{"id":7239,"date":"2017-02-26T20:56:43","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T20:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=2545288"},"modified":"2017-02-26T20:56:43","modified_gmt":"2017-02-26T20:56:43","slug":"hickenlooper-its-unclear-whether-trump-could-stop-legal-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/hickenlooper-its-unclear-whether-trump-could-stop-legal-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"Hickenlooper: It\u2019s unclear whether Trump could stop legal marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/hickenlooper-its-unclear-whether-trump-could-stop-legal-marijuana\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, as a\u00a0guest on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d on Sunday, downplayed the possibility that the Trump administration would take aim at Colorado\u2019s recreational marijuana industry, saying legalization\u2019s inclusion in the state Constitution makes it unclear whether the federal government could shut it down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur voters passed it 55-45. It\u2019s in our constitution,\u201d Hickenlooper told <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/meet-the-press\/meet-press-02-26-17-n725781\">\u201cMeet the Press\u201d moderator Chuck Todd on Sunday.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t think it\u2019s clear that the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/02\/23\/sean-spicer-marijuana-medical-recreational-trump-administration\/74255\/\">federal government could stop you?\u201d<\/a> Todd asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExactly,\u201d Hickenlooper replied.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to his confirmation as attorney general, Jeff Sessions suggested to U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner that enforcement of federal marijuana law in states that have approved recreational pot would not be a priority, Hickenlooper said.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t worth rising to the top and becoming a priority,\u201d Sessions told Gardner, according to Hickenlooper.<\/p>\n<p>Before voters approved\u00a0Amendment 64 in 2012, the governor opposed legalizing recreational pot.\u00a0Todd asked him if he would support the amendment if it were on the ballot today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, I\u2019m getting close. I mean, I don\u2019t think I\u2019m quite there yet, but we have made a lot progress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere has been no spike in use by teenagers, and we\u2019re getting anecdotal reports of less drug dealers. \u2026 Maybe this system is better than what was admittedly a pretty bad system to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Todd introduced Hickenlooper, former Denver mayor who won gubernatorial terms in 2010 and 2014, saying his is a \u201cfrequently whispered name in the early stages of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2017\/02\/23\/hickenlooper-not-running-for-president\/\">Democratic presidential sweepstakes for 2020<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Democrats seem to be uniting around a plan to oppose anything President Donald Trump wants passed, Todd said, asking if Hickenlooper believes such an attitude would \u201cbite\u201d the party at some time.<\/p>\n<p>Hickenlooper said he didn\u2019t know the answer to that, but noted that Republicans took every opportunity to block any legislative victories by Barack Obama. \u201cYou can\u2019t blame anybody for being that upset. And also there\u2019s been a lot of problems in the first month of this administration.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A guest on NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Meet the Press&#8221; Sunday, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper downplayed the possibility that the Trump administration would take aim at the state&#8217;s recreational marijuana industry, saying legalization&#8217;s inclusion in Colorado&#8217;s Constitution makes it unclear whether the federal government could shut it down. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6811,6857,6964,2097,6813,77,6815,5667,9,6855,5019,441,1,3,5271,6963,61,1736],"tags":[6816,6859,6967,4665,6818,2655,6820,5673,6856,5022,3015,5277,6966],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}