(CNN)What does the nomination of US Sen. Jeff Sessions, now likely to be the next US attorney general pending Senate approval, mean for the fast-growing cannabis industry?
Although his past comments about marijuana are, to be kind, "odd," and give great reason to question his suitability as attorney general, it may be too early for panic by marijuana advocates.
Trump picks Sen. Sessions to run Justice Department
Cannabis may be playing a states-rights siren song of the sort that Trump's base loves to hear. The cannabis infrastructure is too far along in many states to be eradicated. And while the federal government tore up the alcohol infrastructure during Prohibition, the nation learned, the hard way, a valuable lesson that makes dismantling unlikely to be repeated. There is also a budget preclusion known as the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment now being litigated as a shield against federal prosecution of strictly compliant cannabis businesses. Finally, given high-priority concerns such as terrorism, major financial fraud, child pornography, cartel conspiracies involving hard drugs, gang racketeering and firearms trafficking, the US attorneys in major recreational cannabis jurisdictions such as California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Nevada are unlikely to view cannabis as
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a serious public threat. Sessions' nomination as America's top prosecutor is certainly disconcerting to the cannabis industry, as well as for civil rights proponents more generally. But he will face strong winds of change, and ultimately is unlikely to have decision-making authority in the Trump administration over cannabis policy.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/23/opinions/sessions-cannabis-opinion-gessinchernis/index.html
Jeff Sessions may hate pot, but that doesn't mean he'll be a total buzzkill
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