countrysilikon.blogg.se - Cole memoranda

Preventing marijuana possession or use on federal property.Īs long as states do nothing to impair these federal priorities, such as preventing drugged driving, by “implementing strong and effective regulatory and enforcement systems,” whatever those may be, the feds are cool with whatever states decide to do.Preventing the growing of marijuana on public lands and the attendant public safety and environmental dangers posed by marijuana production on public lands and.

Preventing drugged driving and the exacerbation of other adverse public health consequences associated with marijuana use.

Preventing violence and the use of firearms in the cultivation and distribution of marijuana.

Preventing state-authorized marijuana activity from being used as a cover or pretext for the trafficking of other illegal drugs or other illegal activity.

Preventing the diversion of marijuana from states where it is legal under state law in some form to other states.

Preventing revenue from the sale of marijuana from going to criminal enterprises, gangs, and cartels.

Preventing the distribution of marijuana to minors.

With that understanding, Cole Memo 2.0 provides an illuminating laundry list of federal enforcement priorities to better focus its limited resources: Persons who are in the business of cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana, and those who knowingly facilitate such activities, are in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, regardless of state law. The Ogden Memorandum was never intended to shield such activities from federal enforcement action and prosecution, even where those activities purport to comply with state law. That necessitates the Cole Memo of 2011 (Cole Memo 1.0) to explain that when the Ogden Memo said that it would be an “inefficient use of limited federal resources” to prosecute lawful medical marijuana providers, it meant get off your butts and nail those suckers. The Ogden Memo of 2009 told the nation’s prosecutors to lay off medical marijuana, starting the feds to double its effort to prosecute lawful providers. But then, it also doesn’t direct them not to, if they feel like it. Of course, it does not direct the United States Attorneys to immediately send out its troops to round up the usual suspects. Tomorrow? Well, who knows, since it turns and twists and wiggles as only a DOJ memo can. The Cole Memo 2.0 makes one thing clear: the feds won’t be storming the Rockies today. After Attorney General Holder’s announcement last February that the Department of Justice would soon be coming out with its new policy on how it would address the renegade states of Colorado and Washington, who had done the unthinkable by legalizing marijuana, we waited with great anticipation for the moment of splendid audacity.