{"id":7974,"date":"2018-01-07T01:45:32","date_gmt":"2018-01-07T01:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=2911682"},"modified":"2018-01-07T01:45:32","modified_gmt":"2018-01-07T01:45:32","slug":"hickenlooper-says-he-doesnt-see-the-benefit-of-rescinding-marijuana-policy-for-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/hickenlooper-says-he-doesnt-see-the-benefit-of-rescinding-marijuana-policy-for-trump-administration\/","title":{"rendered":"Hickenlooper says he doesn\u2019t see the benefit of rescinding marijuana policy for Trump Administration"},"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-says-he-doesnt-see-the-benefit-of-rescinding-marijuana-policy-for-trump-administration\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>After news broke earlier this week that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2018\/01\/04\/jeff-sessions-rescinding-legalized-marijuana-policy\/95875\/\">Attorney General Jeff Session has rescinded the Cole Memo<\/a>, changing how the government enforces federal marijuana laws, Gov. John Hickenlooper told CNN Saturday that he didn\u2019t see how the move would help the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not sure I see what benefit there is to the Trump administration or the Department of Justice by flaunting the will \u2014 the votes \u2014 of more than two-thirds of Americans,\u201d Hickenlooper told <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/videos\/tv\/2018\/01\/06\/colo-gov-on-sessions-anti-pot-move.cnn\">CNN\u2019s Michael Smerconish<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The move will reportedly leave it up to individual U.S. state attorneys to determine how aggressively to enforce federal marijuana laws.<\/p>\n<p>The Democrat said Sessions had previously assured him that the Justice Department had limited resources and higher priorities, such as heroin use and sex trafficking. As long as dispensaries and growers were obeying local lawyers, Hickenlooper\u2019s impression was that the federal government wouldn\u2019t pursue them.<\/p>\n<p>Hickenlooper told Smerconish that Congress and states should be working together, especially to ensure the use of banking in the marijuana industry.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>\u201cBanks are as skittish as a young colt,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m afraid they\u2019re going to spook some of these banks out of the business completely and then we\u2019re in an all-cash business. That\u2019s a way to get more cartels and underworld activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The governor pointed to an American Journal of Public Health study that found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2017\/10\/16\/study-marijuana-legalization-reduced-opioid-deaths-colorado\/\">a reduction of opioid overdose deaths<\/a> after the legalization of marijuana. He also noted that the best way to prevent teens from using the drug is to target the black market.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe old system was certainly not a great system,\u201d he said. \u201cWe sent millions of kids, mostly Latinos and African Americans, we sent millions of kids to prison for non-violent crimes. Maybe this system (of legalization) has the potential. Maybe it\u2019s not yet. We\u2019re continuing to improve it every year. Maybe this is a better approach long term.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>After news broke earlier this week that\u00a0Attorney General Jeff Session has rescinded the Cole Memo, changing how the government enforces federal marijuana laws, Gov. John Hickenlooper told CNN Saturday that he didn&#8217;t see how the move would help the Trump administration. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5062,52,596,6811,6857,6964,2097,6813,77,5577,5667,7474,9,5019,441,1,3,6963,61,1736],"tags":[5063,2632,3169,6816,6859,6967,4665,6818,2655,5580,5673,7475,5022,3015,6966],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974"}],"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=7974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}