Washington vows to fight feds on any legal marijuana crackdown

Washington vows to fight feds on any legal marijuana crackdown

WASHINGTON Officials in Washington state, where recreational marijuana is legal, vow to fight any federal crackdown on the nascent industry after White House spokesman Sean Spicer said they should expect to see stepped-up enforcement of anti-pot laws.

Bob Ferguson, attorney general in Washington state, which joined Colorado in 2012 as the first states to legalize recreational use of the drug, said he requested a meeting last week with Attorney General Jeff Sessions about his approach to legal, regulated marijuana.

We will resist any efforts to thwart the will of the voters in Washington, Ferguson said Thursday.

The comments came shortly after Spicer offered the Trump administrations strongest indication to date of a looming crackdown on recreational pot, saying I do believe youll see greater enforcement of federal law. But, speaking in response to a question at a news conference, he offered no details about what such enforcement would entail.

President Donald Trump does not oppose medical marijuana, Spicer added, but thats very different than recreational use, which is something the Department of Justice will be further looking into.

A renewed focus on recreational marijuana in states that have legalized pot would present a departure from the Trump administrations statements in favor of states rights. A day earlier, the administration announced that the issue of transgender student bathroom access was best left to states and local communities to decide.

Enforcement would also shift away from marijuana policy under the Obama administration, which said in a 2013 memo that it would not intervene in states marijuana laws as long as they keep the drug from crossing state lines and away from children and drug cartels.

But the memo carried no force of law and could be rewritten by Sessions, who has consistently said he opposes legal marijuana but has not indicated what he might do.

Eight states and Washington, D.C., have legalized marijuana for recreational use. The Justice Department has several options available should it decide to enforce the law, including filing lawsuits on the grounds that state laws regulating pot are unconstitutional because they are pre-empted by federal law. Enforcement could also be as simple as directing U.S. attorneys to send letters to recreational marijuana businesses letting them know they are breaking the law.

Kevin Sabet, head of the anti-marijuana group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said pot enforcement is a matter of public safety.

The current situation is unsustainable, he said in a statement. This isnt an issue about states rights, its an issue of public health and safety for communities.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Ferguson, the states attorney general, sent a letter last week to Sessions asking to discuss the issue and laying out the states arguments for keeping its regulated market in place.

Our states efforts to regulate the sale of marijuana are succeeding, they wrote in the letter, which was released Thursday. A few years ago, the illegal trafficking of marijuana lined the pockets of criminals everywhere. Now, in our state, illegal trafficking activity is being displaced by a closely regulated marijuana industry that pays hundreds of millions of dollars in ...

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