The U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday it won't try to stop states from legalizing marijuana.
But that doesn't mean that federally, there'll be any easing up-government officials announced that their intentions to tightened legal codes for prosecutors working on large-scale trafficking cases, CNN reported.
Still, the DOJ's move is being touted as an enormous step back from the United States' War on Drugs, which has effectively been running since the early 1900s.
During a conference call, Attorney General Eric Holder told Colorado and Washington governors that his sector will not try trumping state legislation over weed legalization, instead assuming a "trust but verify approach" to their respective laws.
The two states recently made recreational pot smoking legal.
Under federal law, marijuana will remain illegal as part of the Controlled Substances Act.
The attorney general also released a memo to all governmental lawyers across the U.S., stating that federal marijuana prosecution guidelines were about to get stricter.
Under the new standards, federal prosecutors must zero in on eight main concerns-among them, preventing marijuana sale to young people, looking out for people driving under the influence of drugs, intersecting drug cartels and trafficking, and watching out for marijuana grow-ops in public areas.
For the past few months, marijuana legalization has made enormous strides within state laws, prompting the federal government to adjust its legislation as well.
19 states, along with D.C., have legalized marijuana in some capacity-whether it's completely legal to toke recreationally, or simply allowed for cardholding medicinal users.
The attorney general also mentioned to Washington and Colorado governors that the DOJ is available to work with states to come up with enforcement guidelines that run concurrently with federal laws.
