\/revisions\/55282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Attorney General Says Justice Department Will Address Marijuana Issues \u2018In The Days Ahead\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"