Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at legalized marijuana.  And what a week it was!  From California’s legalization of recreational pot to the rescinding of the Cole Memorandum, this has been a roller coaster ride for the industry.

Let’s start with California’s legalization:

• Legal recreational pot in California: What you need to know
  (Albany Democrat Herald: National, 31 December 2017)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California on Monday becomes the nation’s largest state to offer legal recreational marijuana sales.

• California’s cannabis businesses prepare for ‘Repeal Day’
  (The Mercury: News, 31 December 2017)

For the Bay Area’s cannabis community, legalization means reckoning with capitalism never imagined in Haight-Ashbury’s “turn on, tune in, drop out”  ethos of the late ’60s.

• Chart: California recreational marijuana sales set to begin in limited number of stores
  (Marijuana Business Daily: News, 1 January 2018)

Recreational cannabis sales officially begin in California today, but fewer than 100 adult-use retail licenses have been issued throughout the state – which may lead to long lines and out-of-stock issues for the rec stores able to open their doors on New Year’s Day.

• Happy New Year: Recreational marijuana now legal in California
  (The Cannabist: The Cannabist, 1 January 2018)

Marijuana is now legal in California for adults 21 and older, and individuals can grow up to six plants and possess as much as an ounce.

So as the week began, the industry was “riding high.”  But what goes up, must come down.  So let’s have a look at Thursday’s news:

• Trump Administration Taking Step That Could Threaten Marijuana Legalization Movement
  (New York Times: 4 January 2018)

The Trump administration on Thursday will free federal prosecutors to more aggressively enforce marijuana laws, effectively threatening to undermine the legalization movement that has spread to six states, most recently California.

• Sessions is rescinding Obama-era directive for feds to back off marijuana enforcement in states with legal pot
  (Washington Post: 4 January 2018)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is rescinding an Obama-era directive that discouraged enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states that had legalized the substance, according to people familiar with the decision.

• Sessions to nix Obama-era rules leaving states alone that legalize pot
  (CNN Politics: 4 January 2018)

In a seismic shift, Attorney General Jeff Sessions will announce Thursday that he is rescinding a trio of memos from the Obama administration that adopted a policy of non-interference with marijuana-friendly state laws, according to a source with knowledge of the decision.

• The Justice Department is rescinding critical rules directing the federal government to keep its hands off of states’ legal marijuana
  (Business Insider: 4 January 2018)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is rescinding the Obama-era policy that had paved the way for legalized marijuana to flourish in states across the country, two people with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press.

2018 is starting off with a bang!