{"id":243,"date":"2018-01-19T17:46:43","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T21:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/?p=243"},"modified":"2018-01-19T17:49:57","modified_gmt":"2018-01-19T21:49:57","slug":"massachusetts-us-attorney-issues-warning-to-cannabis-actors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/2018\/01\/19\/massachusetts-us-attorney-issues-warning-to-cannabis-actors\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts US Attorney Issues Warning to Cannabis Actors"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alexandra Slavet<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On January 8, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Andrew E. Lelling, noted in an official statement that he \u201ccannot provide assurances that certain categories of participants in the state-level marijuana trade will be immune from federal prosecution.\u201d This appears to be the strongest negative statement yet from a federal prosecutor following US Attorney General Jeff Sessions\u2019 recent rescission of a series of memoranda which had suggested low prioritization of prosecution of those in the cannabis industry. Sessions is offering each local US Attorney the discretion to pursue prosecutions of state-legal actors as long as they follow long established Department of Justice guidelines for all prosecutions. Other US Attorneys have, for the most part, stayed silent on the issue, confirmed no change in approach, or said they would study the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Massachusetts has approved both medical and adult use of cannabis and is in the process of finalizing regulations to commence the growth and sale of adult use. Medical cannabis has been legal in the Commonwealth since January 2013. Lelling\u2019s statement defers to the federal law and the legislative process, noting that Congress has declared it a federal crime to cultivate, distribute and\/or possess cannabis, and indicates that he will make determinations of whether to prosecute on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n

Lelling\u2019s statement included a hint of hope for Massachusetts cannabis actors, noting the \u201climited federal resources\u201d available to pursue such prosecutions. Lelling\u2019s statement highlights the importance for licensed cannabis establishments in Massachusetts to strictly conform to the legal requirements and keep abreast of the developing regulations. Even though there is no guarantee of immunity from prosecution, if the standard is a case-by-case determination, industry advocates hope that Lelling\u2019s discretion will lead him not to prosecute those abiding by state law.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Alexandra<\/a>About Alexandra Slavet<\/h2>\n

Read Alexandra’s bio<\/a>. View all posts by Alexandra Slavet<\/a><\/span>\u00a0\u2192<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alexandra Slavet On January 8, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Andrew E. Lelling, noted in an official statement that he \u201ccannot provide assurances that certain categories of participants in the state-level marijuana trade will be immune from federal prosecution.\u201d This appears to be the strongest negative statement yet from a federal … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Massachusetts US Attorney Issues Warning to Cannabis Actors”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[217,63,154,218],"ppma_author":[714],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-alexandra-slavet","tag-cannabis","tag-cole-memorandum","tag-massachusetts"],"authors":[{"term_id":714,"user_id":6,"is_guest":0,"slug":"duanemorris3","display_name":"Duane Morris","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/843ff6e7a8fe5fc92109b47a45f34b6cf0ea499e6e788db23456c838b0ae6747?s=96&d=blank&r=g","author_category":"1","last_name":"Sullivan","first_name":"Margaret","job_title":"","user_url":"http:\/\/www.duanemorris.com","description":"Visit the Duane Morris website.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/cannabis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}