FORT COLLINS, COLORADO — Getting high around a campfire in a national park, especially in Wyoming, will likely land you in court under a new Justice Department policy that cracks down on minor marijuana crimes on federal lands.
The new guidelines for marijuana on federal lands mirror a policy in place at the end of Joe Biden’s presidency that “significantly reduced” federal prosecution of marijuana crimes, according to U.S. Attorney for Wyoming Darren Smith.
“I want to make it clear to all of our law enforcement partners and everyone out there that we have been and will continue to enforce these laws,” Smith said Thursday.
Smith has been implementing the Justice Department’s new marijuana policy since it was issued in late September, he said. His office and the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., declined to provide the document or 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 lands where this policy applies.
The number of marijuana citations issued among the more than 8 million park visitors each year 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 has not tracked recent minor marijuana prosecutions.
Under state law, marijuana remains illegal in Wyoming for recreational or medical use. Marijuana is legal for medical use in most states and legal for recreational use in about half of the states.
But marijuana on federal land — 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 daily basis — is another matter. Federal law still classifies marijuana, along with substances such as heroin and LSD, among Schedule I drugs that are considered to have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical benefit.
The Interior Department, which oversees national parks through the National Park Service and federal law enforcement on tribal lands through the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, declined to comment via email on the new policy other than to say it continues to enforce controlled substance laws.
The federal change comes as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to reduce prosecution of some minor crimes in national parks. On Monday, for example Excuse me Trump A runner leaves his mark during a record-breaking ascent and descent of Grand Teton, the highest peak in Wyoming’s Teton Range.
The practical impact of the new marijuana policy will still be dictated by resources — that is, the number of law enforcement officers available — to investigate marijuana crimes, said Lori Levinson, a Loyola Marymount University professor and former federal prosecutor.
“What that means is it gives a lot of discretion to federal law enforcement and marshals to decide whether they want to press charges,” Levinson said.
More action may be possible after the Interior Department announced Friday that it will hire “500 highly qualified and experienced law enforcement officers” to work for the National Park Service.
It was not clear how federal prosecutors in other states were implementing the new policy. Spokesmen for US attorneys in Arizona and Montana did not respond to messages seeking comment. The US Attorney’s Office in Colorado declined to comment.
Charging and prosecuting minor marijuana crimes can be helpful for investigations of more serious crimes, said Rhianna Durrett, director of the Cannabis Policy Institute at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
“That may not be the case here, but it could be the case,” Durrett said via email.
A representative of the marijuana legalization advocacy group NORML downplayed the policy, saying federal authorities never stopped enforcing marijuana laws under the Biden administration.
“However, the Trump administration appears to be making a misplaced use of limited federal resources to engage in ‘aggressive prosecution’ of those who possess small amounts of cannabis on federal land,” Paul Armentano, NORML’s deputy director, said in an email.
Trump said in August that it was Weight changes On how the drug is regulated, noting that he has heard “great things” about the medical use of marijuana but “bad things about almost everything else.”
Biden in 2023 Amnesty for thousands of people Who have been convicted of using and possessing marijuana on federal land and in the District of Columbia. The pardon followed long-standing criticism of 1994 crime legislation that Biden supported while in the Senate that led to increased arrest and incarceration rates for drug crimes, especially for blacks and Latinos.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Colin Slevin in Denver and Jacques Billaud in Phoenix contributed.