Marijuana Legalization Looks Bleak under the Trump Administration

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Marijuana legalization under Trump administration looks bleak. Although, a DC-based group celebrated the inauguration of Donald Trump on Jan. 20 by handing out thousands of hand-made joints absolutely free. But will this friendly gesture promise positive outcome on large scale?

A large number of appointees across various state departments and agencies will take over the posts but some folks from Obama administration will continue. One of them is Chuck Rosenberg, is the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency who was posted by former attorney general Loretta Lynch in May 2015.

This is a particularly sensitive situation as DEA enforces drug policies in the US. Rosenberg is responsible for enforcing marijuana unlawfulness in the States. This is the point where conflicts between the state laws and federal government take place.  

Take the example of California where state policy legalized cannabis in 1996, yet the drug was illegal according to federal laws. DEA was used to enforce the federal policy in California where medical dispensaries were attacked several times despite marijuana being legal in the state laws.

The situation changed in California dramatically in 2013 when the deputy attorney general James Cole wrote the memo called "The Cole Memo."  It said that individuals operating according to state laws will not be prosecuted but drug prevention and contamination continued, reports Business Insider.  

According to Yahoo, it was the administration directives and it says a lot what will come up in the future - things will remain almost the same in DEA, said Marijuana Policy Project senior communications manager Morgan Fox. It is pretty logic to imagine a more hardline stance from DEA that works under the directives of Attorney General who is under the direct command of the president. How will DEA operate when it comes to Cannabis policy? The answer is in future!

For now, both President Trump and Senator Sessions have hinted that they will keep the status quo which means allowing the states to police and to legislate their own marijuana laws. Although, the foreseeable future looks like that the federal government is going to comply to individual states in terms of marijuana policy, yet nothing is clear about the majority of the states that has not legalized marijuana.