IOPList.Org

Washington (CNN)The White House said Thursday it expects law enforcement agents to enforce federal marijuana laws when they come into conflict with states where recreational use of the drug is permitted.

"I do believe you will see greater enforcement of it," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said regarding federal drug laws, which still list marijuana as an illegal substance.

That's a reversal from the Obama administration's stance, which laid out in an official memo that the federal government wouldn't interfere in states where nonmedical use of marijuana is allowed.

That guidance was issued after two states -- Colorado and Washington -- voted to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Obama said in the immediate aftermath of those votes that the federal government had "bigger fish to fry" than cracking down on marijuana use in states where it's considered legal.

Most drug enforcement operations are carried out by state and local authorities, with little involvement by the federal government. Enforcing marijuana laws has been considered a lower priority for federal drug agents, who have remained focused on curbing narcotics trafficking and combating a nationwide epidemic of opioid abuse.
Spicer on Thursday, however, linked marijuana use with the widespread abuse of painkillers, suggesting that allowing recreational use of marijuana could be interpreted as condoning drug use more widely.

"When you see something like the opioid addiction crisis blossoming in so many states around this country, the last thing we should be doing is encouraging people," Spicer said. "There is still a federal law that we need to abide by when it comes to recreational marijuana and drugs of that nature."

He was careful to distinguish between use of medical marijuana and recreational marijuana. President Donald Trump, he said, understood that marijuana could help ease suffering for patients with terminal illnesses.



COMMENT

Great... 
That's what keeping us at the bottom, certainly not all the other problems 

(02-24-2017, 12:46 PM)FirePlaces Wrote: [ -> ]That sucks.  Not surprised.  

More bad news everyday from the White House.

First he wants to give the states more power, than he takes it away.

Sorry to say to all US brothers here, I believe reading the facts that white house will play conservatism game again, try to ban medical marijuana & pot and try to eradicate the last PK prescribers making impossible for the sick to be pain free. Which hunting continues , and the victims once again will be pain patients I am afraid.

This just does not settle down. AT all. Now they are going after
Kellyanne Conway. A group of law professors, which means they cannot pass the bar exam and can only teach, is how we say it, is bringing charges against her with the bar.

However, won't that bring up the fact that michelle obama was charged with tax fraud and thus surrendered her law license to practice? And, that obama lost his cuz he put fraudulent info on paperwork for the morals committee.

My generation was raised to respect the office of the presidency. I admit it is hard with trump. But, things are getting worse i read.

They are taking away the state's rights to make decisions on usage of MMJ.

My god, they have taken everything from those of us whom are chronically ill. Can we not use legally a plant that grows naturally?

This gets worse every day. Maybe I should tweet about it to get the President's attention.

My interpretation of Spicer's remarks is that the admin wants to send a message to Congress to repeal the dysfunctional federal laws that make mj illegal in the first place.  Worthy to note that neither Trump nor Sessions has weighed in on this... that would fly in the face of the "state's right's" profile their trying hard to develop. 

No political animal in the proverbial jungle wants to fly too close to this hot button fire... there are elections, polls, and the almighty tax dollars to consider leave alone the lack of any clear political win in undertaking enforcement.  Hell, the District of Columbia just legalized it!

Plus this administration will be way to busy with ISIS, jobs, immigration, etc. and making America great again for this issue to surface as a funded priority.  And they are far too politically savvy to pass out gasoline for all the fires being started by the leftist contingent.

Its more likely that the DEA will be reassigned to border protection...