WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration threw the burgeoning movement to legalize marijuana into uncertainty Thursday as it lifted an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the pot trade in states where the drug is legal. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will now leave it up to federal prosecutors to decide what to do when state rules collide with federal drug law.

Sessions’ action, just three days after a legalization law went into effect in California, threatened the future of the young industry, created confusion in states where the drug is legal and outraged both marijuana advocates and some members of Congress, including Sessions’ fellow Republicans. Many conservatives are wary of what they see as federal intrusion in areas they believe must be left to the states.

Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, who represents Colorado, one of eight states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use, said the change contradicts a pledge Sessions made to him before being confirmed as attorney general. Gardner promised to push legislation to protect marijuana sales, saying he was prepared “to take all steps necessary” to fight the change, including holding up the confirmation of Justice Department nominees. Another Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, called the announcement “disruptive” and “regrettable.”

Colorado’s U.S. attorney, Bob Troyer, said his office won’t change its approach to prosecution, despite Sessions’ guidance. Prosecutors there have always focused on marijuana crimes that “create the greatest safety threats” and will continue to be guided by that, Troyer said.

The largely hands-off approach to marijuana enforcement set forth by Barack Obama’s Justice Department allowed the pot business to flourish into a sophisticated, multimillion-dollar industry that helps fund some state government programs. What happens now is in doubt.

“In deciding which marijuana activities to prosecute under these laws with the Department’s finite resources, prosecutors should follow the well-established principles that govern all federal prosecutions,” considering the seriousness of a crime and its impact on the community, Sessions told prosecutors in a one-page memo.

While Sessions, a longtime marijuana foe, has been carrying out a Justice Department agenda that follows Trump’s top priorities on such issues as immigration and opioids, this change reflects his own concerns. He railed against marijuana as an Alabama senator and has assailed it as comparable to heroin.

Trump, as a candidate, said pot should be left up to the states, but his personal views on marijuana remain largely unknown.

It is not clear how the change might affect states where marijuana is legal for medical purposes. A congressional amendment blocks the Justice Department from interfering with medical marijuana programs in states where it is allowed. Justice officials said they would follow the law, but would not preclude the possibility of medical-marijuana related prosecutions.

Officials wouldn’t say whether federal prosecutors would target marijuana shops and legal growers, nor would they speculate on whether pot prosecutions would increase.

They denied the timing was connected to the opening of California sales, which are projected to bring in $1 billion annually in tax revenue within several years. And, the officials said, Thursday’s action might not be the only step toward greater marijuana enforcement. The department has the authority to sue states on the grounds that state laws regulating pot are unconstitutional, pre-empted by federal law.

Asked about the change, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said only that Trump’s top priority is enforcing federal law “and that is regardless of what the topic is, whether it’s marijuana or whether it’s immigration.”

The Obama administration in 2013 announced it would not stand in the way of states that legalize marijuana, so long as officials acted to keep it from migrating to places where it remained outlawed and keep it out of the hands of criminal gangs and children. That memo, written by then-Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, had cleared up some of the uncertainty about how the federal government would respond as states began allowing sales for recreational and medical purposes.

But the Sessions Justice Department believed the Cole memo created a “safe harbor” for marijuana by allowing states to flout federal law, Justice Department officials said. Sessions, in his memo, called the Obama guidance “unnecessary.”

He and some law enforcement officials in states such as Colorado blame legalization for a number of problems, including drug traffickers who have taken advantage to illegally grow and ship the drug across state lines, where it can sell for much more.

Marijuana advocates argue those concerns are overblown and contend legalizing the drug reduces crime by eliminating the need for a black market. They quickly condemned Sessions’ move as a return to outdated drug-war policies that unduly affected minorities.

Sessions “wants to maintain a system that has led to tremendous injustice ... and that has wasted federal resources on a huge scale,” said Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “If Sessions thinks that makes sense in terms of prosecutorial priorities, he is in a very bizarre ideological state, or a deeply problematic one.”

But the decision was a win for marijuana opponents who had been urging Sessions to take action.

“There is no more safe haven with regard to the federal government and marijuana, but it’s also the beginning of the story and not the end,” said Kevin Sabet, president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, who was among several anti-marijuana advocates who met with Sessions last month. “This is a victory. It’s going to dry up a lot of the institutional investment that has gone toward marijuana in the last five years.”

Yet confusion remains.

Jane Stinson, part-owner of the retail marijuana shop Enlighten Alaska in Anchorage, called Thursday’s action confusing and worried that it could harm her business. The change, she said, “can have so many ripple effects we just don’t know.”

The change reflects yet another way in which Sessions, who served as a federal prosecutor at the height of the drug war in Mobile, Alabama, has reversed more lenient Obama-era criminal justice policies. While his Democratic predecessor Eric Holder told federal prosecutors to avoid seeking long mandatory minimum sentences when charging certain lower-level drug offenders, for example, Sessions issued an order demanding the opposite, telling them to pursue the most serious charges possible against most suspects.

A task force Sessions convened to study pot policy made no recommendations for upending the legal industry but instead encouraged Justice officials to keep reviewing the Obama administration’s more hands-off approach, something Sessions promised to do.

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Associated Press writers Nicholas Riccardi and Kathleen Foody contributed from Denver.</s>In another misguided move by Trump’s administration, AG Jeff Sessions ended an Obama-era policy that kept the feds out of the way of states legalizing marijuana.

It’s not news that, for surely some ridiculous reason, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has a personal crusade against marijuana. He took things a dangerous step forward, however, when he declared an end to a rule President Barack Obama put in place, stating that there would be no interference with marijuana-friendly states on a federal level. While many states have legalized marijuana use, including California just this week, the drug is still illegal under federal law, which obviously has created a longstanding conflict between federal and state law.

The Obama-era policy, known as the “Cole memo” for then-Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole, put forth a hands-off policy for federal prosecutors in states that had decriminalized the use of weed for medical and recreational use. However, Jeff Sessions announced in a Jan. 4th 2018 memo that instructed “all U.S. Attorneys to enforce the laws enacted by Congress and to follow well-established principles when pursuing prosecutions related to marijuana activities. This return to the rule of law is also a return of trust and local control to federal prosecutors who know where and how to deploy Justice Department resources most effectively to reduce violent crime, stem the tide of the drug crisis, and dismantle criminal gangs.

“It is the mission of the Department of Justice to enforce the laws of the United States, and the previous issuance of guidance undermines the rule of law and the ability of our local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement partners to carry out this mission,” the Attorney General said in the memo. “Therefore, today’s memo on federal marijuana enforcement simply directs all U.S. Attorneys to use previously established prosecutorial principles that provide them all the necessary tools to disrupt criminal organizations, tackle the growing drug crisis, and thwart violent crime across our country.”

Recreational marijuana use has been legal in seven states – Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine — and in the District of Columbia. There are also medical marijuana programs in 28 other states, according to NBC News.

The 71-year-old Jeff Sessions’ hatred for marijuana is well known. He was once accused of telling fellow lawmakers that he thought the Klu Klux Klan was okay “until I found out that they smoked pot.” He also went on record stating that he thinks marijuana is only slightly less horrible than heroin. “I realize this may be an unfashionable belief in a time of growing tolerance of drug use. But too many lives are at stake to worry about being fashionable,” Jeff said in March 2017, according to Time. “I reject the idea that America will be a better place if marijuana is sold in every corner store. And I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuana — so people can trade one life-wrecking dependency for another that’s only slightly less awful. Our nation needs to say clearly once again that using drugs will destroy your life.”

The Attorney General’s claims were immediately denounced by actual experts. “The statement flies in the face of the science,” said Dr. Donald Abrams, a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California San Francisco, told Time. “No one has died from an overdose of cannabis. There’s abundant evidence that it is a useful intervention for chronic pain, and we may see it’s useful in harm reduction.”

In Jan. 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released a committee review of the health impacts of cannabis and found substantial evidence to suggest the drug can help people with people dealing with chronic pain – which could be an alternative to opioids. With today’s announcement, it seems that Sessions will not only set up a states vs. federal government showdown over drug laws, but he may also make the opioid crisis in America worse.

HollywoodLifers, what do you think about the Attorney General’s decision today.</s>Dispensary owners and cannabis growers may suddenly be sleeping more restlessly.

Though setting up a pot shop has always been an uncertain business, memos issued by the Department of Justice under President Obama gave people in the industry some assurance that if they were abiding by state laws, they were at small risk of federal prosecution. But on Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded those memos, allowing federal prosecutors to enforce federal marijuana laws more aggressively and sending ripples of unease throughout the burgeoning industry.

“A lot of folks in the business and broader society didn’t realize how tenuous the Obama Administration’s safe space was,” says the California Growers Association’s Hezekiah Allen, who represents hundreds of cannabis farmers in a state where recreational pot went on sale for the first time just four days ago. As more states have legalized marijuana and more people have publicly set up marijuana businesses, Allen says, “there is much more exposure to risk than there ever has been.”

Nearly 30 states have legalized medical marijuana. Eight states — which represent about a quarter of America’s population — have legalized recreational marijuana, allowing adults to consume it much like they consume alcohol. But cannabis remains a dangerous drug in the eyes of the federal government. Sessions himself has said the substance is “not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized.” And in announcing the changes, the Justice Department emphasized in a press release that there would be “a return to the rule of law.” Yet the disconnect between federal and state laws on the issue remains unchanged.

Sam Kamin, a marijuana law expert at the University of Denver, says that the changes may essentially give U.S. attorneys around the country “unfettered discretion” to bring cases, but that “it’s not clear how those U.S. attorneys would exercise that discretion.” Michael Vitiello, a criminal law expert at the University of the Pacific, emphasizes that Justice Department resources remain limited and believes that issues like immigration and opioid misuse will remain higher priorities.

“Right now, it’s chaotic,” Vitiello says of marijuana markets, “and this just adds a lot more uncertainty.”

California is still getting its recreational market up and running, and Allen says that some cannabis growers are suddenly reconsidering their applications for state licenses — thinking that staying in the gray or black markets might be the safer course after all. Even if vigorous enforcement and raids never materialize, the Justice Department changes are likely going to slow investment in the so-called “green rush” and dissuade some people from setting up new marijuana businesses.

“Investments are less secure,” says Vitiello. “They were insecure anyway, but potential forfeiture of assets and criminal prosecutions all make legitimate business more difficult.” When cannabis producers exit the black market and do all the paperwork required to participate in legal state markets, he adds, “what they’re saying is ‘Here I am.'” And while federal drug enforcement agents might be in limited supply, it takes few resources to send chilling cease-and-desist letters, he says.

Recreational marijuana may be more at risk than medical marijuana. For the last several years, a federal budget provision has prevented the Justice Department from using funds to disrupt medical marijuana markets that have been legalized by states. As Congress inches toward passing a budget for 2018, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are pushing for that provision to be renewed. And some advocates for marijuana reform believe that rescinding the memos may actually make it easier for their side to win support. “It is a galvanizing moment,” says Grant Smith of the Drug Policy Alliance.

On a conference call Thursday afternoon, several members of the congressional Cannabis Caucus criticized the move by Sessions and argued that the changes only underscore the need for reform at the federal level that will clearly leave this issue up to states and local governments. The lawmakers said that people rely on medical marijuana to treat debilitating conditions, and that tens of thousands of individuals now rely on legal sales of cannabis to make a living. “We’re not going to allow the clock to be turned back,” said California Rep. Barbara Lee, noting that minorities have been disproportionately affected by the enforcement of drug laws.

Also on the call was Colorado Rep. Jared Polis, who has introduced a provision that would also prohibit Justice Department funds from being used to disrupt recreational markets. So far, the measure has found little traction in a Republican-controlled Congress.

Working against broad reform are advocacy groups that oppose legalization, like Smart Approaches to Marijuana. On Thursday, their leader Kevin Sabet applauded Justice Department’s decision, telling the New York that “It puts the industry on notice in these states who thought they had cover from the states and the feds.”

The law firm of Vicente Sederberg, which counsels clients who run marijuana businesses in Colorado, was fielding calls on Thursday from people wondering about what might come next. Mason Tvert, who has long advocated for the reform of marijuana laws and handles media relations for the firm, says they have been emphasizing that “it remains to be seen if there will actually be any changes in enforcement.” The changes are causing confusion, he says, “but we don’t expect to see any full-blown rollback of the system.”

Lawmakers from states that have legalized the substance have suggested that a crackdown could prove unpopular, going against the decisions of voters in places from Oregon to Nevada. “With no prior notice to Congress, the Justice Department has trampled on the will of the voters in [Colorado] and other states,” Republican Sen. Cory Gardner said in a tweet condemning Sessions’ move. Support for legalization has been growing in recent years, reaching a record high of 64% in October, according to Gallup. Last year was the first time that a majority of Republicans — 51% — expressed approval.

The potential for profits may also prove to be a buffer, especially under an administration that is resoundingly pro-business. While Sessions has criticized legalization, as has Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly, the President has said previously that the issue should be left to the states. “Remember that the money is not red money or blue money,” Vitiello says of investments in the space. “It is green money.”

If nothing else, Sessions has issued a strong reminder that marijuana remains controversial, even if the first sales of recreational marijuana in California were met with a rather blase attitude on New Year’s Day. Laws such as the Controlled Substances Act, the Attorney General said in his memo, “reflect Congress’ determination that marijuana is a dangerous drug and that marijuana activity is a serious crime.”</s>Sessions To Reverse Policy That Opened Door For States To Legalize Marijuana

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is going to rescind the policy that allowed legal marijuana to blossom in states across the country. AP reporter Sadie Gurman explains the move.</s>WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions is rescinding an Obama-era policy that paved the way for legalized marijuana to flourish in states across the country, creating new confusion about enforcement and use just three days after a new legalization law went into effect in California.

President Donald Trump’s top law enforcement official was to announce the change Thursday, people with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press. Instead of the previous lenient-federal-enforcement policy, Sessions’ new stance will instead let federal prosecutors where marijuana is legal decide how aggressively to enforce longstanding federal law prohibiting it, the people said.

Sessions’ plan drew immediate strong objection from Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, one of eight states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use.

Gardner said in a tweet that the Justice Department “has trampled on the will of the voters” in Colorado and other states. He said the action would contradict what Sessions had told him before the attorney general was confirmed and that he was prepared “to take all steps necessary” to fight the step including holding up the confirmation of Justice Department nominees.

Sessions is rescinding the policy by president Barack Obama’s Justice Department that has generally barred federal law enforcement officials from interfering with marijuana sales in states where the drug is legal.

The people familiar with the plan spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it before the announcement.

The move by Trump’s attorney general likely is sure to add to confusion about whether it’s OK to grow, buy or use marijuana in states where the drug is legal. It comes just after shops opened in California, launching what is expected to become the world’s largest market for legal recreational marijuana and as polls show a solid majority of Americans believe the drug should be legal.

While Sessions has been carrying out a Justice Department agenda that follows Trump’s top priorities on such issues as immigration and opioids, the changes to marijuana policy reflect his own concerns. Trump’s personal views on marijuana remain largely unknown.

Sessions, who has assailed marijuana as comparable to heroin and has blamed it for spikes in violence, had been expected to ramp up enforcement. Marijuana advocates argue that legalizing the drug eliminates the need for a black market and will likely reduce violence, since criminals would no longer control the marijuana trade.

The Obama administration in 2013 announced it would not stand in the way of states that legalize marijuana, so long as officials acted to keep it from migrating to places where it remained outlawed and keep it out of the hands of criminal gangs and children. Sessions is rescinding that memo, written by then-Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, which had cleared up some of the uncertainty about how the federal government would respond as states began allowing sales for recreational and medical purposes.

The marijuana business has since become a sophisticated, multimillion-dollar industry that helps fund some government programs. Eight states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use, and California’s sales alone are projected to bring in $1 billion annually in tax revenue within several years.

Sessions’ policy will let U.S. attorneys across the country decide what kinds of federal resources to devote to marijuana enforcement based on what they see as priorities in their districts, the people familiar with the decision said.

Sessions and some law enforcement officials in states such as Colorado blame legalization for a number of problems, including drug traffickers who have taken advantage of lax marijuana laws to illegally grow and ship the drug across state lines, where it can sell for much more. The decision was a win for marijuana opponents who had been urging Sessions to take action.

“There is no more safe haven with regard to the federal government and marijuana, but it’s also the beginning of the story and not the end,” said Kevin Sabet, president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, who was among several anti-marijuana advocates who met with Sessions last month. “This is a victory. It’s going to dry up a lot of the institutional investment that has gone toward marijuana in the last five years.”

Threats of a federal crackdown have united liberals who object to the human costs of a war on pot with conservatives who see it as a states’ rights issue. Some in law enforcement support a tougher approach, but a bipartisan group of senators in March urged Sessions to uphold existing marijuana policy. Others in Congress have been seeking ways to protect and promote legal pot businesses.

Marijuana advocates quickly condemned Sessions’ move as a return to outdated drug-war policies that unduly affected minorities.

Sessions “wants to maintain a system that has led to tremendous injustice … and that has wasted federal resources on a huge scale,” said Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “If Sessions thinks that makes sense in terms of prosecutorial priorities, he is in a very bizarre ideological state, or a deeply problematic one.”

A task force Sessions convened to study pot policy made no recommendations for upending the legal industry but instead encouraged Justice Department officials to keep reviewing the Obama administration’s more hands-off approach to marijuana enforcement, something Sessions promised to do since he took office.

The change also reflects yet another way in which Sessions, who served as a federal prosecutor at the height of the drug war in Mobile, Alabama, has reversed Obama-era criminal justice policies that aimed to ease overcrowding in federal prisons and contributed to a rethinking of how drug criminals were prosecuted and sentenced. While his Democratic predecessor Eric Holder told federal prosecutors to avoid seeking long mandatory minimum sentences when charging certain lower-level drug offenders, for example, Sessions issued an order demanding the opposite, telling them to pursue the most serious charges possible against most suspects.</s>SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Just four days after a newly implemented law made recreational marijuana legal in San Diego and the rest of California, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is expected to make an announcement Thursday that could put marijuana growers, sellers and users back on the wrong side of the law, it was reported.



Sessions will make an announcement rescinding a policy implemented under President Barack Obama that allowed states to legalize the drug even though it is still prohibited by federal law, according to reports ffrom Washington, D.C. Sessions would instead allow federal prosecutors in California and other states where marijuana is legal to decide how aggressively to enforce federal marijuana laws.



The Obama-era policy, implemented in 2013, paved the way for states to legalize recreational marijuana. Federal authorities in states where the drug was legalized were told not to impede state statutes and urged only to keep it from migrating to places where it remained outlawed, and keep it out of the hands of criminal gangs and children.



But Sessions will direct U.S. attorneys in states where the drug has been legalized to decide what kind of federal resources to devote to marijuana enforcement.



The policy change could have massive implications in San Diego and the rest of the state, where the marijuana business is expected to grow into a billion-dollar industry. Under the new policy, pot shops licensed and approved by state officials could be shut down by federal officials. Growers, sellers and users complying with state statutes could face charges and punishment in federal court.



If Sessions does leave enforcement decisions in the hands of individual U.S. attorneys, some areas could see no change while other areas could see major crackdowns.



In November, Veteran federal prosecutor Adam Braverman was sworn in as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California -- which covers San Diego and Imperial counties -- following his interim appointment by Sessions.



A news release from Braverman's office praised him for spending "a significant part of his government career pursuing large-scale international drug trafficking cartels" and for leading the investigation and prosecution of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico.



Braverman's views on legalized recreational marijuana and how he might handle the mandate from Sessions was not immediately clear.</s>
• The Department of Justice looks set to crack down on states allowing recreational use and sale of marijuana, breaking with past policy.
• The expected policy change has prompted backlash from even Republicans.
• Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican, vowed to hold Trump's DOJ nominees if the issue is not resolved.



 A top Senate Republican threatened to withhold President Donald Trump's nominees to the Justice Department on Thursday after news broke that Attorney General Jeff Sessions would rescind Obama-era rules that allow recreational marijuana use and sale in certain states.

Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who is chairing the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 2018 cycle, took aim at Sessions over reports of an imminent crackdown on states not complying with federal marijuana laws, a significant departure from past commitments by the administration.

"This reported action directly contradicts what Attorney General Sessions told me prior to his confirmation," Gardner wrote on Twitter. "With no prior notice to Congress, the Justice Department has trampled on the will of the voters in CO and other states."

"I am prepared to take all steps necessary, including holding DOJ nominees, until the Attorney General lives up to the commitment he made to me prior to his confirmation," Gardner added in another tweet.

During his campaign, Trump said in an interview with Colorado media that individual states should decide their own laws regarding recreational use and sale of marijuana, adding that he would not go after Colorado and others upon becoming president.

"I'm a states person," he said. "I think it should be up to the states absolutely."

The reports of Sessions' intent to rescind the current policy comes just days after California opened recreational marijuana stores as part of their new law.</s>U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is turning a blind eye to pot no more. NPR has learned that he intends to reverse the policy that opened the door for states to legalize marijuana, even though federal law still forbids it. In 2013, the Department of Justice under President Obama issued this memo saying it would not stand in the way of states that allowed pot as long as marijuana didn't cross state lines or get into the hands of children or criminals. Jeff Sessions is expected to rescind this memo today. This, of course, comes just days after recreational marijuana became legal in California. The AP's Sadie Gurman was the first to report on this policy change, and she joins me now. Hey, Sadie.

MARTIN: Lay out, if you could, what it is specifically that the attorney general is doing here.

GURMAN: So he is basically lifting an Obama-era policy that took a sort of hands-off approach to marijuana enforcements nationwide and allowed the legal marijuana industry to flourish. So basically, in its place, he is letting U.S. attorneys across the country in pot-legal states decide whether they want to expend the limited federal resources to go after pot and that could potentially jeopardize the legal industry.

MARTIN: So Jeff Sessions has been pretty vocal about his opposition to marijuana, though, so is this necessarily a surprise?

GURMAN: This is not a surprise. I think advocates on both sides have been expecting Sessions to take some kind of an action. The pro-pot people were expecting something more dramatic, like federal raids on marijuana dispensaries and things like that. But this is a different approach that could have consequences.

MARTIN: We should remind listeners, though, Jeff Sessions is just enforcing the law - the federal law as written. And if people who support legalizing marijuana want real change, that federal law's got to be changed.

GURMAN: That's exactly right. That's what the Justice Department has always maintained. Even under the Obama administration, the Cole memo, which is the memo in question here, never, you know, said that federal law wasn't enforceable. It just laid out some parameters...

MARTIN: Guidelines for businesses in the world of pot to kind of circumvent the law.

MARTIN: So what's going to happen now? I mean, how is this announcement going to affect states that have already legalized pot?

GURMAN: Well, I think that remains to be seen. And I think a lot of it will come down to where the U.S. attorneys in each of the states stand and who the Trump administration decides to put into those positions - some of which are still open.

MARTIN: Although, in a state like California, it's unlikely that state officials would overturn what their state has already decided, how to treat marijuana.

GURMAN: Right. So I think the end result will just be, you know, additional confusion that already exists about - what is legal, what isn't legal, where can you do it, where can't you?

MARTIN: At the same time, that's going to be a deterrent, I imagine, for people who are thinking about getting into the legal pot business - just raises more questions and risks.

GURMAN: Yeah. I think that's true. A lot of the anti-pot advocates say that, you know, this will sort of discourage investment in the industry that has become a million-dollar business.

MARTIN: All right, Sadie Gurman with The Associated Press. She was the first to report on this policy change this morning. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is going to overturn - rescind an Obama-era memo that paved the way for legalizing marijuana. Sadie, thanks so much for your time this morning.</s>AN FRANCISCO (AP) — Marijuana-related stocks plummeted, cannabis boosters worried about the industry’s future and defiant growers and sellers vowed to keep operating after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions signaled a tougher approach to federal pot enforcement.

The plunging stock prices reversed a weekslong rally driven by optimism for legal recreational sales that started Monday in California. Several marijuana stocks saw double-digit losses in the hours after Sessions’ announcement, including the largest pot-producing company that is publicly traded.

Canopy Growth, a Canada-based company with the ticker symbol WEED, lost $3.58 a share, or 10 percent, to close at $32.32 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Shares of garden-supply company Scotts Miracle-Gro also skidded Thursday, following a steady rise last year after it added fertilizer, lights and other products to serve marijuana growers. The company’s share price fell by as much as 7 percent before closing down 2.3 percent, or $2.49, to $106.17 on the New York Stock Exchange.

“Jeff Sessions’ decision to rescind the Cole memoranda puts the marijuana industry and marijuana legalization efforts in a precarious position,” said Aaron Herzberg, a California lawyer and founder of the cannabis investment company CalCann Holding, referring to an Obama-era memo that limited U.S. crackdowns on pot in states where it’s legal.

Brent Kenyon, a consultant who helps advise and establish recreational marijuana businesses in Oregon, said his phone had been ringing all Thursday with calls from worried clients. Investors, including some who are involved in his businesses, are spooked, he said.

“I’m just telling people to hold off. We need more information, we need to see what the president is going to say about this,” he said by phone from a cannabis conference in Hawaii.

Andy Williams, CEO of the Medicine Man Denver dispensary, is taking a wait-and-see approach to the new policy but pointed out the economic impact of legal pot.

“This industry around the United States has attracted a lot of investment. Billions of dollars in investment,” he said. “Just talking about what Sessions wants to do today has dropped the market.”

Steve DeAngelo, owner of California’s largest marijuana retailer, said it will be “business as usual” at his Harborside dispensary in Oakland.

“I think the main impact of this is really going to be on investors, more than anything else,” he said. “Some investors might get a bit nervous about putting more money into the cannabis industry until the situation resolves itself.”

Another of California’s largest marijuana operators said it also plans no changes in response to Sessions’ announcement.

“For this industry and for this community, we are really based on resilience, going against the tide. This is no different,” said Michael Steinmetz, CEO of Flow Kana, which distributes cannabis products from small, outdoor farmers. “From my perspective, things don’t change.”</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday rescinded an Obama administration policy that had eased enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states that have legalized the drug, instead giving federal prosecutors wide latitude on pursuing criminal charges.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, known as a strong opponent of legalizing marijuana, overturned the policy but stopped short of directly encouraging U.S. prosecutors to bring marijuana cases.

His action drew immediate condemnation from marijuana legalization advocates and some lawmakers in both parties who said it trampled on the rights of voters in states where the drug is now legal and created uncertainty about how strictly federal drugs laws will be enforced.

The administration’s move also raised questions about how the new policy will impact the burgeoning marijuana industry in places like California and Colorado.

The policy put in place under Democratic former President Barack Obama, outlined by then-Deputy Attorney General James Cole, recognized marijuana as a “dangerous drug,” but said the Justice Department expected states and localities that authorized various uses of the drug to effectively regulate and police it.

“The Cole memo, as interpreted, created a safe harbor for the marijuana industry to operate in these states, and I think there is a belief that that is inconsistent with what the federal law says,” said a Justice Department official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

“Marijuana is still against federal law,” the official added.

Under the new policy, outlined in a one-page memo by Sessions, federal prosecutors around the country will have discretion to enforce the federal ban on marijuana in their own districts.

The change under Republican President Donald Trump’s administration comes just days after California formally launched the world’s largest regulated commercial market for recreational marijuana.

There has been a surge in legalization of marijuana in U.S. states in recent years. Besides California, other states that permit the regulated sale of marijuana for recreational use include Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Nevada. Massachusetts and Maine are on track to follow suit later this year.

Among companies that have invested in the industry, Scotts Miracle-Gro, a gardening product manufacturer, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire companies that sell soil, lighting, fertilizer and other products to marijuana growers. Shares in the company dropped 3.8 percent to $104.54 after the news of the policy shift, before paring losses later in the morning. Several Canadian marijuana-related stocks also fell sharply.

The policy being reversed had sought to provide more clarity on how prosecutors would enforce federal laws that ban marijuana in states that have legalized it for medicinal or recreational use.

Sessions has made no secret about his disdain for marijuana. He has said the drug is harmful and should not be legalized, and has also called it a gateway drug for opioid addicts.

A task force created under a February 2017 executive order by Trump and comprised of prosecutors and other law enforcement officials was supposed to study marijuana enforcement, along with many other policy areas, and issue recommendations.

Its recommendations were due in July 2017, but the Justice Department has not made public what the task force determined was appropriate for marijuana.

Marijuana advocates criticized the planned change to policy.

“Jeff Sessions is acting on his warped desire to return America to the failed beliefs of the ‘Just Say No’ and Reefer Madness eras,” said Erik Altieri, the executive director of the pro-marijuana group NORML. “This action flies in the face of sensible public policy and broad public opinion.”

Republican Senator Cory Gardner, who represents Colorado where marijuana is legal, also criticized the move, saying on Twitter that the Justice Department was trampling on the will and rights of voters.

“This reported action directly contradicts what Attorney General Sessions told me prior to his confirmation,” he wrote.

Gardner added that he would take all steps necessary to fight the measure, including possibly holding up the Senate from voting on pending Justice Department nominees. The department still has a long line of nominees waiting to be confirmed, including the heads of the criminal, civil and national security divisions.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinds three Obama-era memos that had adopted a policy of non-interference with states that have legalized recreational marijuana.