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Getting high in a national park, especially around a campfire WyomingYou are likely to be prosecuted under a new Justice Department A policy cracking down on minor marijuana offenses on federal lands.
New guidance for marijuana on federal lands reverses a policy from the end Joe BidenAccording to Wyoming’s U.S. Attorney Darrin Smith, the presidency “substantially reduced” federal prosecution of misdemeanor marijuana crimes.
“I want to make it clear to all of our law enforcement partners and everyone out there that we are, have been and will continue to enforce these laws,” Smith said Thursday.
Smith has been implementing the new Justice Department marijuana policy since it arrived in late September, he said. His office and the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., declined to provide the documents or the previous policy to The Associated Press.
Wyoming is home to two busy national parks, Yellowstone and Grand Teton, and like many western states has thousands of square miles (kilometres) of federal land where the policy applies.
A breakdown of how many citations are issued for marijuana possession among the more than 8 million visitors each year to both parks was not readily available. Smith, who was sworn in as Wyoming’s U.S. attorney in August, said his office handles thousands of cases and does not keep track of recent smaller marijuana lawsuits.
Under state law, marijuana remains illegal for recreational or medicinal use in Wyoming. Marijuana is legal for medical use in most states and for recreational use in about half of the states.
But marijuana on federal lands – whether it’s a national park, a national forest, or a U.S. Bureau of Land Management area overseen by federal law enforcement on a day-to-day basis – is another matter. Federal law still classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, along with substances like heroin and LSD, which are considered to have a high potential for abuse and have no accepted medical benefits.
Department of the InteriorThe National Park Service, which oversees federal law enforcement on tribal lands through national parks and the Bureau of American Indian Affairs, declined to comment on the new policy other than to say it continues to enforce controlled substance laws.
Federal change comes as president donald trumpThe administration wants to reduce the prosecution of some minor crimes in national parks. For example, on Monday, Trump pardoned a runner who missed the mark during a record ascent and descent of Grand Teton, the highest peak in Wyoming’s Teton Range.
The practical impact of the new marijuana policy will be dictated by resources — namely how many law enforcement officers are available — to investigate marijuana crimes, said Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Marymount University professor and former federal prosecutor.
“What it does mean, however, is that it gives federal law enforcement and the Rangers a lot of discretion to decide whether they want to press charges,” Levenson said.
More enforcement may be possible after the Interior Department announced Friday that it is recruiting “500 highly qualified, experienced law enforcement officers” to work for the National Park Service.
It was unclear how federal prosecutors in other states were enforcing the new policy. Spokespeople for the U.S. attorneys in Arizona and Montana did not respond to messages seeking comment. The U.S. attorney’s office in Colorado declined to comment.
Charging and prosecuting minor marijuana crimes could be useful for investigating more serious crimes, said Riana Durrett, director of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Cannabis Policy Institute.
“This probably isn’t the trend here but it could be,” Durrett said by email.
A representative from marijuana legalization advocacy group NORML downplayed the importance of the policy, saying federal officials never stopped enforcing marijuana laws under the Biden administration.
“This appears to be a misuse of limited federal resources by the Trump Administration to ‘harshly prosecute’ those in possession of small amounts of cannabis on federal lands,” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said in an email.
In August Trump said he was considering changes to the way the drug is regulated, saying he had heard “good things” about the medical use of marijuana, but “bad things associated with everything else.”
In 2023, Biden pardoned thousands of people who were convicted of marijuana use and simple possession on federal lands and in the District of Columbia. The pardon followed long-standing criticism of a 1994 crime law that Biden supported while in the Senate, which increased arrest and incarceration rates for drug crimes, particularly for Black and Latino people.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Colleen Slevin in Denver and Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed.