Trump says he’ll likely support bill letting states set their own marijuana policies

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President Trump said Friday that he will likely support a bipartisan bill, introduced by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), to allow states to regulate marijuana without federal interference.

“I support Sen. Gardner. I know exactly what he’s doing,” Trump told reporters. “We’re looking at it. But I probably will end up supporting that, yes.”

A day earlier, Garner and Warren, who both represent states with legal recreational marijuana, introduced the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States Act, in response to increasing opposition toward the substance from Trump’s Department of Justice.

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The bipartisan bill would amend the Controlled Substances Act to include a framework that says it no longer applies to those following state, territory or tribal laws “relating to the manufacture, production, possession, distribution, dispensation, administration, or delivery of [marijuana].”

The two senators announced a partnership on the legislation in April in an effort to hold Trump to his word about favoring a states-rights approach to recreational pot, a position he voiced during the 2016 presidential race.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a staunch opponent of marijuana legalization, in January rolled back the so-called Cole memo, which ordered U.S. attorneys in states where the substance has been legalized to deprioritize prosecution of marijuana-related cases.

Warren said the goal of the legislation is to “ensure that each state has the right to determine for itself the best approach to marijuana within its borders.”

Medical marijuana is legal in more than two dozen states and recreational marijuana is legal in nine states and Washington, D.C.

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