Pressure builds for feds to maintain marijuana status quo

President Donald Trump’s administration is getting increasing pressure – from his circle of advisers and beyond – to maintain the current status quo when it comes to the cannabis industry.

The governors of the first four states to legalize recreational cannabis on Monday sent Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin a letter urging the pair to confer with them before announcing any major changes in federal marijuana policy.

The governors – Alaska’s Bill Walker, Colorado’s John Hickenlooper, Oregon’s Kate Brown and Washington’s Jay Inslee – singled out the importance of industry stability brought by the 2013 Cole Memo as well as banking guidance from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in 2014. The two are “vital to maintaining control over marijuana in our states,” the governors wrote.

On Friday, former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone laid into Attorney General Jeff Sessions for “outmoded thinking” on cannabis and implored Trump to leave the regulation of marijuana to the states, as he suggested he would do during the presidential campaign, CNBC reported.

“The Trump administration should be mindful that the recreational marijuana measures that passed in several states all passed this same way, with overwhelming popular support,” Stone said. “It is not Jeff Sessions’ place to prosecute his version of morality, and President Trump should not allow him to do so.”