“I am not going to tell Colorado or California or someone else that possession of marijuana is legal under United States law,” Sessions told students after a speech at Georgetown University’s law school.

But, he added, federal prosecutors “haven’t been working small marijuana cases before, they are not going to be working them now.”

Of particular interest to the DOJ are problems that federal authorities have tried for years to tackle, such as illegal marijuana-growing operations on national parklands and gangs that peddle pot along with more harmful drugs.

It remains to be seen whether prosecutors will seek to punish state-sanctioned marijuana businesses.

Sessions told the students it’s up to U.S. attorneys to “decide how to handle” state-legal marijuana businesses.