Myth – Feds Don’t Prosecute Marijuana

A criminal law myth is that the feds don’t prosecute marijuana cases.

In order for a case to go federal, the feds do need to have a threshold amount of drugs involved. What they take really depends on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and I’m sure how busy they are and what the substance at issue is.

In our practice, we’ve handled at least two marijuana cases on the federal level. But, as you can probably tell, marijuana gets prosecuted at a lower rate than other substances.

Still, the feds do prosecute marijuana.

The two cases we’ve had that were prosecuted by the feds for marijuana trafficking involved either very large quantities—one case had over a metric ton of marijuana—or they involved situations where the feds realized the original charge wasn’t viable.

For example, in one case, the feds came after a client for crack cocaine distribution, only to realize they had confused him with his cousin—same name, different person. But by the time they figured that out, it was too late to back out. So they offered us a marijuana plea because they discovered our client had been growing and distributing marijuana without a proper permit.

So, while the feds may not be interested in every marijuana case, they still prosecute them—just in smaller numbers compared to other controlled substances, especially here in New York.