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Letter: Where are Utah's states' rights defenders when it comes to pot?

Gov. Gary Herbert holds a news conference to release his proposed 2018 budget at Davis Technical College in Kaysville, Utah, on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP)

I probably don’t need to point out the irony to Gov. Gary Herbert, but I will.

The day after he told middle schoolers that marijuana would soon have some legal status in Utah (“it’s gonna happen”), U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that because marijuana is akin to heroin (according to him), the federal government will reinstate federal intervention against legalized marijuana, despite the fact that 29 states have legalized some form of personal use.

Whether you support marijuana use or not, you should be concerned about the federal government’s determination to make this federal law supersede the voted-upon laws of states, which in this case represents a full third of the country’s population after California’s recent legalization.

Herbert and the rest of Utah’s state leadership are quick to invoke the concept of “states’ rights” when it comes to their pet causes of public lands, health care and air quality, and they also purport to support local businesses, which invariably pop up like, well, weeds when states legalize.

Will Utah’s leaders maintain their “states-manship” in the face of this new mandate by their friends in the Trump administration?

Tom Diegel, Salt Lake City