When voters in Colorado and Washington approved referendums that legalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, both states looked anxiously at Washington and wondered how the Department of Justice would enforce federal laws against the weed. Yesterday, DoJ announced that it would relax its enforcement of those laws while concentrating on keeping the drug out of the hands of children and pursuing major traffickers. CNN: Attorney General Eric Holder, in a conference call Thursday morning, notified the governors of Colorado and Washington that the department, for now, will not seek to pre-empt those states' laws, which followed voters' approval of ballot measures that legalized recreational marijuana use. Marijuana will remain illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act. But a department memo to federal prosecutors tightened federal marijuana prosecution standards. Under the new guidelines, federal prosecutors are required to focus on eight enforcement ...(Read Full Post)