This bodes well for HMPQ as well as the whole MJ sector
The U.S. Department of Justice is not going to stop the sale of marijuana where legal. I repeat: This is not going to happen, not in a lasting meaningful way. Yes, individuals might be convicted, but a terrible decision to rescind the Obama-era rule allowing legalization to flourish is not a wholesale rollback of legal weed around the country.
If you believe that, you believe the federal government has far more power than it has, and you don't have much faith in democracy or the U.S. Constitution. This is not to say there won't be hurdles to overcome, but is to say the federal government cannot slow the pace of progress.
Let me start from the beginning.
The Associated Press broke the newsThursday, reporting that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is getting ready to cancel a policy from the previous administration that relaxed federal drug law enforcement. Under this rule, states moved quickly from decriminalization to legalization. California is the latest. Legal sales began there Jan. 1.
Before you rend your clothes and gnash your teeth, consider this, also from the Associated Press: Even as Sessions is formally eliminating the Obama-era rule, he is taking steps to "let federal prosecutors where pot is legal decide how aggressively to enforce federal marijuana law."
What does this suggest? That Sessions is getting what he wants: a federal government upholding the appearance of zero tolerance, while not doing much about it. (This is not Trump's position; his is unclear.) Sessions is delegating the hard work to locally based federal prosecutors who may or may not act, and while they have the power, they won't be quick to use that power, because using it would contravene the democratic will.
