This is the Kator Daily Podcast for Friday, January 19th, 2018. I'm Caleb Brown.

Jeff Sessions has authorized his U.S. attorneys to be more aggressive in enforcing federal

marijuana laws in states where it is legal.

What does that mean for federalism, the rule of law and crime in those states?

Trevor Burris is a research fellow at the Cato Institute.

For today's Cato Connect, we talked about all of that and more.

Jeff Sessions has essentially rescinded guidance

that the Obama administration provided to U.S. attorneys about sort of laying

off prosecutions in states where medical marijuana or recreational marijuana has been made legal.

So what did that guidance actually say?

So of course federal law still prohibits marijuana and it actually not just prohibits it.

It treats marijuana as a fundamentally dangerous substance as dangerous as heroin.

More dangerous in fact than cocaine, which is a schedule two substance.

None of that changed when Colorado legalized and Washington legalized or any of the

states legalized but of course at the same time federal prosecutors haven't don't do the bulk of marijuana

prosecutions it's it's technically federally legal for you to smoke marijuana in your

basement but you should you were never really concerned that the US

attorneys and US agents were going to be the ones coming to get you when you're smoking.

Mostly trafficking, mostly moving between interstate lines.

That's how it was before and it kind of seemed that way when Colorado legalized but in 2013 the coal memo was issued by the Obama administration just sort of clarifying

this is the only thing, these are things that we care about.

We care about illicit uses, trafficking outside of the states where it's legalized,

...