During his confirmation hearing on February 22, 2021, Attorney
General nominee Merrick Garland's comments hearkened back to
the Obama-era de-prioritization of enforcement against
marijuana-related crimes under the Cole memorandum, stating:
"This is a question of the prioritization of our resources and
prosecutorial discretion... It does not seem to me a useful use of
limited resources that we have, to be pursuing prosecutions in
states that have legalized and that are regulating the use of
marijuana, either medically or otherwise. I don't think
that's a useful use."
In addition, Garland explained that social justice warranted
such deprioritizing, acknowledging that people of color are
arrested for non-violent marijuana-related crimes at far greater
rates than white people. According to Garland, the federal
government should not be expending resources criminalizing
non-violent marijuana related crimes, as doing so in the past
"has disproportionately affected
