As many states legalized marijuana for medical use and then recreational use, that presented an impasse because federal law has and continues to prohibit all marijuana. So, possession, sale, cultivation, distribution, you name it.
How then could…
As many states legalized marijuana for medical use and then recreational use, that presented an impasse because federal law has and continues to prohibit all marijuana. So, possession, sale, cultivation, distribution, you name it.
How then could Medical dispensaries in California, recreational dispensaries, how could they all work if they're in violation of federal law? Well, how they could work is under this thing called the Cole memo, and what the Cole memo said was that the federal government is not going to prosecute people who are operating legally under their own state law.
So if you're in Colorado and you're farming marijuana consistent with the Colorado rules and regulations on doing so, you were okay. If you were in Virginia, for instance, where there is no such ability to do so legally, then you would be subject to federal prosecution.
That was what the Cole memorandum did when it was put in place under the Obama administration.
The Cole memorandum was guidance sent from the Department of Justice in Washington to the various US attorneys throughout the country to say to them these are the kinds of cases we expect you to be prosecuting.
It was enacted in 2013, and in January Jeff Sessions withdrew the memo giving new guidance to the United States attorneys who bring all the federal criminal cases in our country. Sessions indicated that basically, they're dialing back the protections offered by the Cole amendment and saying go ahead and go forth prosecuting federal criminal law in states where people are compliant with their own state law.
Thankfully, in the time since the Coleman has been revoked people have not yet been prosecuted.
