Colorado's Legal Marijuana Industry Appears Safe for Now

Colorado's Legal Marijuana Industry Appears Safe for Now

Maura Bennett
Maura Bennett
The Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently sent a letter citing serious issues with Colorado's legal marijuana program. Despite his often vocal opposition to legal pot, advocates say Colorado's pot industry is not in imminent danger of being shut down.

"We haven't seen any demonstrable changes in federal policy as it relates to state legal marijuana programs, we haven't see an uptick in prosecutions. We've been seeing a little bit of an uptick in targeting of some ancillary businesses but, they seem to be violating state law in some fashion."

Morgan Fox with the Marijuana Policy Project also cites a decision by a Dept. of Justice task force subcommittee on marijuana policy against recommending any policy changes that would target state-legal marijuana programs or businesses operating in compliance with state laws.

"It's not binding so we still have to be vigilant about any changes in Department of Justice Policy but, I think that it's very telling that this marijuana task force was looking at state policies for weeks now and was unable to find any glaring reasons for the Department of Justice to change its current policy."

Since legalization in 2014, marijuana sales have brought over a half billion dollars to the state's coffers, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue.

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