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The Cole Memorandum was a United States Department of Justice memorandum issued August 29, 2013, by United States Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole during the presidency of Barack Obama. The memorandum, sent to all United States Attorneys , governed federal prosecution of offenses related to marijuana .
The "Mary Lou Eimer Criteria" were instrumental in the issuance of the Cole Memorandum, which has set federal guidelines over states with medical marijuana laws and has urged the federal government to reschedule marijuana to a Class IV or Class V controlled substance based on the results of the Quiggle Study. [citation needed]
In 2018, the administration rescinded the 2013 Cole Memorandum, an Obama-era Justice Department policy that generally directed federal prosecutors not to pursue marijuana prosecutions in states where marijuana is legal as a matter of state law. [2]
Early in President Obama's second term, in August 2013, the Justice Department issued a new Cole memo setting forth the conditions under which federal law would be enforced. The memo was prompted in particular by the recent legalization of non-medical cannabis in Washington and Colorado, but also addressed enforcement in medical cannabis states ...
It followed a 2009 memorandum from Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden directing U.S. Attorneys in the Western United States to "not focus federal resources in your States on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana". [17] The memorandum was ...
Arizona also passes a medical cannabis ballot measure, but it is rendered ineffective on a technicality. [30] 1998: Oregon, Alaska, and Washington all legalize medical cannabis through ballot measure. [31] Nevada also passes a medical cannabis initiative, but it requires second approval in 2000 to become law, as per the state constitution. [32]
After the first states legalized in 2012, the Justice Department issued the Cole Memorandum in August 2013, seeking to clarify how federal law would be enforced. The memo specified eight conditions which would merit enforcement of federal law, such as the distribution of cannabis to minors or the diversion of cannabis across state borders. [176]
In 2018, U.S. states proposed or are expected to propose cannabis reform legislation for medical marijuana and non-medical adult use. State-level legalization remains at odds with cannabis' status as a Schedule I narcotic under the Controlled Substances Act at the Federal level, and the Cannabis policy of the Donald Trump administration appeared to become more hostile than that of the previous ...