Up in smoke

[Long Run]

(CNN)Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday rescinded a trio of memos from the Obama administration that had adopted a policy of non-interference with marijuana-friendly state laws.

The move essentially shifts federal policy from the hands-off approach adopted under the previous administration to unleashing federal prosecutors across the country to decide individually how to prioritize resources to crack down on pot possession, distribution and cultivation of the drug in states where it is legal.

While many states have decriminalized or legalized marijuana use, the drug is still illegal under federal law, creating a conflict between federal and state law. Thursday's announcement is a major decision for an attorney general who has regularly decried marijuana use as dangerous.

1. It was very risky to invest in an industry that could go away if a new administration decided to enforce the law. Don't feel too sorry for the pioneers in legal sales.
2. This selective enforcement thing is troubling, right, left or center, as anyone is subject to capricious application and non-application of the law if taken to the extreme as has been done in this situation.
3. Congress should amend the law (what a concept!) and allow states to decide the issue, but require the states to keep statistics on the impact of legalization, and have the law subject to sunset or other re-authorization in 6-8 years once the data is back in on whether the benefits of controlled legalization outweigh the costs.
4. Interesting partners on this issue.

[Joe Guy]

Good move. The Feds have nothing better to do than to go after pot smokers. It will help them fill prisons and the keep the courts from running out of things to do.

[BoSoxGal]

So fucking regressive!

[ex-khobar Andy]

This is all so confusing. I thought the Republicans were all about letting the states make these sort of decisions. My poor brain is so befuddled. My mother was right when she told me not to smoke that stuff.

[datsunaholic]

The Republican party doesn't care about States Rights. They don't care about individual rights. They care only for corporate rights. Follow the money. The cannabis lobby doesn't have huge corporate backing- the tobacco and pharmaceutical ones, do.

[Big RR]

Maybe not hguge corporate backing, but I'd bet a lot of republican funded capital, republicans who are counting on the profits. I doubt this will go anywhere as long as there is beg money to be made; the masters will jerk Sessions' leash soon enough.