Pubdate: Sun, 25 Dec 2016
Source: Times-Reporter (New Philadelphia, OH)
Copyright: 2016 The Copley Press Inc.
Contact:  http://www.timesreporter.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1188
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?197 (Cannabis - Medicinal - Ohio)
Author: Jessica Wehrman, The Columbus Dispatch

FRIENDS, FOES OF POT WATCHING ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINATION

Sen. Jeff Sessions repeatedly has said he opposes legalization efforts

WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general is an
outspoken foe of efforts to legalize marijuana for medicinal and
recreational purposes -- and that fact has some wondering what that means
for the 28 states that have legalized marijuana in some form.

Those states include Ohio, which is in the process of working on
regulations for its own medical marijuana legalization.

Aaron Marshall, a spokesman for Ohioans for Medical Marijuana, said his
hope remains with Trump, who repeatedly has said he supports leaving
marijuana legalization efforts to the states.

But Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican whom Trump tapped to head
his administration, said as recently as April that "good people don't
smoke marijuana," calling the drug "not the kind of thing that ought to be
legalized."

He has referred to marijuana reform as a mistake and consistently has been
critical of the current administration for refusing to enforce a federal
prohibition on marijuana.

Tom Haren, a Cleveland-based lawyer who works on marijuana issues, calls
Sessions "one of the most ardent prohibitionists, one of the most ardent
drug warriors in the Senate." He sees a conflict between Sessions' words
on the issue and Trump's.

"Trump is kind of a wild card himself on any number of issues," Haren
said. "But he has been pretty consistent when it comes to medical
marijuana that he supports it."

As a candidate for president, Trump in June 2015 seemed supportive of
medical marijuana, but called recreational adult use "bad" at a
conservative CPAC conference. He expressed dismay at Colorado's
recreational legalization, saying it has led to "some big problems."

"But I think medical marijuana, 100 percent," he said.

Haren said he sees a variety of scenarios that could play out in the new
administration. The federal government could, he said, crack down on
recreational markets and not on medical markets. It could, he said,
regulate marijuana through the FDA, ultimately dispensing it at
pharmacies. Or it could send "cease and desist" letters to some of the
largest operators in the country, effectively overruling state efforts.

"I think the best-case scenario folks can hope for is to maintain the
status quo," he said.

Haren said Sessions is hardly the only marijuana hard-liner in Trump's
cabinet picks. Rep. Tom Price, the Health and Human Services pick, also
"is a well-known prohibitionist."

But Sessions, he said, was picked for immigration. Price, R-Ga., was
picked because of his opposition to Obamacare.

"My point is I don't know that his selection is necessarily a signal from
President-elect Trump's administration as to how this will affect legal
marijuana," he said. He said Sessions' confirmation hearings might shed
more light on his intentions.

In all, 28 states and three territories -- including the District of
Columbia - have legalized either recreational or medical marijuana. The
first to support it for recreational purposes was Colorado, which did so
in 2012. In response to that, the Department of Justice wrote a memo to
all U.S. attorneys that said that in communities that enacted laws
legalizing marijuana "conduct in compliance with those laws and
regulations is less likely to threaten the federal priorities." In
essence: They wouldn't get involved.

Carla Lowe, founder of Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana, hopes that
policy ends in the new administration.

"We have great hope in Sen. Sessions," she said. "He knows what marijuana
is. He knows it's a highly potent and long-active addictive drug."

Lowe argues that medical marijuana is a "joke," aimed at luring people
into thinking marijuana is acceptable. She has watched the spread of
legalized marijuana with dismay.

"Federal law is our only hope," she said.

Robert Myatt, chairman of the Ohio chapter of Citizens Against Legal
Marijuana, said he believes Sessions was chosen more for his stance on
immigration than medical marijuana. "It's a side issue," for the
administration, he said.

That said, "I would welcome an attorney general that would enforce federal
drug laws," he said.

He said he believes that if enforcement were to happen, then it would
impact recreational marijuana more than it would medical marijuana.

"It would be a terrible day for hundreds of thousands of Americans who are
going to be helped by medical marijuana," Marshall said. "These are
seriously ill patients who deserve the right to medicine that is going to
work for them. We have an opioid crisis in Ohio and many other states, and
medical marijuana is a far better choice for pain management than
opioids."

Robert Capecchi, director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy
Project, said increased enforcement might be impractical, particularly
with so many states having legalized the drug at least partially. "It
would be very costly, both in tax resources and manpower to try to wipe
these state laws off the books through federal enforcement," he said.

"You can't commandeer state law enforcement resources and force state law
enforcement officers to enforce federal law."
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