The idea of medical marijuana has been a murky topic in the United States over the last few years. As the movement gained some traction in the mainstream, federal guidelines remained opposed if somewhat uncertainly lax regarding the topic. However, the U.S. Department of Justice sought to clarify its position on the topic last week.
The clarification came in a memo straight from Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole and was issued to federal prosecutors around the country. While the official stance of the federal government is essentially unchanged, the clarification did highlight a few new areas of concern that had previously gone mostly unchecked.
Ultimately, the federal government maintained that using pot is still illegal but that prosecuting individuals in medical circumstances is not an effective use of government time or money. However, the major shift in tone came in regards to large developers of medical marijuana, some of whom can earn millions of dollars a year through their quasi-legitimate businesses.
Prosecutors are now instructed not to look the other way when it comes to these larger operations, stating that the lax law is not designed to protect individuals who are profiting from medical marijuana on a large scale.
