{"id":7258,"date":"2017-03-03T22:11:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T22:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=2556127&amp;preview_id=2556127"},"modified":"2017-03-03T22:11:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T22:11:00","slug":"dancing-but-no-dank-fed-threat-means-toned-down-cannabis-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/dancing-but-no-dank-fed-threat-means-toned-down-cannabis-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing but no dank: fed threat means toned-down Cannabis Cup"},"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\/dancing-but-no-dank-fed-threat-means-toned-down-cannabis-cup\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"row\" id=\"sticky-outer\">\n<div class=\"large-11 small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: Mar 3, 2017, 2:28 pm \u2022 Updated: Mar 3, 2017, 9:45 pm<span class=\"single-comments-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/03\/03\/cannabis-cup-2017-toned-down-federal-letter\/74896\/#disqus_thread\" class=\"commentsNameLink\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <strong>Ken Ritter<\/strong>, <em> The Associated Press<\/em><\/p>\n<p>LAS VEGAS \u2014 A federal prosecutor has snuffed out plans by pot fans to celebrate Nevada\u2019s new recreational marijuana law by lighting up on an Indian reservation near Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Attorney <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/03\/01\/feds-threaten-high-times-las-vegas-cannabis-cup\/74610\/\">Daniel Bogden took a hard line in a letter to organizers of a cannabis festival this weekend<\/a>, saying federal law applies and pot smokers could be prosecuted.<\/p>\n<p>Bogden wouldn\u2019t comment Friday beyond referring to the Feb. 16 letter he sent to the Moapa Band of Paiutes.<\/p>\n<p>The warning from the top federal prosecutor in Nevada came while several U.S. senators are airing concerns about the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/02\/23\/sean-spicer-marijuana-medical-recreational-trump-administration\/74255\/\">possibility of a Trump administration crackdown on marijuana<\/a> in states that have legalized pot for recreational or medicinal purposes.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada joined nine other Democrats and one Republican, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/03\/02\/marijuana-department-of-justice-senators-letter\/74797\/\">signing a Thursday letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., sent a similar letter to Sessions on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Organizers of the High Times Cannabis Cup festival said there will still be music, T-shirts and souvenirs at the event at a Moapa Band of Paiutes festival site.<\/p>\n<p>But spokesman Joe Brezny said it will essentially be just a concert this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve removed the marijuana,\u201d he said. \u201cThere will be no smoking area, no edibles competition, no cannabis topicals or lotions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brezny said more than 10,000 tickets were sold this week for the two-day event Saturday and Sunday at a site about 35 miles north of the Las Vegas Strip. The concert is headlined by hip-hop artist Ludacris.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Capecchi, federal policies chief at the Marijuana Policy Project advocacy group in Washington, D.C., said a lot of attendees might be disappointed or upset that they can\u2019t smoke on site.<br \/>But he noted that laws are different in federal areas within the eight states that have legalized recreational marijuana and the 28 states and the District of Columbia where medical marijuana is legal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a different balance between the federal government and Indian tribes and the federal government and the states,\u201d Capecchi said.<\/p>\n<p>Nevada is still getting its enforcement footing after recreational marijuana became legal Jan. 1. Voters approved allowing adults to possess and use up to an ounce of pot, but consumption isn\u2019t allowed in casinos or public places.<\/p>\n<p>Bogden said a 2013 Obama administration directive that was seen as relaxing enforcement on tribal lands in states where pot is legal might have been misinterpreted.<\/p>\n<p>Pot is still illegal in Indian Country and on federal land, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The sentence in his letter to the tribe was underlined, along with the warning that \u201cfederal investigation and prosecution may still be appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That was enough to prompt the tribe to declare that its police and event security won\u2019t allow smoking, selling or transporting marijuana at its festival grounds near its fireworks stand, liquor outlet and smoke shop just off Interstate 15.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope that attendees enjoy themselves and comply with applicable law,\u201d Darren Daboda, chairman of the tribe with about 350 members and a sprawling 112-square-mile reservation, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The festival is modeled after a Cannabis Cup event held since 1988 in Amsterdam, which now has offshoots in pot-friendly states including Washington, California, Oregon, Colorado and Michigan.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>The 2017 High Times Cannabis Cup \u2013 Nevada is scheduled for March 4-5. The Cup will be held across the street from the Moapa Paiute Travel Plaza:<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<hr \/>\n<p> <a title=\"View U.S. Attorney letter to the Moapa Paiute Tribe about the Cannabis Cup on Scribd\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/340544155\/U-S-Attorney-letter-to-the-Moapa-Paiute-Tribe-about-the-Cannabis-Cup#from_embed\">U.S. Attorney letter to the Moapa Paiute Tribe about the Cannabis Cup:<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal prosecutor has snuffed out plans by pot fans to celebrate Nevada&#8217;s new recreational marijuana law at the 2017 Cannabis Cup near Las Vegas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6811,6908,6813,77,6886,9,6995,5019,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[6816,6910,6818,2655,6889,6996,5022],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7258"}],"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=7258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}