The Govt. can easily shut down say the top dozen sellers and growers. Well with-in manpower limitations. Plus, it sends a signal to other sellers/growers. Maybe, say, shut down by xx date. Or risk prosecution. The easiest path for the Feds is to send Cease and Desist letters to the top growers/sellers. And if they don't, arrest them. If it goes that route, the shock waves will ripple across the state. As all legal proceedings will be in Federal Court. The Defendants won't have a legal leg to stand on.

This is clearly a prelude to a targeted crackdown, and if people don't think the feds have the resources to do it, witness how quickly ICE changed the face of this country. Get ready.

@1: Assuming your scenario plays out and a case ends up on court...wanna lay odds on getting a conviction out of a jury in WA state? Hint: even redneck republicans smoke pot.

Well isn't this all very pro-regulation, anti-business.

@4, you're exactly right. This looming crisis should should -- once and for all -- give the lie to the myth that Republicans are anti-big government and pro-state and -individual rights.
In actual practice, when the G.O.P. deems that "morality" is involved it's quick to bring Federal legal force to bear on local policies or private behavior.
The Democrats should be rubbing their noses in this stinking hypocrisy, and making sure all Americans finally see it.

But hey, at least we didn't end up with that lessor of two evils, right? Thank god we dodged that!

@6 - Please let me know when they would've been able to do that during a time when marijuana was legal at the state level.

"Durkan repeated her stance that it will be `nearly impossible' to `physically investigate and prosecute every legal shop.'"

Sure. But it will be very easy to pressure any particular legal shop.

Consider the leverage that local police continued to wield after direction to deprioritize enforcement of all cannabis-prohibition-related laws. That one is unlikely to be prosecuted for pot possession does not necessarily reduce the likelihood that one will be threatened with such if suspected of another, more-difficult-to-prove, violation.

"In addition, she announced the she will prohibit Seattle police officers from cooperating with authorities enforcing federal marijuana laws."

How does she define "cooperate" in this context? How does she intend to accomplish this? How can we verify compliance? What recourse will there be if and when the prohibition is violated?

If people form a picket line around their local pot shop, blocking access by DEA agents, or if during a raid people block the path of DEA vehicles, on whose side will we find our local peace officers?

@6: ludicrous. the Dems had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate for approximately never - a short moment before Kennedy succumbed to brain cancer.

this is just governing as Stigginit.

"Who could have imagined that Trump would thump a blue state which is a sanctuary state/city, suing his administration for travel bans and opposes all his other policies."

Speaking of thumping: "So please [Mr. Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions] don't stop with pot. Go after all those opiate users in West Virginia, Kentucky, and other southern states that are the biggest abusers of illegal opiates. Throw them all in jail. That will teach them for their moral failings. Every Republican knows that drug abuse is strictly a moral dilemma caused by weak character. The best GOP remedy is punishment. So punish them." -- from Bruce Rozenblit's excellent comment on Tim Egan's scathing column in today's New York Times.

Oh, and here's another: "After all, anyone so backward, so ignorant, and so callous as yourself who would criminalize that which people want and hurts next to no one would be a total hypocrite and phony if he didn't go after really bad stuff in his backyard. You know, those white southern rural users of illegal opiates."

Last one: "Meanwhile, while you are cleaning up America, make darn sure that you don't crack down on illegal gun sales. The 35,000 that die from guns each year are not a public health problem like pot. That's freedom, man!"

Freedom from stupidity -- that's what we chiefly need.

Sorry, here's the link to "Department of Injustice" by Timothy Egan:

www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/opinion/sessi…

#7 I wasn't aware that Two Evils, WA had only one landlord.

#13, The link doesn't work. I think it got truncated.

Apologies for the crap link.

'Department of Injustice,Timothy Egan, NYT' should get you there.