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54 lawmakers send letter urging Trump to restore Obama-era pot guidelines

A group of lawmakers led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., sent a letter to President Trump on Wednesday urging him to restore Obama-era guidelines that allowed states to determine their own marijuana laws.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole Memorandum, a 2013 directive from the Obama administration that directed U.S. attorneys to place a “low priority” on enforcing federal marijuana laws in states that have legalized pot. To date, nine states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington) and the District of Columbia have passed laws allowing for the recreational use of marijuana. Dozens more have passed laws legalizing it for medicinal use.

Sessions’ decision to rescind the guidelines, the lawmakers said, “will have a chilling effect” in those states.

“This action by the Department of Justice has the potential to unravel efforts to build sensible drug policies that encourage economic development as we finally move away from antiquated practices that have hurt disadvantaged communities,” reads the two-page letter, which was signed by 54 members of Congress, 51 of them Democrats. Three Republicans — Alaska Rep. Don Young, California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz — signed it, too