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WASHINGTON — Willliam Barr, President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney general, said he won’t go after businesses and individuals in states that have legalized marijuana.

Barr said he did not support former Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision last January to reverse policy and tell federal prosecutors that they once again could enforce federal marijuana laws in states that had legalized the drug for medical or recreational use.

New Jersey allows medical marijuana and Gov. Phil Murphy has been negotiating with legislative leaders on a bill that would legalize weed for recreational use.

“My approach to this would be not to upset settled expectations,” Barr said during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. “Investments have been made. There has been reliance on it. I don’t think it’s appropriate to upset those interests.”

His comment was in response to a question from U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who is the sponsor of bill that would legalize marijuana under federal law.

Barr, who served as U.S. attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, made his position even clearer during later questioning by U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.

“To the extent people are complying with the state laws in distribution and production and so forth, we’re not goin to go after that,” Barr said.

However, he said he was troubled by states deciding on their own to legalize cannabis despite the federal ban.

“It’s almost like a back-door nullification of federal law,” Barr told Booker. “We either should have a federal law that prohibits marijuana everywhere, which I would support, myself, because I think it’s a mistake to back off on marijuana. However, we want a federal approach. If we want states to have their own laws, then let’s get there and let’s get there the right way.”

Later, Barr told Harris that Congress needed to take action. Legislation introduced in the last Congress by Booker would remove the federal ban on marijuana, while the bipartisan Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States, or STATES, Act, which would leave it up to individual states to decide whether marijuana should be legal.

“We can’t stay in the current situation,” Barr said. “It’s incumbent on the Congress to make a decision as to whether we’re going to have a federal system or whether it’s going to be a central federal law. This is breeding disrespect for the federal law.”

Congress repeatedly has blocked the Justice Department from spending money to enforce the law in states that have legalized cannabis for medical use, including New Jersey.

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Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.