The murkiness of marijuana law is becoming a flashpoint in U.S.-California relations
When we first examined the potential flashpoints between the incoming Trump administration and California, marijuana ranked fairly low on the list, below climate policy, immigration and Obamacare.
That was in November. Since then, the divergence between state and federal policy on marijuana has come to look very real. The White House and Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions are talking tough about enforcing federal law, under which the cultivation, possession and distribution of pot are illegal — just at the point when California officials are pondering how to make good on the voters’ directive to legalize the drug.
Approval of Proposition 64 made California one of eight states, plus the District of Columbia, to have legalized recreational use. In some respects, California’s law, which takes effect next Jan. 1, is more liberal than the others; it allows the public consumption of the drug, albeit only on the premises of a retailer and if the local municipality approves.
Whether the Trump administration is serious about enforcing federal law is unclear; on the campaign trail, Trump often expressed the view that marijuana enforcement should be left to the states. But it’s that very murkiness that’s creating problems for states such as California wishing to subject their newly legalized pot industries to regulation. Under Sessions, who is renowned as a hawk on marijuana enforcement, it appears unlikely that the administration will take proactive steps to assist the legalization movement spreading nationwide.
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-pot-20170302-story.html
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