Millions of people, regulators, business owners, investors and workers continue to work towards ending prohibition of marijuana. With the new Presidential Administration, many of us continue to work within “Pot Purgatory.” This is a place we know and have worked within for many years. However, today we feel the force of the dark side more than ever. Today, this place of “somewhere in between legal and illegal” feels even riskier than usual. Its BIGLY risky. As they light at the end of the tunnel, many of us saw with 4 States voting to legalize on on November 9th. This has many responsible Americans throwing themselves “All in,” to the “Pot Purgatory” but we have little insight as to how the Government will actually respond. The Boston Globe reports:
Officials in the four most recent states to legalize marijuana — including Massachusetts and Maine — are languishing in limbo after signals from the Trump administration that a recreational marijuana market crackdown may be coming.
On the one hand, state leaders are mandated to follow the will of their voters, who approved legalization measures in November. But, on the other, it may not make sense to keep spending scarce taxpayer dollars building a new bureaucracy to regulate pot greenhouses, shops, and testing facilities, if national authorities will soon swoop in and snip the industry, which remains strictly forbidden under federal law.
US Senator Elizabeth Warren and some of her colleagues have also written to the Justice Department, requesting it leave the old policy in place, saying it is “essential” that states “receive immediate assurance from the DOJ that it will respect” their ability to enforce sensible drug policies.
“Fiscal responsibility requires predictability, and I want to ensure that we understand the DOJ’s intentions,”the letter read. Read the full story from The Source: If Trump cracks down on pot, where does that leave Mass.? – The Boston Globe.
We are prepared to continue to navigate this place we call “Pot Purgatory.” If you need extra help to ensure you are maintaining State Compliance and at least “floating in the right direction,” Contact Us today!
