The Department of Justice today issued a memo announcing that it has told the Governors of Washington and Colorado that it is "deferring its right to challenge their legalization laws." That's big news to a burgeoning local industry standing on shaky legal ground. They will, however, be keeping an eye on a list of eight other national priorities that include keeping weed out of the hands of minors and making sure Washington weed doesn't trickle over into other states. "We share those concerns and are confident our state initiative will be implemented as planned," Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a joint announcement released this morning.
McGinn was quick to laud the announcement in a Tweet, but Washington may not be entirely out of the woods yet: The DOJ memo was quite clear that if Washington doesn't enforce these priorities to a suitable level, all bets are off. Cue pivot to Seattle's interim police chief, Jim Pugel, who made the obligatory reassuring noises in his marijuana statement today. "Our department will continue our mission of public safety, harm reduction and public education encouraging safe and lawful behavior,“ he said reassuringly. Don't mess it up, boss.
