U.S Attorney General Jeff Sessions is ending an Obama-era policy that kept federal law enforcement from prosecuting federal marijuana laws, a move that could disrupt the new cannabis industry states like Massachusetts..
Harvard Law School lecturer and retired federal judge Nancy Gertner says there’s a misconception that Sessions is ordering new US Attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling to prosecute federal drug laws to the fullest.
“That is not what he said. He said only you could make it a priority if you chose, but you don’t have to,” Gertner said.
In a statement released Thursday, Lelling’s office said it will pursue federal marijuana crimes as a way to reduce violent crime and fight criminal gangs. Lelling will use discretion to go after bulk cultivators and traffickers based on available resources and impact on the community, his office said.
Gertner thinks the move by Sessions is more symbolic than real, adding that some prosecutors could crack down harder in states that haven’t legalized the drug, but that it’s very unlikely to happen in a jurisdiction that favors legalization.
“You can make it a priority, I suppose under the Sessions guidance, but nobody will, particularly in the states in which marijuana is legal,” Gertner said.
Braintree Rep. Mark Cusack, the House Chairman of the Legislature’s marijuana committee, is skeptical that federal courts could keep up with marijuana cases should the Sessions Justice Department start prosecuting federal drug laws in places with clear legalization on the state level.
‘It might be more of a mission statement than an actual new government policy that’s on the ground and effective. And it flies in the face of why voters wanted to legalize it, [which] is to get it out of the black market, to have it regulated and taxed,” Cusack said.
credit:news.wgbh.org
