On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions revoked an Obama administration policy on marijuana enforcement.
The previous policy basically took a hands-off approach to enforcing the Federal ban on possession of small amounts of marijuana. This certainly could affect states that have legalized recreational marijuana use. But it also sends a message to states like Georgia, where the Obama administration had focused on larger drug trafficking cases, instead of low-level marijuana possession.
But Sessions did give discretion to local U.S. attorneys. Atlanta’s new top Federal prosecutor is B.J. Pak. During a conversation in the WABE studios on last month, “Morning Edition” host Denis O’Hayer asked Pak about the Attorney General’s shift in the Justice Department’s focus, to endorsing — if not ordering — a crackdown on marijuana possession.
