© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

AG Sessions Pushes for Money to Prosecute Medical Marijuana Providers in States Like Ohio

Medical marijuana study
BROOKINGS INSTITUTION

Ohio hits one of its first deadlines tomorrow in the process of legalizing medical marijuana. But it comes at the same time U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants permission to spend federal money to prosecute medical marijuana providers. 

Sessions sent a letter to Congress last week arguing that marijuana is a gateway drug and his department should have latitude to prosecute medical marijuana cases. He’s asking Congress to waive a bipartisan measure passed in 2014 that forbids spending public money to pursue such cases in states where medical marijuana use is legal.

Douglas Berman is a law professor at Ohio State University who has been following Ohio’s move toward legalization, including today’s deadline to apply for licenses to operate Ohio’s smaller cultivation sites.

“It’s his (Sessions) basic belief that marijuana use on its own terms is not healthy and something the society should be condoning. And conversely an awful lot of advocates not only look at marijuana as not nearly as dangerous as other people think, but that it’s  a positive good and one that ought to be  promoted and regulated and available to people.” 

Sessions letter cites the opioid crisis as a reason to clamp down on marijuana use. But medical marijuana advocates in Ohio say it should be approved as a treatment for opioid addiction and an alternative to painkiller prescriptions. 

Berman says Sessions has introduced some uncertainty into what’s expected to be a boom market in Ohio. 

doug_berman_thread_the_needle.mp3
Berman on threading the needle

“Lots of industry interests, lots of beliefs that this will be a robust marketplace for medical marijuana running up against the possibility that federal officials will be expressing an inclination to crack down on that. How that will play out both for the industry and for state officials trying to thread the needle in the months and years ahead remain to be seen.” 

Sessions also is revisiting an Obama-era agreement not to pursue cases in recreational marijuana states.

M.L. Schultze is a freelance journalist. She spent 25 years at The Repository in Canton where she was managing editor for nearly a decade, then served as WKSU's news director and digital editor until her retirement.