Attorney General Jeff Sessions has for a second time this week publicly bashed marijuana legalization, abandoning his confirmation-process reticence to discuss the topic and reclaiming his colorful opposition.

On Tuesday, Sessions told a Washington ballroom packed with state attorneys general – many of them in charge of defending laws that conflict with federal prohibition – that pot legalization should be resisted, though he did not describe any specific plans to challenge state-regulated markets.

Attorneys general of three states with laws allowing for recreational sales told U.S. News after the remarks that Sessions needs to clarify his intentions toward the voter-approved laws that have spawned a multibillion-dollar state-legal industry.

“Marijuana is a cure for opiate abuse? Give me a break," Sessions had told the room, discounting what he said was a recent Washington Post article associating lax pot laws with less opioid abuse, a link demonstrated by research.

"This is the kind of argument that’s been made out there, almost a desperate attempt to defend the harmlessness of marijuana or even its benefits,” he said. “I doubt that’s true. Maybe science will prove I’m wrong, but at this point in time you and I have a responsibility to use our best judgment – that which we’ve learned over a period of years – and speak truth as best we can. My best view is that we don’t need to be legalizing marijuana.”

He also opined that "I’m not sure we’re going to be a better, healthier nation if we have marijuana being sold at every corner grocery store.” Grocery stores do not sell marijuana in states that regulate its medical or recreational use.

On Monday, Sessions used another argument against marijuana legalization, suggesting that violence has been used to settle drug-debt disputes. Advocates argue transaction-related violence is less likely under legalization than when black market dealers are the only vendors.

“We need to get clarity on what exactly his views and those of the Justice Department will be,” says Maura Healey, the Democratic attorney general of Massachusetts, which allows medical marijuana and whose voters in November authorized regulated recreational sales.

Federal law makes it a crime to possess marijuana for any reason outside limited research, but a majority of states allow its medical use – with those programs presently protected by a congressional spending rider and expressed White House support – and eight states and the nation’s capital allow recreational use.

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, a Republican who personally opposed her state’s pioneering recreational marijuana initiative in 2012, tells U.S. News she is concerned about Sessions' remarks.

Elected in 2014, Coffman told colleagues in 2015 that legalization was "not worth it.” But she says that now she believes things have gone “better than I thought they would.”

“We’ll send him a letter and say, ‘You need to come to Colorado and visit us and see what we’re doing with regulation and enforcement before coming in with some sort of edict,'” she says. The most pressing federal policy change she advocates would allow easier banking access for the state-legal industry to make tax collection more efficient.

Coffman, who successfully defended her state's law against a lawsuit from Nebraska and Oklahoma, says she believes Colorado has done a good job partnering with federal authorities to enforce priorities outlined in a 2013 Department of Justice memo that have allowed for state-regulated recreational markets, pointing specifically to efforts to bust large-scale illicit activity.

During his confirmation hearing last month, Sessions didn’t say much about his vision for marijuana enforcement, but did suggest the so-called Cole Memo's priorities – which include preventing underage use, drugged driving and interstate diversion – had not been pursued.

Coffman says she believes her state’s cannabis businesses should be concerned following Sessions’ Tuesday talk.

“Yes, I do [think they should be concerned], based on what I heard this morning,” she says. “They should be considering how they can protect their investment and they should talk to their attorneys.”

It’s unclear what exactly a Sessions crackdown on state-regulated businesses would look like. But with billions in annual sales, hundreds of millions in tax revenue and thousands of jobs on the line, states are likely to put up a fight – with Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, pledging a court fight over any attempt to destroy his state's regulated marketplace.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a former Democratic congressman, says he was aware of Sessions’ views before his Tuesday remarks and that he’s hopeful there will be a productive dialogue on implementing the will of his state’s voters, who backed a November initiative allowing for regulated recreational sales.