|
 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.
"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.
But during his confirmation hearings, Sessions said his job was not
to enforce only some laws.
[to top of second column] |
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)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
