White House may boost recreational marijuana enforcement -spokesman (updated)

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24/02/2017 24:09

(Adds industry response, context) 
    WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The administration of 
President Donald Trump may ramp up enforcement of federal laws 
against recreational marijuana use, a White House spokesman said 
on Thursday, setting up potential conflicts in states where the 
drug is legal. 
    More than two dozen U.S. states have legalized marijuana for 
either medical or recreational purposes, and the administration 
of former President Barack Obama mostly looked the other way. 
But White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the Trump 
Administration may distinguish between medical and recreational 
use of the drug. 
    Spicer's comments came on the same day that a nationwide 
poll from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, showed 
71 percent of registered voters favored allowing states to 
decide whether marijuana should be legal. 
    "I do believe you'll see greater enforcement of it," Spicer 
said at a news conference. "Because again there's a big 
difference between the medical use ... that's very different 
than the recreational use, which is something the Department of 
Justice will be further looking into." 
    Spicer's comments drew criticism from the country's nascent 
legalized marijuana industry as it was recovering from a scare 
after Trump's nomination of former Alabama Senator Jeff 
Sessions, a long time anti-drug campaigner, as attorney general. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1FN00W 
    "It would be a mistake for the Department of Justice to 
overthrow the will of the voters and state governments," Aaron 
Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry 
Association, said in a statement. 
    Seventy-five percent of cannabis stocks in an index followed 
by Arcview Market Research dropped on Thursday after Spicer's 
remarks, analyst Michael Arrington said in an email.   
    A spokesman for Sessions, who was confirmed as attorney 
general earlier in February, declined to comment on marijuana 
enforcement on Thursday.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1FT18A 
    But during his confirmation hearings, Sessions said his job 
was not to enforce only some laws. 
    Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, but it has been 
legalized for recreational use in eight states, including 
Washington, Colorado and California, as well as the District of 
Columbia. Last year, legal sales reached $7 billion and 
generated half a billion dollars in sales taxes. 
    Among registered voters in the Quinnipiac University survey, 
just 23 percent said the U.S. government should enforce federal 
laws against marijuana in states that have legalized it for 
recreational or medical use, and 71 percent said it should not. 
    The poll of 1323 registered voters, released on Thursday 
with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percent, also showed 
support for marijuana legalization among 59 percent of 
respondents, with 36 percent opposed.    
 
 (Reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington, D.C. and Sharon 
Bernstein in Sacramento, Calif.; Writing by Sharon Bernstein and 
Eric Walsh; Editing by Chris Reese and Richard Chang) 
 ((eric.walsh@thomsonreuters.com; 1-202-898-8457; Reuters 
Messaging: eric.walsh.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: USA TRUMP/MARIJUANA