Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
The sponsors of last year's marijuana legalization initiative are calling on the new US attorney for Massachusetts, Andrew Lelling, to clarify his intentions, after a change in federal policy gave the prosecutor broad powers to crack down on the state's emerging cannabis industry. US Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week rescinded Obama-era Department of Justice policies that had sharply limited prosecution of dispensaries, banks, and other participants in state-regulated marijuana markets.
Oklahoma's Republican gubernatorial candidates have mostly avoided taking a clear stance on whether the state should legalize medical marijuana, though both Democratic candidates support the policy change. Gov. Mary Fallin on Friday set a June 26 election for the medical marijuana legalization question, the Tulsa World reported .
The so-called marijuana distributor is a kind of skeleton connecting the state's industry of growers, sellers and manufacturers. The distributors are the only ones allowed to transport pot, but also collect taxes and arrange for testing.
Congress simply can't ignore the massive collision about to occur between federal and state laws regarding marijuana. The Obama administration essentially created new federal marijuana policy by refusing to enforce unambiguous federal law.
Five years after the state voted to allow recreational use of the drug, more states have legalized marijuana. What does Colorado's experience teach us? We're far from CLEARING THE SMOKE over recreational marijuana use.
Louisiana officials are trying to understand what U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' dictate on federal marijuana prosecutions could mean for the state's burgeoning medical marijuana program, but they're not slowing plans aimed at having product available to patients by summer. Agencies are seeking further guidance from the federal Department of Justice on whether Sessions' decision to end an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on legalized marijuana in states will impact states with medical - not recreational - pot sales.
California State Sen. Scott Weiner, right, celebrates the opening of The Apothecarium for recreational marijuana sales in San Francisco on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018. Joining him are The Apothecarium co-founder and CEO Ryan Hudson, center, and San Francisco Supervisor Jeff Sheehy.
After foraging through the dumpster of discarded ideas, the Trump administration has dragged out another fetid reject as part of its campaign to roll back modernity, common sense and the will of the people.
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.
The East Coast is bracing for a deep freeze a day after a winter storm brought heavy snow, hurricane-force winds and coastal flooding. The East Coast is bracing for a deep freeze a day after a winter storm brought heavy snow, hurricane-force winds and coastal flooding.
Whether to crack down on marijuana in states where it is legal is a decision that will now rest with those states' top federal prosecutors, many of whom are deeply rooted in their communities and may be reluctant to pursue cannabis businesses or their customers. When he rescinded the Justice Department's previous guidance on marijuana, Attorney General Jeff Sessions left the issue to a mix of prosecutors who were appointed by President Donald Trump's administration and others who are holdovers from the Barack Obama years.
State lawmakers are unclear what the U.S. Department of Justice's threats Thursday to enforce federal marijuana prohibition on states with legal pot sales will mean for Illinois. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and reports from Washington suggest that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions intends to give district prosecutors more discretion to enforce cannabis prohibition at the state level.
The buzz kill long dreaded in the marijuana industry came just days after California opened what is expected to be the world's largest legal pot market. The Trump administration announced Thursday that it was ending an Obama-era policy to tread lightly on enforcing U.S. marijuana laws.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday rescinded Obama-era protections for marijuana businesses and cast a dark cloud over a booming industry. The news sent marijuana-related stocks tumbling, and had some wondering what might happen to an industry that took in $8 billion in sales last year and is expected to grow to $23 billion nationally by 2020 and create more than 280,000 jobs.
The Attorney General of the United States Jeff Sessions changed the rules for states that have -- or want to -- legalize the sale of marijuana. Under President Barack Obama, the Department of Justice policy had been not to enforce federal marijuana laws against individuals or businesses in states that are complying with state medical or adult-use marijuana laws, provided that one of eight federal priorities is not implicated.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions freed federal prosecutors to go after pot cases as they see fit, even in states where marijuana is legal. Senator Roger Wicker calls it a prudent step.
By SADIE GURMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON - 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.
The Trump administration threw the burgeoning movement to legalize marijuana into uncertainty Thursday as it lifted an Obama-era leniency 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.
Regulators pledged on Thursday they would push ahead with implementation of the state's voter-approved recreational marijuana law despite potential confusion stemming from a shift in official U.S. policy on enforcement of federal laws against pot. State officials, including Republican Gov. Charlie Baker and Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat, criticized the announcement from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he was rescinding a policy from the previous administration that allowed legal marijuana to flourish, without interference from federal prosecutors, in Massachusetts and seven other states where adult use is permitted.