Wyoming U.S. Attorney Darin Smith will now prosecute people who possess or use marijuana on federal lands, stiffening criminal consequences in the state’s internationally renowned Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.
Smith’s decision follows the Trump administration’s rescission in September of a more relaxed Department of Justice guidance toward marijuana possession written during the Biden administration, the attorney’s office announced Thursday.
“Marijuana possession remains a federal crime in the United States, irrespective of varying state laws,” Smith said in a statement Thursday. “The detrimental effects of drugs on our society are undeniable, and I am committed to using every prosecutorial tool available to hold offenders accountable.”
The attorney’s office said, “Marijuana offenses occurring on federal land, such as national parks, will now be rigorously prosecuted.”
In 2022 and 2023, then-President Joe Biden pardoned thousands of people convicted of marijuana use or possession on federal lands and in the District of Columbia. U.S. attorneys were discouraged from prosecuting those types of offenses, Smith said in a statement Thursday, which “significantly curtailed federal prosecutions of misdemeanor marijuana offenses.”
Some Wyoming cannabis users in national parks have derided the new policy.
“National Parks are reserved for recreation, for the benefit and enjoyment of the American people,” one marijuana user told the online news site Wyofile. “Why add more restrictions to our public lands?”
It has long been prohibited to have, use or sell weed in public in national parks such as Wyoming’s Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Marijuana is legal in two states’ bordering Wyoming: Colorado and Montana. But federal lands are subject to federal law, which classifies marijuana as a Schedule I illegal drug, alongside drugs considered at high risk of abuse such as heroin and LSD. Last year, the Department of Justice moved toward reclassifying the drug on the recommendation of the Biden administration’s Health and Human Services Department.
National parks in some regions have struggled with both recreational marijuana enthusiasts and drug traffickers who use remote public lands to grow the plant.
In August, rangers at the Sequoia National Park in California seized 2,377 full-grown marijuana plants from the backcountry, along with hazardous chemicals and roughly 2,000 pounds of trash. It was the latest in a two-decade effort to respond to marijuana cultivation in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks that included taking nearly 300,000 plants, valued at nearly $850 million.
