U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has loomed as a threat to the legalized marijuana industry. But Sessions, at the helm of the U.S. Justice Department since February, hasn’t taken any overt action to undermine state regulations, giving some hope to cannabis advocates that the longtime critic of recreational cannabis will not interfere in state schemes.

John Vardaman, general counsel to Arizona software startup Hypur Inc., helped craft the Obama-era Justice Department policy toward marijuana enforcement—a series of memos, under the name of then-Deputy Attorney General James Cole, that essentially said the federal government would leave alone state regulatory programs.

Addressing the Cannabis Law Institute conference in Denver, Vardaman said Sessions had the opportunity to launch a crackdown on July 27. But Sessions did not make any grand statements.

 

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