Thor Benson / Cannabis News Box Contributor

Dozens of representatives, from both parties, recently signed a letter saying the Justice Department should not be allowed to go after cannabis businesses and users in states that have legalized. This is a significant rebuke to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ requests, as he attempts to crack down on cannabis legalization.

“We are concerned about the Department of Justice enforcing federal marijuana law in a way that blocks implementation of marijuana reform laws in those states that have passed such reforms,” the letter reads. “The issue at hand is whether the federal government’s marijuana policy violates the principles of federalism and the Tenth Amendment. Consistent with those principles, we believe that states ought to retain jurisdiction over most criminal justice matters within their borders. This is how the Founders intended our system to function.”

Congress just passed a spending bill to keep the federal government open, and these lawmakers included provisions in the bill that would prevent Sessions from commencing his possible crackdown. Safeguards for social use cannabis did not make it into the bill, but the bill does include measures to prevent the Justice Department from going after medical cannabis.

“Although Attorney General Sessions has never hidden his personal views on marijuana if Congress passes a budget that keeps DOJ from going after medical marijuana, his hands are tied,” Michael J. Correia, director of governmental affairs at the National Cannabis Industry Association, told Cannabis News Box. “DOJ could still conceivably go after adult use states, but even Sessions has admitted to not having the manpower to do it.”

Correia said it appears Congress is ready to fully support protecting medical cannabis, but he said it might be a while longer before it’s prepared to protect social use cannabis. Support is growing for social use, but Congress doesn’t appear to have fully embraced it yet.

“I think all cannabis industry businesses are nervous (as they should be),” Correia said. “But the public support for this issue is so great, politicians would catch a lot of constituent pushback if feds started raiding state-legal businesses.”

It’s difficult to determine where things stand at the moment. Congress is not specifically protecting social use cannabis, but it also appears unlikely Sessions will have the ability to seriously go after social use cannabis. That said, that doesn’t mean he couldn’t cause some serious harm in the near future.