There will be little debate that this has been a bad day for the state-sanctioned (and regulated) marijuana industry. Stated simply, the Obama-era directives that significantly fettered the discretion of the nation’s 93 presidentially appointed U.S. attorneys to bring federal narcotics charges against marijuana growers, distributors and possessors in those states that “legalized” marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes (there are some eight states falling into the latter category) are now a thing of the past. Considering the many banks, landlords, law firms and others that “service” the marijuana industry, and that more than half of the states have, in one form or another, legalized — at least on the state level — marijuana, this change in federal enforcement approach is significant. But the deeper question is whether this major — and, in some circles at least, anticipated — move by Attorney General Jeff Sessions signals a new era of increasingly decentralized federal law enforcement decision-making. To continue reading, click here.

This article was quoted in a Law360 article, "In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360*," on 01.05.2018.

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