LOS ANGELES (AP) — The buzz kill long dreaded in the marijuana industry came just days after California opened what is expected to be the world’s largest legal pot market.
The Trump administration announced Thursday that it was ending an Obama-era policy to tread lightly on enforcing U.S. marijuana laws. The declaration renewed anxiety, confusion and uncertainty that has long shadowed the bright green leafy drug still forbidden under federal law but now legal in a majority of states as medicine and in a handful of those for recreational purposes.
“Everybody is super worried. My phone has been going off the hook,” said Terry Blevins, who runs a security firm and is part-owner of a marijuana distribution company in Southern California. “They are all, ‘What does this mean? … Is the federal government going to come into California” to raid businesses?
Officials wouldn’t say if federal prosecutors would target pot shops and legal growers, nor would they speculate on whether pot prosecutions would increase.
The action by Attorney General Jeff Sessions was not unexpected given his longtime opposition to pot, but comes at a heady time for the industry as retail pot sales rolled out New Year’s Day in California.
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