Colorado senator Cory Gardner, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee charged with defending GOP incumbents in the 2018 midterm elections, is especially worked up today, since he is the one who proudly told reporters last winter that he would vote to confirm Sessions as Attorney General only after securing Sessions' word that the Justice Department would not interfere with state-level decisions about marijuana policy. (Great work, senator! Your constituents are probably just thrilled with you right now.)

Meanwhile, Democrats in the Colorado state senate—who, unlike Gardner, are not currently grappling with the political ramifications of their gullibility and spinelessness—are also upset with this development, but in a manner best described as a bit more sanguine.

All prosecutors enjoy a fair amount of discretion in deciding which cases to pursue, and if I were a U.S. attorney in a state that had legalized recreational pot sales, I'd be very reluctant to stick my neck out for Jeff Sessions here, trampling on the democratic process, robbing my state of billions in potential tax revenue, and diverting valuable prosecutorial resources from pressing public safety issues in the process. As several DOJ lawyers told me last year, it was this Obama-era guidance that allowed them to go after large, dangerous, cartel-style drug-smuggling operations instead of hauling every small-potatoes dealer into court.

For these reasons, unless Sessions issues new guidance that somehow compels his subordinates to take action in a given class of marijuana-related cases, today's news might end up having little practical impact. Colorado U.S. attorney Bob Troyer, a Sessions appointee, has already announced that his office had no plans to change its protocols, and others are likely to follow suit. Still, it's comforting to know that in a country in which opioid overdoses killed an estimated 66,000 Americans last year, eradicating a substance that killed zero people is, once again, a top priority for your federal government.