Indopedia All Things Marijuana
SALEM, Ore. — When U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions green-lighted federal prosecutions of marijuana lawbreakers, the vast majority of U.S. states that allow some form of medical marijuana were unexpectedly placed at risk of a crackdown and are warily watching developments.
Forty six states — including Sessions’ home state of Alabama — have legalized some form of medical marijuana in recent years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Eight of those states also allow recreational marijuana.
Among the guidance that Sessions rescinded was the so-called Ogden Memorandum of 2009 that instructed federal prosecutors not to pursue cases against medical marijuana patients and distributors who complied with state laws.
“Previous nationwide guidance specific to marijuana enforcement is unnecessary and is rescinded, effective immediately,” Sessions told the U.S. attorneys based in all 50 states in a letter Thursday.
Georgia state Rep. Allen Peake, a Republican who sponsored a bill in his state’s legislature that legalized possession of medical marijuana in 2015, denounced the move.
“I’m very disappointed in Jeff Session’s actions,” Peake said Friday in a…
