Just a follow on to my previous post......I decided to look into the matter, regarding the States vs. US Federal regulations, concerning the MJ sector and have come across a number of recent news reports on the subject. The US Department of Justice, that is responsible for the enforcement of laws with regard to MJ being a controlled substance, has been trying to get the US Congress to remove the protections that were put in place, by the Obama Administration and that are subject to renewal each year that protect states with an MJ industry, from being prosecuted by Federal authorities for running afowl of federal law with regard to MJ. With the protections removed the DOJ would be able to come in to the states and shut down the MJ industry, seize assets and detain individuals for questioning and prosecution and the individual states would be powerless to prevent the action. To counter this move, states, have in turn, began enacting legislation that would prevent state and local officials from assisting federal officials with federal investigations, arrests and detention and prosecution of individuals and corporations that are involved in the legal trade, sale and manufacturing of MJ and MJ products for medicinal and recreational purposes.
Further to this, this past week a member of Congress put forth a bill called the MJ Justice Act that would contain legislation removing MJ from the list of controlled substances under the current Federal regulations. However the bill, as of yet, does not have a co-sponsor. It is early days and those that have reviewed the legislation seem to view the bill favorably. I suspect, that in the long-run the US Congress will enact such legislation. The Congress and the Senate are made up of member representatives, from states that have embraced the MJ industry and I suspect that no congressmen or women, or, senator, in their right mind, would vote against any form of legislation that would kill jobs, deprive patients of life improving benefits that some forms of MJ bring them or bring much needed income into their state that provides additional funding for schools, hospitals and other infrastructure in their state especially with congressional and senatorial elections just around the courner in 2018. For those up for re-election, killing the MJ industry in their home state would be like killing the golden goose and would be political suicide.
I think that, if by some fluke, however, that the US Attorney General was successful in getting the US Congress to not renew the protections introduced by the Obama Administration to protect states with an MJ industry, the AG would be faced with a dounting task in dismantling the MJ industry, logistically and legally. When one takes into account how quickly the industry has grown, the number of companies that have moved into the sector, the amount of investment, financially, in the sector and the number of employees, small business operators and the products that have been generated I don't think the AG could do it and I think that even he knows that he doesn't have enough prisons, throughout the entire country, to house all of the people, including state government legislators, to house them. I suspect, that in reality, the MJ industry is here to stay.