Will Sessions’ New Policy Kill Buzz For Legal Pot In New Jersey?

Will U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to roll back the federal government’s Obama-era policy on states rights’ and marijuana be a buzzkill for activists’ plans to fast-track legal weed in New Jersey?

It was just two months ago that Governor-Elect Phil Murphy’s election-day victory had many political pundits predicting the legalization of marijuana in less than a year. But on Thursday, multiple reports stated that Sessions is poised to make big changes to a key federal policy on legal pot, which sent anxious ripples through the New Jersey cannabis community.

The current U.S. policy, established under Obama as per the “Cole Memo,” is to let states with legalized marijuana and medical cannabis programs operate without federal interference, including law enforcement crackdowns.

Sessions will instead allow federal prosecutors in states where pot was legalized choose how aggressively to enforce federal marijuana law, according to two people with knowledge of the decision. (Read the full memo here)

• See related article: Jeff Sessions To Rescind Obama-Era Marijuana Policy
• See related article: NJ Pot Legalization Expected Soon (What You Need To Know)

U.S. Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey – who introduced a bill that would end the federal prohibition on marijuana last year – was among the critics of the proposed change, blasting Sessions’ “outdated and misguided views on criminal justice policy.”

“Jeff Sessions’ determination to revive the failed War on Drugs knows no bounds,” Booker said. “History has shown that our deeply broken drug laws disproportionately harm low-income communities and communities of color and cost us billions annually in enforcement, incarceration, and wasted human potential, without making us any safer. This unjust, backwards decision is wrong for America, and will prove to be on the wrong side of history.”

• See related article: US Marijuana Legalization Bill Would End 'War On Weed'

New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform (NJUMR) released a statement on Thursday, saying that the prospect of the federal government enforcing marijuana laws in states that have legalized cannabis raises red flags on many levels.

"With the majority of Americans in both major parties supporting the legalization of marijuana for adults, this move reveals just how out-of-touch with the American people this administration’s criminal justice policies are," NJUMR stated.

Essex County law firm Brach Eichler, which recently released a study on New Jersey cannabis regulation, said that the new federal policy would be more symbolic than practical.

“29 states have some form of regulated cannabis marketplace – there is not enough prosecutorial energy or funding to pursue the industry at this point,” Brach Eichler attorneys Charles X. Gormally and John D. Fanburg said in a joint statement.

“Congress will never provide the resources, so at this point no attorney general would be able to put those 29 genies back in their bottles,” the attorneys opined. “[Governor-Elect Murphy] should keep his vow to New Jersey voters and press ahead.”

• See related article: NJ Senator's Marijuana Legalization Bill Would Tax, Regulate Weed
• See related article: 'Marijuana Is Medicine,' New Jersey Court Says
• See related article: New Jersey Medical Marijuana Panel OKs 5 New Conditions

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Photo: Flickr / Cannabis Culture (Danny Kresnyak)