ACKRELL CAPITAL CHAPTER IV_ U.S. Legal Landscape U.S. Department of Justice: The Cole Memo A memorandum published by the DOJ in August 2013 (Cole Memo) provides guidance to DOJ attor- neys and federal law enforcement about prosecuting cannabis-related federal offenses. The Cole Memo asserts that marijuana is a dangerous drug, that illegal distribution of marijuana is a serious crime which provides revenue to criminal enterprises and that the DOJ is committed to enforcing marijuana-related violations of federal law. The Cole Memo also notes, however, that the DOJ is committed to using its limited investigative and prosecutorial resources to address the most significant threats in the most effective, consistent and rational way. The Cole Memo guides DOJ attorneys and federal law enforcement to focus on the following eight enforcement priorities when considering prosecutions for marijuana-related CSA violations (and also, according to a Cole Memo update issued in February 2014, when considering prosecutions for marijuana-related violations of the federal money laundering statute, the unlicensed money transmitter statute and the Bank Secrecy Act): 1. Preventing distribution of marijuana to minors. 2. Preventing revenue from the sale of marijuana from going to criminal enterprises, gangs and cartels. 3. Preventing the diversion of marijuana from states where it is legal under state law in some form to other states. 4. Preventing state-authorized marijuana activity from being used as a cover or pretext for the trafficking of other illegal drugs or other illegal activity. 5. Preventing violence and the use of firearms in the cultivation and distribution of marijuana. 6. Preventing drugged driving and the exacerbation of other adverse public health consequences associated with marijuana use. 7. Preventing the growing of marijuana on public lands and the attendant public safety and environmental dangers posed by marijuana production on public lands. 8. Preven