WASHINGTON — Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said the Trump administration’s policy change on pot creates confusion for Maryland where dispensaries just started making medical marijuana available to patients last month.
“I think wait-and-see is all we can do at the moment,” Frosh said referring to the move by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Sessions issued a memo Thursday rescinding an Obama-era policy that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the pot trade in states where the drug is legal. The Department of Justice referred to it as a “return to the rule of law.”
Frosh said there are now a lot of unanswered questions for states where pot has been legalized for medicinal and recreational use.
Maryland legalized medical marijuana and decriminalized the possession of small amounts of the drug four years ago, but the state has not legalized recreational use.
Frosh said the Trump administration’s position on marijuana was “inhumane.”
Frosh cited testimony offered when Maryland lawmakers considered making pot available to patients with terminal or chronic diseases, he said patients who could benefit from medical marijuana shouldn’t have to worry about prosecution.
“Those folks need treatment,” Frosh said. “It’s inhumane to say to them ‘Yeah, we may arrest you and drag you off to jail.'”
Frosh acknowledged that under the Constitution, the federal government’s policy-making authority is supreme.
“When they make laws that are within the purview of the United States government, states can’t override them,” Frosh said. “We’ll have to work around them or work with them.”
