海角大神

West Hollywood is painted with rainbow flags. Known as聽鈥淭he Creative City,鈥澛爐his counterculture hub is set in rolling hills, thrumming with thrift stores, vegetarian restaurants, and, since Jan. 1, four dispensaries selling recreational cannabis.

The most populous state in the union, with 39 million people, started allowing legal recreational pot sales three days before the Justice Department threatened to step up enforcement of federal prohibition.聽

As people waiting in a line outside West Hollywood鈥檚 MedMen brush off a rainstorm, Iain McDonald, an actor and Lyft driver from Australia, says he鈥檚 puzzled by what he sees as a 鈥渨ar on California.鈥� 鈥淲hen they say state vs. federal 鈥� as an outsider 鈥� that doesn鈥檛 feel right,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he other countries I know would try to work with their states, not fight them.鈥�

On America鈥檚 other coast, at the eastern terminus of historic Route 80, the Tybee Island Lighthouse throws shafts of light into a foggy night as war veterans gather at American Legion Post 154.

The post commander, Chuck Bolen, Jr., a Vietnam War veteran, leads a group of vets mostly living the retired life, who largely voted for President Trump.

But when asked about the American Legion begging Congress to deregulate marijuana to possibly help soldiers in pain, Mr. Bolen shrugs in agreement. In his experience, he says, weed is not a gateway to harsher drugs, but a potential 鈥渆xit drug鈥� for veterans addicted to opioid pain medications.

To the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, both the Australian actor and the Georgia veteran are wrong. In 2016, Mr. Sessions, then an Alabama senator, urged Congress to acknowledge that 鈥渢his drug is dangerous, you cannot play with it, it is not funny, it鈥檚 not something to laugh about 鈥� and [Congress should] send that message with clarity that good聽people don鈥檛 smoke marijuana.鈥�

The decision by Sessions on Jan. 4 to rescind an Obama-era memo that allowed states to decide for themselves whether to legalize marijuana is in many ways a direct challenge to federalism. It also may hasten a showdown in Congress, which is under growing pressure to allow states alone to either regulate or prohibit the plant.

The X factor is whether the disparate groups pushing for federal marijuana deregulation 鈥� from pot growers in Texas to legionnaires on the Georgia coast 鈥� can see eye to eye long enough to force Congress鈥櫬爃and on a prohibition that goes back to the 1930s and was enshrined in the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

Either way, the heated power struggle represents, law experts say, a monumental moment for states鈥� rights in America and a major rethink of core values by Republican powerbrokers.

鈥淚鈥檝e seen stories on, 鈥楥ongratulations, Jeff Sessions, you just hastened marijuana legalization,鈥� 鈥� says University of Denver law professor Sam Kamin, co-author of 鈥淐ooperative Federalism and Marijuana Regulation,鈥澛燼 UCLA Law Review article. 鈥淭hat may be wishful thinking. But the conversation is happening now.鈥�

A year after Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, then-assistant attorney general James Cole formalized the Obama White House position in the so-called 鈥淐ole memo,鈥� which offered a semblance of certainty to states rejecting the federal prohibition of the substance. Sessions scrapped that direction, giving broader latitude to enforce federal law back to the 93 US attorneys.

Former US attorney Barbara McQuade notes in a Monitor interview that some US attorneys may go the 鈥渆xtreme鈥� route to target growers, dispensers, and even users. Several US attorneys have signaled they are not likely to interfere with activities that the states are regulating and taxing. But the US attorney in Massachusetts, for example, has refused to signal his intent, which could complicate a summer deadline to allow recreational sales, passed by voter referendum.

Sessions鈥檚 move sent stock valuations plummeting in what has, in five years, become a multibillion dollar industry, with markets open or opening from Portland, Ore., to Portland, Maine. Twenty-nine states now regulate legal sales of medical marijuana, eight of which also offer it for recreational use. It is now also legal for Americans to possess 鈥� though not buy 鈥� recreational marijuana in Washington, D.C.

鈥淯ntil last week, a venture capital investor could say, 鈥楬ey, all of the momentum is on the side of more and more [marijuana] markets opening,鈥� but now their business lawyer has to say, 鈥業t looks like the federal government is going to muck up the works 鈥� rocky times ahead,鈥� 鈥� says Doug Berman, a constitutional law professor at the Moritz School of Law, at Ohio State University.

Politically and culturally, Mr. Berman adds, the policy shift allows Americans worried about long-term health and societal impacts of state-regulated marijuana to urge caution. 鈥淣ow that the federal government shows it is committed to enforcing prohibition,鈥� he says, 鈥渋t is all the more reason [for them] to take a slow approach.鈥�

Kevin Sabet, head of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), an anti-legalization group, praised the Sessions announcement. 鈥淭his is a good day for public health,鈥澛爃e said in a statement at the time. 鈥淭he days of safe harbor for multi-million dollar pot investments are over.鈥� The former Obama Administration drug policy adviser added, 鈥淒OJ鈥檚 move will slow down the rise of Big Marijuana.... Investor, banker, funder beware.鈥澛�

States meanwhile, are pushing back. Attorneys general from 20 states wrote to congressional leaders Tuesday聽seeking an expansion of banking options for businesses in the legal marijuana trade.聽

鈥楨volution of thought鈥� on both sides of aisle

The Trump administration is also facing pushback from its own party.

Republican congressmen such as California鈥檚 Duncan Hunter, Alaska鈥檚 Don Young, and Florida鈥檚 Matt Gaetz see Sessions鈥檚 move as an attack on voting majorities in their states, who voted to legalize.

Sen. Cory Gardner (R) did not support legalization in Colorado in 2012, but is now defending what has grown into a billion dollar a year industry in his state. He emerged from a meeting with Sessions last week saying a congressional showdown on prohibition seems imminent.聽Sen. Patrick Leahy (D) of Vermont noted that the stance may play into a January deadline to reauthorize a 2014 law that directed the DOJ to not interfere with medical marijuana regulators in the states.

Rep. Tom Garrett, a Virginia Republican, is part of a shift in thought that could move the country fundamentally. He has introduced SR 1227, which would remove marijuana out of the Controlled Substances Act, which would wash Washington鈥檚 hands of weed. He predicts it would win an up-or-down vote in the House today, were leadership to allow his bill to the floor.

鈥淭he first time I ever heard the term 鈥榤edical marijuana鈥� I probably laughed,鈥� acknowledges Representative Garrett, a former assistant attorney general in Virginia.聽

But he says that an 鈥渋nterminable鈥� queue through his office of veterans, parents, and other Americans pleading for deregulation has, for him, helped shape a deeper rethink of the constitutional implications of pot prohibition. It took a constitutional amendment to justify banning alcohol, during the Prohibition era, which lasted for a decade.

He says most Americans have become persuaded that states are able to competently regulate marijuana as they do other potentially hazardous drugs, including alcohol and tobacco.

Noting that he does not care whether marijuana is legal in California or illegal in Alabama, Garrett says, 鈥淢y problem, especially as a former [assistant attorney general], is that I find nothing in our foundational documentation or in concept that would give the federal government purview over a plant which, if left to its own devices, would grow naturally in all 50 states.鈥�

鈥淲e are in a paradigm where people go to federal prison for the same exact activity that would make them a candidate for entrepreneur of the year depending on which state they are in,鈥� he continues. 鈥淛ustice that is not blind is by definition also not justice. If I was languishing in federal prison on a marijuana charge 鈥� and that still happens today 鈥� I would be very bitter.鈥�

In that light, he says, he has taken Sessions up on his challenge to fix the law instead of questioning rule-of-law. The ensuing debate 鈥渋s a great thing from a philosophical standpoint, [signifying an] evolution of thought on both sides of the aisle. That鈥檚 good for us as a nation.鈥�

In fact, Gallup reported earlier this month that for the first time just over half of all Republicans, 51 percent, support legalization of recreational marijuana. Ninety-four percent of Americans support medical marijuana as prescribed by a doctor, according to a 2017 Quinnipiac Poll.

In Nevada, state Sen. Tick Segerblom says there would be 鈥渞iots in the streets鈥� if federal agents began prosecuting a nascent industry that already employs 7,000 people.

鈥淩epublicans are running away from [marijuana prohibition] because if you were to run as an anti-marijuana candidate in Nevada today, there鈥檚 only one possible outcome: You would lose,鈥� says Mr. Segerblom.

Long-time cultural antipathy for the intoxicant is shifting even in the deepest of red states, observers note.

In Georgia, Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, never a pro-marijuana advocate, signed a law in 2015 that legalized the use of cannabis extracts for a handful of childhood illnesses, including the relief of epileptic seizures. The Alabama legislature in 2016 passed Leni's Law, which decriminalized the drug for limited medical purposes.

And this month, Schulenburg, Texas, the home of the Texas Polka Music Museum, will watch as a newly-licensed farm and dispensary begins selling low-THC compounds to consumers, marking the first entr茅e of legal marijuana in a state defined both by its social conservatism and its staunch defense of states鈥� rights.

In part, says Mike Maharrey of the Tenth Amendment Center, that marijuana legalization is taking root even in red state America is an acknowledgement that federal prohibition evokes 鈥渘o sense of liberty, no sense of what the people want.鈥�

鈥榃e鈥檙e neck deep in this鈥�

For Mr. Bolen, the Tybee Island legionnaire, a few joints smoked in the 1970s constitutes the extent of his personal experience. But classifying marijuana as a substance with no medical benefits runs counter to his assessment of the needs of a new generation of Afghan and Iraq war veterans struggling with opioid addiction, suicidal thoughts, chronic pain, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

That sense of American veterans being denied a treatment is why 鈥渨hat Sessions is doing, well, I don鈥檛 like it," Bolen says. This week,聽 the United States Department of Veterans once again said, given the federal prohibition, it cannot research any potential medical benefits.

But momentum toward legalization may be difficult to reverse, even for the federal government, says Daniel Yi, communications chief for West Hollywood鈥檚 MedMen.

鈥淚 mean, think about this: You can travel the whole western United States now and buy pot,鈥� says Mr. Yi. 鈥淎nd by this summer you can do that all the way to Vancouver because Canada is going to legalize marijuana under federal law. We are not knee deep in this 鈥� we鈥檙e neck deep in this.鈥�