#POLITICS JANUARY 4, 2018 / 3:21 PM / UPDATED 11 MINUTES AGO

States with legal pot denounce federal marijuana crackdown

Chris Prentice
5 MIN READ

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawmakers in U.S. states that have legalized marijuana denounced a move by the Trump administration on Thursday to cancel a policy that kept federal prosecutors at bay from the fledgling cannabis industries and vowed to uphold their state laws.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Justice Department was rescinding an Obama-era policy that eased enforcement of federal marijuana laws amid a wave of legalization in states from Pennsylvania to Alaska. The shift came just three days after California launched the world’s largest regulated commercial market for recreational marijuana.

State officials said the move amounted to meddling in states’ affairs and ignored more pressing priorities like the opioid crisis.

It was not clear how the change might affect a burgeoning marijuana industry in the six states including California and Colorado that have legalized the drug for recreational use, plus dozens of others that permit medicinal use. The industry is forecast to reach nearly $23 billion in sales by 2021.

California’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, vowed to “vigorously enforce our state’s laws and protect our state’s interests.”

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