Colorado’s Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper agrees with the state’s Republican Senator, Cory Gardner, on at least one thing: Attorney General Jeff Sessions previously said he would have a hands-off approach regarding marijuana.
“I have met with General Sessions, and he explicit,” the governor said Thursday at a press conference, explaining that Sessions has emphasized his disagreement with any drug use. “That being said, he has said to Senator Gardner, he’s said to me… he has said to a number of other governors that he recognizes the limitations of on the resources of the justice department, and that his priority is going to continue to be heroin and hard drugs, the opioid epidemic, sex trafficking.”
Yet in light of Thursday’s announcement in which Sessions said U.S. Attorneys should look to the federal standard when prosecuting people for marijuana, the governor has a hunch that there won’t be much official action taken.
“I hope this is more bark than bite,” he told Next with Kyle Clark. “I don’t see what it does the Trump administration or the justice department to be against two-thirds of the country.”
However, Hickenlooper does hope Sessions’ memo encourages Congress to take action to not only allow banks to work freely with the marijuana industry, but to allow the entire country to engage in this “social experiment,” if a state would choose.
He fears that if the industry operates with a cash market, it could open up the door to the black market or cartels, which Colorado has worked for years to get rid of.
