Juana Hosseini/Reuters
As the first presidential debate of the 2016 election approaches, both candidates are facing hard questions about whether their views on marijuana are at odds with the interests of the medical marijuana industry, a growing financial lifeline to their campaigns.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that it would join a federal review of the industry after the Obama administration last year said it would not pursue criminal charges against medical marijuana users in states that allow medical marijuana, such as Florida.
That move is the first sign that the federal government will consider a change in federal law after the industry has been largely unaffected by federal government efforts.
“It was not our intent to undermine a thriving industry in Florida,” said Michael Collins, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, which is coordinating the opposition to Sessions on behalf of the Drug Policy Alliance. “We were encouraged by the fact that Attorney General Pruitt had indicated at the hearing that he saw the need for further study, and wanted a thorough and well-reasoned review of marijuana laws.”
In announcing the policy review, Sessions said that the federal government would not work to “frustrate the states” with the legalization of marijuana for medical, recreational or both.
“These laws are working, and most importantly, they are working well,” Sessions said. “They save lives and save taxpayer dollars. I am confident that the federal government will follow the law, just as we have followed the law in states where it has been well established that marijuana is not the kind of drug that should be legalized.”
But the federal review does not set a legal precedent for the Department of Justice to not enforce marijuana laws in states where it exists on a regulatory or medical level.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) delivers remarks at the National Press Club in Washington last month. Photo: Bloomberg News
When Trump announced his run for president in 2015, after a string of failed Republican presidential campaigns, he also took a hard stand against the use of medical marijuana, saying it should be strictly regulated while calling for medicinal usage.
Trump, who has said that medical marijuana may have contributed to the deaths of several veterans, was joined Wednesday by Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, now the nation’s most senior law enforcement official. In a statement, Sessions said:
This policy change will ensure that doctors are able to properly prescribe and dispense medical marijuana to patients to his or