Earlier this month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded Obama-era Department of Justice guidance regarding state-legal marijuana (or “cannabis”). The so-called Sessions Memo overruled five other memos, most notably the “Cole Memo” that de-prioritized enforcement of the federal prohibition against marijuana in states that have legalized cultivation and distribution recreationally. None of the memos have the force of law—that is, they neither prohibited prosecutions nor required U.S. Attorneys to change their decision-making in states that have legalized marijuana distribution or consumption. The Sessions Memo does, however, represent a change in priority and encourages the affected U.S. Attorneys to bring forward prosecutions that had been discouraged by the five memos that showed deference to state laws. So although the Sessions Memo did not actually alter any law, state-legal marijuana merchants and distributors face a greater chance of prosecution with the new federal position on legal weed.
The change in federal policy likely stems mostly from Sessions's longstanding personal disdain for marijuana, rather than from either the White House or Congressional Republicans. On the campaign trail, candidate Trump voiced strong support for leaving cannabis policy liberalization to the states. And while Congress has been resistant to making bold moves in federal marijuana policy, the Republican-controlled House has defunded prosecutions of state-legal medical marijuana distribution, effectively prohibiting such prosecutions (without actually legalizing medical marijuana), since 2014.
