Recreational Businesses, Workers, and Users Hung Out to Dry by Feds

The Denver Post has published a scathing piece on Colorado lawmakers' failure to protect businesses, workers, and users of recreational cannabis.

Cannabis is legal for all uses under Colorado law but not under to federal law - a flashpoint between the states and this federal administration.

"A $1.3 trillion plan to fund the federal government through the end of September won’t include protections for the recreational marijuana industry — a blow to Colorado lawmakers who tried to add that language to the must-pass bill. The legislators wanted the measure to include a provision that would prohibit the U.S. Department of Justice from spending money to crack down on recreational use in states that had legalized the drug.

Congress has protected medical marijuana this way for the past several years — and did so again in the 2,232-page spending bill — but several Colorado lawmakers wanted to broaden that shield after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in January rescinded an Obama-era policy that generally left alone states such as Colorado that had legalized marijuana."

According to the article, Bennet and Gardner were among 18 senator who wrote the Senate Committee on Appropriations last month to request that their colleagues respect state laws.

Cannabis laws were battling for space with laws about guns, border security, and even a major transportation project in New York City.

Image source: The Denver Post