The state Attorney General’s Office today instructed local prosecutors to either dismiss or adjourn any pending low-level marijuana cases. The directive comes weeks after a super-majority of voters approved a ballot question calling on lawmakers to legalize the adult-use marijuana market.
Lawmakers are continuing to debate multiple pieces of enabling legislation to make marijuana possession, production, and retail sales legal. In the interim, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal is directing that marijuana possession related prosecutions be halted. “Fairness demands that we suspend prosecution of marijuana possession-related cases while we await direction from the Legislature on the parameters for decriminalization of marijuana and legalization of regulated adult-use cannabis,” Grewal said. “It simply does not make sense or serve justice to proceed with prosecutions on charges that may be foreclosed soon through legislative action.”