How Prosecutors Are Responding to Shifting Views on Marijuana.

• Author: Spahos, Chuck

Editor's note:This article was first published in Route Fifty as part of an ongoing series highlighting local criminal justice issues. Route Fifty is a digital news publication connecting the people and ideas advancing state, county and municipal government across the United States. Additional NDAA articles can be found at unvw.routefifty.com.

THE PUBLIC'S ATTITUDE toward marijuana has shifted in recent years. It is now permissible in a majority of states to possess marijuana for purported medicinal reasons, and a growing number of states permit possession of marijuana for recreational use. Proponents of marijuana legalization are spending millions of dollars in other states to change laws prohibiting the possession and distribution of marijuana through voter referendums, and sometimes through the actual legislative process.

Yet it remains illegal under federal law to possess, cultivate, use, or distribute marijuana. Despite the fact that Congress has not changed the law, the Obama Administration directed federal law enforcement authorities not to enforce federal laws regarding marijuana in many circumstances. That decision effectively opened the door to states like Colorado, California, and others to permit sales of marijuana for purely recreational purposes and allowed many other states to continue to permit sales for purported medicinal reasons that are nevertheless prohibited by federal law.

All that could change under the Trump Administration. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has made no secret of the fact that he believes marijuana is a dangerous drug. With a stroke of a pen, he could effectively reverse former Attorney General Eric Holder's hands-off approach to enforcement of federal anti-marijuana laws.

Despite these shifting views on marijuana from the public and government, state prosecutors were largely absent from the debate on the national stage. This was true even though the overwhelming majority of marijuana cases are handled by state and local prosecutors.

The National District Attorneys Association (NDAA), the nation's largest and oldest prosecutor organization, recently filled that void with the release of a 16-page report entitled "Marijuana Policy: The State and Local Prosecutors' Perspective."

The report was initially drafted by a working group of 27 prosecutors from across the nation, each of whom brought a unique perspective to the issue. Some of those prosecutors hailed from states where marijuana is legal to possess...