The National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) pushed back against President Donald Trump’s apparent anti-marijuana threats on Thursday. The NCIA, who’s mission is to promote a legal and responsible cannabis industry, challenged the belief that marijuana regulation should be a Federal issue.

As reported by Vox, speaking on behalf of the President, Press Secretary Sean Spicer stated on Thursday:

“There’s two distinct issues here: medical marijuana and recreational marijuana. I think medical marijuana, I’ve said before, that the president understands the pain and suffering that many people go through, who are facing especially terminal diseases, and the comfort that some of these drugs, including medical marijuana, can bring to them. And that’s one that Congress, through a rider in [2014], put an appropriations bill saying that the Department of Justice wouldn’t be funded to go after those folks.” “There’s a big difference between that and recreational marijuana. And I think that 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. There’s still a federal law that we need to abide by when it comes to recreational marijuana and other drugs of that nature.”

In response, the NCIA issued a press release that reminded the Trump administration of marijuana promises made during the campaign:

“As a candidate, President Trump said on many occasions that he believed marijuana policy – both medical and adult-use – should be left to the states. When asked if he would allow his Attorney General to shut down adult-use programs like Colorado’s, he said, ‘I wouldn’t do it – no…I think it should be up to the states, absolutely.'” “Voters agree, and that should guide the administration’s policy.”

The Trump administration’s new plans to crack down on the marijuana industry are contradictory to the United States changing views on an increasingly legal medical and recreational drug. As reported in Society’s Changing Views of Cannabis, there is growing support for legalization, especially among younger Americans, with 70 percent of 18 to 29-year-old Americans supporting legalization. There are now eight states, plus the District of Columbia, where recreational marijuana use is legal.

Smith also conveyed that the current laws supporting the adult right to use marijuana are working.

“It would be a mistake for the Department of Justice to overthrow the will of the voters and state governments who have created carefully regulated adult-use marijuana programs. It would represent a rejection of the values of economic growth, limited government, and respect for federalism that Republicans claim to embrace.” “These programs are working. Marijuana interdictions at the Mexican border are down substantially, youth use has not increased in states with legal access to cannabis, and responsible cannabis businesses are contributing tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact to their communities.”

In the same week, as NCIA pointed out the Trump administration’s contradictory application of Federal regulations, President Trump also revoked Obama’s protections for transgender students. As Politico reported, Spicer explained why transgender protections are a state’s rights issue.

“The president has maintained for a long time that this is a states’ rights issue and not one for the federal government. So while we have further guidance coming out on this, I think that all you have to do is look at what the president’s view has been for a long time, that this is not something the federal government should be involved in, that this is a states’ rights issue.”

As the NCIA works to bring economic growth throughout the cannabis industry, the issue may not be decided on whether legalized marijuana is popular or can be successfully regulated. The fight may be whether the Trump administration has the authority to enact Federal laws on some controversial issues while leaving others for States to decide. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department will step up enforcement of federal law against recreational marijuana, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Thursday, offering the Trump administration’s strongest indication to date of a looming crackdown on the drug, even as a solid majority of Americans believe it should be legal.

“I do believe you’ll see greater enforcement of it,” Spicer said in response to a question during a news conference. But he offered no details about what such enforcement would entail. President Donald Trump does not oppose medical marijuana, he added, but “that’s very different than recreational use, which is something the Department of Justice will be further looking into.”

A renewed focus on recreational marijuana in states that have legalized pot would present a departure from the Trump administration’s statements in favor of states’ rights. A day earlier, the administration announced that the issue of transgender student bathroom access was best left to states and local communities to decide.

Enforcement would also shift away from marijuana policy under the Obama administration, which said in a 2013 memo that it would not intervene in state’s marijuana laws as long as they keep the drug from crossing state lines and away from children and drug cartels.

But the memo carried no force of law and could be rewritten by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has consistently said he opposes legal marijuana but has not indicated what he might do.

Eight states and Washington, D.C., have legalized marijuana for recreational use. The Justice Department has several options available should it decide to enforce the law, including filing lawsuits on the grounds that state laws regulating pot are unconstitutional because they are pre-empted by federal law. Enforcement could also be as simple as directing U.S. attorneys to send letters to recreational marijuana businesses letting them know they are breaking the law.

Washington’s attorney general, Bob Ferguson, said he and Gov. Jay Inslee, both Democrats, requested a meeting with Sessions about his approach to legal, regulated marijuana. Ferguson led the states in fighting off Trump’s executive order on immigration in court and said Thursday he’s prepared to lead the way in defending legal marijuana, too.

“We will resist any efforts to thwart the will of the voters in Washington,” Ferguson said.

Kevin Sabet, head of the anti-marijuana group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said pot enforcement is a matter of public safety.

“The current situation is unsustainable,” Sabet said in a statement. “This isn’t an issue about states’ rights, it’s an issue of public health and safety for communities.”

Spicer’s comments came the same day as a Quinnipiac poll said 59 percent of Americans think marijuana should be legal and 71 percent would oppose a federal crackdown.

Pot advocates said they hoped Spicer’s prediction would not come to pass.

“It is hard to imagine why anyone would want marijuana to be produced and sold by cartels and criminals rather than tightly regulated, taxpaying businesses,” said Mason Tvert, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project.

States have been flouting the U.S. Controlled Substances Act since at least 1996, when California voters approved marijuana for sick people, a direct conflict with federal guidelines barring the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

And presidents since Bill Clinton have said the federal government unequivocally rejects a state’s ability to modify federal drug law.

However, three presidents over the last 20 years have each concluded that the limited resources of the U.S. Department of Justice are best spent pursuing large drug cartels, not individual users of marijuana.

Nevada state Senate Majority Leader Aaron Ford said in a statement Thursday that meddling in recreational pot laws would be federal overreach and harm state coffers that fund education.

In Washington state, sales at licensed pot shops now average nearly $4.4 million per day — with little evidence of any negative societal effects. That’s close to $1 billion in sales so far for the fiscal year that began last July, some $184 million of which is state tax revenue. </s> Americans can expect to see “greater enforcement” of federal laws banning recreational marijuana use, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday, signaling the Trump administration might be considering a crackdown on legalization drives spreading state to state.

At a press briefing, Spicer said President Donald Trump was supportive of a federal rule that gave states leeway to allow medical marijuana use.

“I’ve said before that the president understands the pain and suffering that many people go through who are facing, especially, terminal diseases and the comfort that some of these drugs, including medical marijuana, can bring to them,” Spicer said in response to a reporter’s question. But he added, “There’s a big difference between that and recreational marijuana. I think that 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 didn’t indicate how the president intended to enforce federal laws in states that had approved recreational marijuana consumption. Twenty-eight states have medical marijuana laws on the books, while eight states — including California — permit recreational cannabis.

When a reporter pressed him for clarity, he said it was “a question for the Department of Justice.”

A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment on the matter.

Aaron Herzberg, a cannabis real estate investor based in Costa Mesa, said it would be unrealistic and “political suicide” for Trump to “wage an all out war” against recreational marijuana, pointing to millions of dollars in tax revenue flowing to states with legal cannabis laws. He said he suspects Spicer’s comments are “saber rattling” more than a viable threat.

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, but the Obama administration largely let states carry out their own legalization schemes, as long as they enforced regulations aimed at preventing sales to minors, money laundering and other criminal offenses. Thursday’s comments from Spicer were perhaps the clearest indication yet that the Trump administration may not go so easy on legal weed states.

California’s new Attorney General Xavier Becerra noted he took an oath to enforce the state’s laws.

“If there is action from the federal government on this subject, I will respond in an appropriate way to protect the interests of California,” Becerra said via email.

Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which funded opposition to California’s marijuana legalization measure Proposition 64, applauded Spicer’s comments.

“This isn’t an issue about states’ rights; it’s an issue of public health and safety for communities,” SAM President Kevin Sabet said.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions made statements similar to Spicer’s when he was being vetted by Congress. As a result, Paul Armentano, deputy director of the marijuana rights organization NORML, said Spicer’s comments weren’t surprising. But he pointed to the irony of Quinnipiac polling out just hours earlier that found 71 percent of voters oppose enforcing federal laws against marijuana in states that have already legalized pot.

The press secretary’s statement linking legal marijuana to the opioid epidemic drew immediate criticism from cannabis rights advocates, who cited research indicating the opposite is true.

“Spicer has it exactly backwards,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of Drug Policy Alliance. “Greater access to marijuana has actually led to declines in opioid use, overdoses and other problems.”

Thursday’s controversy came days after Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Costa Mesa, and three other congressional representatives from states that have legalized marijuana officially formed a “Cannabis Caucus” to advance federal laws allowing cannabis cultivation, sale and use.

A group of Democratic legislators in California is floating a bill that would make it illegal for state or local authorities to assist federal agents in investigations and enforcement actions involving Californians who are complying with state marijuana laws.

“We have hoped and still hope that the federal government will respect states’ rights in the same manner they have on several other issues,” said Derek Peterson, CEO of Irvine-based cannabis firm Terra Tech. “We also hope that the states make a point of defending their independence in regards to this and protect their constituents.” </s> WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration said on Thursday for the first time that it will crack down on marijuana sales in states that have approved recreational pot use.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the Department of Justice will pursue enforcement of federal law against recreational use, but not medical use. The statement marked a major break with the Obama administration’s hands-off approach to the growing marijuana legalization movement.

“I do believe that you’ll see greater enforcement,” Spicer told reporters at his daily briefing. “Because again there’s a big difference between the medical use that’s very different than the recreational use, which is something the Department of Justice will be further looking into.”

The decision is certain to provoke a fight with the states that have legalized recreational marijuana. Those states are Alaska, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington and the District of Columbia.

Jay Inslee, Washington state’s Democratic governor, made it clear earlier this month that the state would fight hard if the Trump team tried to block its recreational pot sales. “I think it would be a really big mistake for them to pick this fight, and I hope it will not occur,” Inslee said.

California legalization could translate to $5 billion in annual retail sales if Trump doesn’t intervene, according to estimates from Marijuana Business Daily. A cannabis caucus formed in Congress last week and vowed to fight Trump, if necessary, and protect legalization. Among the co-founders is Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican and Trump supporter whose name was floated for secretary of state before ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson got the job.

Nevada Senate Majority Leader Aaron Ford called on the state’s attorney general to “vigorously defend” the state’s laws.

“Not only did voters overwhelmingly vote to approve the legalization of recreational marijuana, the governor’s proposed education budget depends on tax revenue from recreational marijuana sales,” Ford said. “Any action by the Trump administration would be an insult to Nevada voters and would pick the pockets of Nevada’s students.”

Seventy-one percent of voters say the government should not enforce federal marijuana laws in states that have legalized medical or recreational marijuana use, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll released Thursday. Fifty-nine percent support legalizing recreational marijuana while 93 percent of Americans support medical marijuana use.

Washington and Colorado were the first states to legalize marijuana in 2012, while California followed suit last year. Twenty-eight states, including Minnesota, have legalized the drug for medical use.

Spicer compared the use of recreational marijuana to the opioid addiction crisis that has ravaged some communities across the nation. “The last thing we should be doing is encouraging people,” he said. He referred specific questions on enforcement to the Justice Department.

But there’s little evidence to connect marijuana to opioid addiction. In 2014, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health published a report that found in states that had legalized medical marijuana “the annual number of deaths from prescription drug overdose is 25 percent lower than in states where medical marijuana remains illegal.”

“Science has discredited the idea that marijuana serves as any kind of gateway drug, and the addiction and death rates associated with opioids simply do not occur in any way with cannabis,” said Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association.

Backers of marijuana legalization had been waiting to see how the Trump administration would respond to the growing conflict between state and federal marijuana laws.

Trump has voiced conflicting opinions about marijuana legalization through the years. At one point, during the presidential campaign, he said he supported allowing states to choose how to legislate medical marijuana. “In terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state,” Trump told reporters in 2015.

But Trump’s appointment of former Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, a longtime marijuana foe who criticized President Barack Obama for not enforcing the ban on pot sales, rattled pot backers and had them braced for the worst. Obama, who smoked marijuana in his younger days in Hawaii, had left states to deal with the issue after famously telling ABC-TV’s Barbara Walters in 2012 that he had “bigger fish to fry.”

During his recent confirmation hearing, Sessions did not reveal whether he would enforce the laws. “Using good judgment about how to handle these cases will be a responsibility of mine,” he said. “I know it won’t be an easy decision, but I will try to do my duty in a fair and just way.”

Marijuana advocates said Trump risks a public backlash if he cracks down on weed.

“If the administration is looking for ways to become less popular, cracking down on voter-approved marijuana laws would be a great way to do it,” said Tom Angell, chairman of the pro-legalization group Marijuana Majority.

“The vast majority of Americans agree that the federal government has no business interfering in state marijuana laws,” said Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project. “This administration is claiming that it values states’ rights, so we hope they will respect the rights of states to determine their own marijuana policies.”

But Kevin Sabet, president of the anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, called the current situation “unsustainable.”

“States that have legalized marijuana continue to see a black market for the drug, increased rates of youth drug use, continued high rates of alcohol sales, and interstate trafficking, with drug dealers taking advantage of non-enforcement,” he said. “This isn’t an issue about states rights — it’s an issue of public health and safety for communities.”

Still, some industry officials said it was hard to take the White House announcement seriously, given the growing popularity of marijuana and widespread pubic acceptance for legalization.

“I don’t think it’s realistic for Trump to wage an all-out war against recreational marijuana. My guess is that this is saber rattling,” said Aaron Herzberg, partner and general counsel of Calcann Holdings LLC, a California medical marijuana real estate company.

Spicer said the administration would not go after medical marijuana use.

“The president understands the pain and suffering that many people go through who are facing, especially terminal diseases, and the comfort that some of these drugs, including medical marijuana, can bring to them,” Spicer said. </s> The White House on Thursday put states that have legalized recreational-use marijuana on notice that federal law enforcement agents could be targeting them soon.

It was the clearest warning yet that the Trump administration may move to disrupt the marijuana trade in the eight states, including California, that have legalized the recreational use of pot.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that the administration had no plans to continue the permissive approach of the Obama administration and that it viewed recreational marijuana use as a flagrant violation of federal law.

Spicer’s statement that the Department of Justice could initiate enforcement actions in states that have legalized recreational pot alarmed the multibillion-dollar marijuana industry and set up the administration for yet another confrontation with liberal states.

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Spicer said recreational marijuana was a scourge, likening its widespread use to the opioid addiction epidemic — an incendiary charge that many medical experts would dispute. But the comments intensified concerns that the robust recreational marijuana trade that has been brought out into the open in recent years — generating hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue — could soon be disrupted by federal agents.

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

Asked whether states that have legalized recreational use could be targeted by federal actions, Spicer said, “I do believe that you’ll see greater enforcement.” He said that while federal law prohibits raids of medical marijuana operations, “that’s very different than the recreational use, which is something the Department of Justice, I think, will be further looking into.”

It has been years since the Drug Enforcement Administration sent agents on busts of pot businesses operating legally under state laws. The Obama administration issued an administrative policy putting a stop to such federal raids, even as it continued to classify the drug as more dangerous than cocaine. Congress further reassured marijuana users in 2014 by banning the DEA from using federal funds to go after medical marijuana operations operating legally under state laws.

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To many, the legal recreational pot trade in America has grown so large, routine and socially acceptable that it has become too big to jail.

But the marijuana industry has been on edge since Trump’s election. While the president’s position on the drug has been murky, his appointment of former Sen. Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general rattled dispensary owners and growers. Sessions is a longtime crusader in the war on drugs, as is Vice President Mike Pence.

“It looks like the first shoe is dropping as expected,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “Trump was never all that reassuring on the issue of marijuana legalization.”

How far the administration would go in provoking states that have legalized pot is unclear. The options range from largely symbolic gestures such as cracking down on the illegal transportation of marijuana between states or initiating a few seizures from dispensaries, to filing injunctions seeking to nullify state legalization laws.

Any such enforcement brings political risk, and could undermine Trump’s positioning as a champion of states’ rights. Spicer’s announcement comes only days after the formation in the House of the first Cannabis Caucus. The founding members are two Democrats and two Republicans, a reminder of the bipartisan appeal of the issue.

“The federal government should stay out of this. Period,” Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), one of the caucus founders, said as it was launched last week. “I am happy to say that we will butt heads with the attorney general when we have to. We will do our job.” Alaska, a deeply Republican state, is among those that have recently legalized recreational use.

The Trump administration positioned itself to go after recreational pot on the same day a new Quinnipiac poll showed 71% of Americans surveyed are opposed to the kind of enforcement action Spicer suggested is coming. The same poll found 59% of Americans support full legalization of marijuana.

“We have hoped and still hope that the federal government will respect states’ rights in the same manner they have on several other issues,” said Derek Peterson, chief executive of the Irvine-based marijuana firm Terra Tech. “The economic impact, job creation and tax collection associated with both medical and recreational legalization have been tremendous throughout the country.”

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But he said states should start preparing to fight the administration in court.

“We hope that the states make a point of defending their independence in regards to this and protect their constituents,” he said.

“I took an oath to enforce the laws that California has passed,” California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said in a statement Thursday. “If there is action from the federal government on this subject, I will respond in an appropriate way to protect the interests of California.”

Some, however, take a different view.

“The current situation is unsustainable,” said Kevin Sabet, the president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group opposed to legalization. “This isn’t an issue about states’ rights. It’s an issue of public health and safety for communities.”

Halper reported from Washington and McGreevy reported from Sacramento.

evan.halper@latimes.com

Follow me: @evanhalper

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UPDATES:

6:05 p.m.: Updated with a statement from California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra.

This article was originally published at 4:20 p.m. </s> White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday that voters could expect to see “greater enforcement” of federal laws against the use of recreational marijuana, seeming to signal that President Donald Trump was willing to put down nascent attempts at legalization that are spreading nationwide.

At the same time, Spicer said that the president was supportive of a federal rule that gave leeway to states allowing medical marijuana use. He did, however, suggest that fighting recreational cannabis use took on special importance in light of a nationwide opioid addiction crisis.

The comments come as congressional representatives from states that have legalized marijuana have formed a “Cannabis Caucus” to advance federal laws allowing cannabis cultivation, sale and use.

“I’ve said before that the President understands the pain and suffering that many people go through who are facing, especially, terminal diseases,” Spicer said, ” and the comfort that some of these drugs, including medical marijuana, can bring to them.”

He added, though, that “there’s a big difference between that and recreational marijuana. I think that 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 did not immediately say how the President intended to enforce federal laws in states that had approved recreational or medical marijuana. The Hill reported that Spicer later said that “I think you’ll see greater enforcement” of marijuana laws, while adding the exact policy is “a question for the Department of Justice.”

Marijuana Majority pointed out a 2016 clip of Trump saying in response to a question about legalizing cannabis that “medical should happen,” but then implying that laws on recreational use “should be a state issue.” However, Trump also said that “there’s a question as to how it’s all working out there” in Colorado, which fully legalized marijuana in 2014.

Newly-confirmed Attorney General Jeff Sessions has long been an opponent of marijuana use, saying in past years that “good people don’t smoke marijuana.” </s> WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions is rescinding an Obama-era policy that paved the way for legalized marijuana to flourish in states across the country, creating new confusion about enforcement and use just three days after a new legalization law went into effect in California.

President Donald Trump’s top law enforcement official was to announce the change Thursday, people with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press. Instead of the previous lenient-federal-enforcement policy, Sessions’ new stance will instead let federal prosecutors where marijuana is legal decide how aggressively to enforce longstanding federal law prohibiting it, the people said.

Sessions’ plan drew immediate strong objection from Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, one of eight states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use.

Gardner said in a tweet that the Justice Department “has trampled on the will of the voters” in Colorado and other states. He said the action would contradict what Sessions had told him before the attorney general was confirmed and that he was prepared “to take all steps necessary” to fight the step including holding up the confirmation of Justice Department nominees.

Sessions is rescinding the policy by president Barack Obama’s Justice Department that has generally barred federal law enforcement officials from interfering with marijuana sales in states where the drug is legal.

The people familiar with the plan spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it before the announcement.

The move by Trump’s attorney general likely is sure to add to confusion about whether it’s OK to grow, buy or use marijuana in states where the drug is legal. It comes just after shops opened in California, launching what is expected to become the world’s largest market for legal recreational marijuana and as polls show a solid majority of Americans believe the drug should be legal.

While Sessions has been carrying out a Justice Department agenda that follows Trump’s top priorities on such issues as immigration and opioids, the changes to marijuana policy reflect his own concerns. Trump’s personal views on marijuana remain largely unknown.

Sessions, who has assailed marijuana as comparable to heroin and has blamed it for spikes in violence, had been expected to ramp up enforcement. Marijuana advocates argue that legalizing the drug eliminates the need for a black market and will likely reduce violence, since criminals would no longer control the marijuana trade.

The Obama administration in 2013 announced it would not stand in the way of states that legalize marijuana, so long as officials acted to keep it from migrating to places where it remained outlawed and keep it out of the hands of criminal gangs and children. Sessions is rescinding that memo, written by then-Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, which had cleared up some of the uncertainty about how the federal government would respond as states began allowing sales for recreational and medical purposes.

The marijuana business has since become a sophisticated, multimillion-dollar industry that helps fund some government programs. Eight states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use, and California’s sales alone are projected to bring in $1 billion annually in tax revenue within several years.

Sessions’ policy will let U.S. attorneys across the country decide what kinds of federal resources to devote to marijuana enforcement based on what they see as priorities in their districts, the people familiar with the decision said.

Sessions and some law enforcement officials in states such as Colorado blame legalization for a number of problems, including drug traffickers who have taken advantage of lax marijuana laws to illegally grow and ship the drug across state lines, where it can sell for much more. The decision was a win for marijuana opponents who had been urging Sessions to take action.

“There is no more safe haven with regard to the federal government and marijuana, but it’s also the beginning of the story and not the end,” said Kevin Sabet, president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, who was among several anti-marijuana advocates who met with Sessions last month. “This is a victory. It’s going to dry up a lot of the institutional investment that has gone toward marijuana in the last five years.”

Threats of a federal crackdown have united liberals who object to the human costs of a war on pot with conservatives who see it as a states’ rights issue. Some in law enforcement support a tougher approach, but a bipartisan group of senators in March urged Sessions to uphold existing marijuana policy. Others in Congress have been seeking ways to protect and promote legal pot businesses.

Marijuana advocates quickly condemned Sessions’ move as a return to outdated drug-war policies that unduly affected minorities.

Sessions “wants to maintain a system that has led to tremendous injustice … and that has wasted federal resources on a huge scale,” said Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “If Sessions thinks that makes sense in terms of prosecutorial priorities, he is in a very bizarre ideological state, or a deeply problematic one.”

A task force Sessions convened to study pot policy made no recommendations for upending the legal industry but instead encouraged Justice Department officials to keep reviewing the Obama administration’s more hands-off approach to marijuana enforcement, something Sessions promised to do since he took office.

The change also reflects yet another way in which Sessions, who served as a federal prosecutor at the height of the drug war in Mobile, Alabama, has reversed Obama-era criminal justice policies that aimed to ease overcrowding in federal prisons and contributed to a rethinking of how drug criminals were prosecuted and sentenced. While his Democratic predecessor Eric Holder told federal prosecutors to avoid seeking long mandatory minimum sentences when charging certain lower-level drug offenders, for example, Sessions issued an order demanding the opposite, telling them to pursue the most serious charges possible against most suspects. </s> White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday that voters could expect to see “greater enforcement” of federal laws against the use of recreational marijuana, seeming to signal that President Donald Trump was willing to put down nascent attempts at legalization that are spreading nationwide.

At the same time, Spicer said that the president was supportive of a federal rule that gave leeway to states allowing medical marijuana use. He did, however, suggest that fighting recreational cannabis use took on special importance in light of a nationwide opioid addiction crisis.

The comments come as congressional representatives from states that have legalized marijuana have formed a “Cannabis Caucus” to advance federal laws allowing cannabis cultivation, sale and use.

“I’ve said before that the President understands the pain and suffering that many people go through who are facing, especially, terminal diseases,” Spicer said, ” and the comfort that some of these drugs, including medical marijuana, can bring to them.”

He added, though, that “there’s a big difference between that and recreational marijuana. I think that 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 did not immediately say how the President intended to enforce federal laws in states that had approved recreational or medical marijuana. The Hill reported that Spicer later said that “I think you’ll see greater enforcement” of marijuana laws, while adding the exact policy is “a question for the Department of Justice.”

Spicer’s comments linking legal marijuana to the opioid epidemic drew immediate, sharp criticism from cannabis rights advocates.

“Spicer has it exactly backwards,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of Drug Policy Alliance. “Greater access to marijuana has actually led to declines in opioid use, overdoses and other problems.”

Aaron Herzberg, an attorney and cannabis real estate investor based on Costa Mesa, said it would be unrealistic and “political suicide” for Trump to “wage an all out war” against recreational marijuana. He pointed out the millions of dollars in tax revenue flowing to states with legal cannabis laws, along with the fact that Trump advisor Peter Thiel has heavily invested in the industry.

Herzberg said he suspects Spicer’s comments are “saber rattling” more than a viable threat.

“The White House press secretary’s comments are hardly surprising and they are similar to comments made by the new US Attorney General Jeff Sessions during his vetting process when he made clear that any use of marijuana remains against federal law and that ‘it is not the Attorney General’s job to decide what laws to enforce,’” Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, told The Cannifornian.

Sessions, who was recently confirmed as Attorney General, has long been an opponent of marijuana use, saying in past years that “good people don’t smoke marijuana.”

Related: Jeff Sessions: What can the new attorney general do to stop cannabis? What will he do?

Armentano pointed to polling out today from Quinnipiac that says 71 percent of voters “oppose the government enforcing federal laws against marijuana in states that have already legalized medical or recreational marijuana.”

“In short,” he said, “undermining voters’ wishes and state laws in this regard not only defies common sense, it is also bad politics — particularly for an administration that is defining itself as populist in nature.”

Marijuana Majority pointed out a 2016 clip of Trump saying in response to a question about legalizing cannabis that “medical should happen,” but then implying that laws on recreational use “should be a state issue.” However, Trump also said that “there’s a question as to how it’s all working out there” in Colorado, which fully legalized marijuana in 2014.

Staff writer Brooke Edwards Staggs contributed to this report. Check back for updates to this breaking news story. </s> • The Department of Justice looks set to crack down on states allowing recreational use and sale of marijuana, breaking with past policy.
• The expected policy change has prompted backlash from even Republicans.
• Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican, vowed to hold Trump's DOJ nominees if the issue is not resolved.



 A top Senate Republican threatened to withhold President Donald Trump's nominees to the Justice Department on Thursday after news broke that Attorney General Jeff Sessions would rescind Obama-era rules that allow recreational marijuana use and sale in certain states.

Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who is chairing the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 2018 cycle, took aim at Sessions over reports of an imminent crackdown on states not complying with federal marijuana laws, a significant departure from past commitments by the administration.

"This reported action directly contradicts what Attorney General Sessions told me prior to his confirmation," Gardner wrote on Twitter. "With no prior notice to Congress, the Justice Department has trampled on the will of the voters in CO and other states."

"I am prepared to take all steps necessary, including holding DOJ nominees, until the Attorney General lives up to the commitment he made to me prior to his confirmation," Gardner added in another tweet.

During his campaign, Trump said in an interview with Colorado media that individual states should decide their own laws regarding recreational use and sale of marijuana, adding that he would not go after Colorado and others upon becoming president.

"I'm a states person," he said. "I think it should be up to the states absolutely."

The reports of Sessions' intent to rescind the current policy comes just days after California opened recreational marijuana stores as part of their new law.
The Trump administration signals that it plans a crackdown on U.S states that legalize the use of cannabis.