{"id":7658,"date":"2017-08-18T00:27:08","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T00:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=2755709&amp;preview_id=2755709"},"modified":"2017-08-18T00:27:08","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T00:27:08","slug":"the-sessions-letters-read-the-u-s-attorney-generals-missives-to-the-first-four-states-to-legalize-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/the-sessions-letters-read-the-u-s-attorney-generals-missives-to-the-first-four-states-to-legalize-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sessions Letters: Read the U.S. attorney general\u2019s missives to the first four states to legalize 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\/the-sessions-letters-read-the-u-s-attorney-generals-missives-to-the-first-four-states-to-legalize-marijuana\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-10 large-centered small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: Aug 17, 2017, 5:01 am \u2022 Updated: Aug 17, 2017, 4:04 pm<span class=\"single-comments-link\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <span class=\"author\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/author\/alabak\/\" rel=\"author\">Aleta Labak<\/a><\/span><em>, The Cannabist Staff<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In April, the governors of the first four states to legalize recreational marijuana asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to \u201cengage with us before embarking on any changes to regulatory and enforcement systems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sessions responded at the end of July with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/08\/04\/jeff-sessions-colorado-marijuana-letter-hickenlooper\/85404\/\">four letters<\/a> addressed to the governors of Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/08\/16\/jeff-sessions-letter-alaska-marijuana-governor-bill-walker\/86261\/\">In each letter<\/a>, Sessions referred to regional and state data depicting serious public health and safety issues arising from marijuana legalization and raised questions about the efficacy of their respective marijuana regulatory regimes.<\/p>\n<p>This week, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/08\/16\/jeff-sessions-marijuana-alaska-washington-letters\/86224\/\">Alaska Gov. Bill Walker and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee followed up with official responses<\/a> to Sessions, questioning the data he had cited about their states. The Cannabist has confirmed a response will be forthcoming from Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and has made an inquiry to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown\u2019s office as to if and when that state will respond.<\/p>\n<p>For comparing and contrasting, The Cannabist has gathered all the documentation from Sessions\u2019 letters to the states\u2019 top officials:<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<hr \/>\n<h4>Sessions\u2019 July 24 letter to <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3933501\/Jeff-Sessions-Marijuana-Policy-Letter-to-Alaska.pdf\">Alaska Gov. Bill Walker<\/a>:<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3933501\/Jeff-Sessions-Marijuana-Policy-Letter-to-Alaska.pdf\">AG Jeff Sessions\u2019 marijuana policy letter to Alaska received 8\/3\/17 (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3933501\/Jeff-Sessions-Marijuana-Policy-Letter-to-Alaska.txt\">AG Jeff Sessions\u2019 marijuana policy letter to Alaska received 8\/3\/17 (Text)<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<hr \/>\n<h4>Sessions\u2019 July 24 letter to <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3913305\/Sessions-Hickenlooper-July-24-2017-Letter.pdf\">Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper<\/a>:<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3913305\/Sessions-Hickenlooper-July-24-2017-Letter.pdf\">Sessions Hickenlooper July 24 2017 Letter (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3913305\/Sessions-Hickenlooper-July-24-2017-Letter.txt\">Sessions Hickenlooper July 24 2017 Letter (Text)<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<hr \/>\n<h4>Sessions\u2019 July 24 letter to <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3914642\/AG-Jeff-Sessions-letter-to-Oregon-Gov-Kate-Brown.pdf\">Oregon Gov. Kate Brown<\/a>:<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3914642\/AG-Jeff-Sessions-letter-to-Oregon-Gov-Kate-Brown.pdf\">AG Jeff Sessions\u2019 letter to Oregon governor about marijuana legalization (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3914642\/AG-Jeff-Sessions-letter-to-Oregon-Gov-Kate-Brown.txt\">AG Jeff Sessions\u2019 letter to Oregon governor about marijuana legalization (Text)<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<hr \/>\n<h4>Sessions\u2019 July 24 letter to <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3913307\/Sessions-Inslee-July24-2017-Letter.pdf\">Washington Gov. Jay Inslee<\/a>:<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3913307\/Sessions-Inslee-July24-2017-Letter.pdf\">Sessions Inslee July24 2017 Letter (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3913307\/Sessions-Inslee-July24-2017-Letter.txt\">Sessions Inslee July24 2017 Letter (Text)<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<hr \/>\n<h4>Governors of AK, CO, OR and WA <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3534680\/AK-CO-OR-WA-Govs-Marijuana-Letter-4-3-17.pdf\">April 2017 letter to Sessions:<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3534680\/AK-CO-OR-WA-Govs-Marijuana-Letter-4-3-17.pdf\">AK CO OR WA Govs Marijuana Letter 4 3 17 (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3534680\/AK-CO-OR-WA-Govs-Marijuana-Letter-4-3-17.txt\">AK CO OR WA Govs Marijuana Letter 4 3 17 (Text)<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-meta-tags\">\n<div class=\"entry-tags\">Topics: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/alaska\/\" rel=\"tag\">Alaska<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/alaska-marijuana-sales\/\" rel=\"tag\">Alaska marijuana sales<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/bill-walker\/\" rel=\"tag\">Bill Walker<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/colorado\/\" rel=\"tag\">Colorado<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/colorado-marijuana-sales\/\" rel=\"tag\">colorado marijuana sales<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/jay-inslee\/\" rel=\"tag\">jay inslee<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/jeff-sessions\/\" rel=\"tag\">Jeff Sessions<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/john-hickenlooper\/\" rel=\"tag\">John Hickenlooper<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/kate-brown\/\" rel=\"tag\">Kate Brown<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/oregon\/\" rel=\"tag\">Oregon<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/oregon-marijuana-sales\/\" rel=\"tag\">oregon marijuana sales<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/sessions-and-the-states\/\" rel=\"tag\">Sessions and the states<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/washington-recreational-marijuana\/\" rel=\"tag\">washington recreational marijuana<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/tag\/washington-state\/\" rel=\"tag\">Washington state<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-meta-author\">\n<div class=\"authorimage\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/author\/alabak\/\" rel=\"author\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/the-sessions-letters-read-the-u-s-attorney-generals-missives-to-the-first-four-states-to-legalize-marijuana.jpg\" class=\"authormug\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p class=\"author-desc\">This Colorado native joined The Cannabist in January 2014 as a digital producer, after working behind the scenes for The Denver Post since 1999 in News, Features and Sports as a copy editor and designer. These are fascinating times,&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>In April, the governors of the first four states to legalize recreational marijuana asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to &#8220;engage with us before embarking on any changes to regulatory and enforcement systems.&#8221; Sessions responded at the end of July with four separate letters. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[407,6811,6964,2097,6813,77,6814,6815,5667,6858,9,6833,6855,5019,170,441,1,3,173,61,1736],"tags":[2985,6816,6967,4665,6818,2655,6819,6820,5673,6860,6835,6856,5022,2748,3015,2751],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7658"}],"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=7658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}