{"id":8522,"date":"2018-11-09T01:33:04","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T01:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=3265679"},"modified":"2018-11-09T01:33:04","modified_gmt":"2018-11-09T01:33:04","slug":"new-attorney-general-must-protect-states-rights-on-marijuana-colorado-sen-cory-gardner-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/new-attorney-general-must-protect-states-rights-on-marijuana-colorado-sen-cory-gardner-says\/","title":{"rendered":"New attorney general must protect states\u2019 rights on marijuana, Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner says"},"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\/new-attorney-general-must-protect-states-rights-on-marijuana-colorado-sen-cory-gardner-says\/\" 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><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/new-attorney-general-must-protect-states-rights-on-marijuana-colorado-sen-cory-gardner-says.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The next U.S. attorney general is going to have to respect the decision of Colorado and other states to legalize recreational and medical marijuana \u2014 at least if Republican Sen. Cory Gardner has his way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhoever comes after him is going to face some pretty tough questions about where they stand on states\u2019 rights and making sure they will stand up for states\u2019 rights,\u201d Gardner told The Denver Post on Thursday. \u201cI am going to demand that the new attorney general side with the president because the president is right on states\u2019 rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gardner blocked President Donald Trump\u2019s nominees to the Justice Department for three months in early 2018 after Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded something called the Cole Memorandum, an Obama-era policy that outlined a set of rules for states that legalized marijuana to follow if they wanted to avoid federal intervention.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI obviously had my differences with Attorney General Sessions, particularly as it related to the Cole Memorandum,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n<p>He ended his blockade in April after talking to Trump on the phone and getting what he described at a commitment to protect Colorado and other states where marijuana is legal.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>When asked what should happen to the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible coordination between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia, Gardner said it should \u201cabsolutely continue,\u201d adding that \u201cthe president has said he wants it to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Gardner was less certain about whether he\u2019d support a bill to protect the investigation, which his outgoing colleague, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffFlake\/status\/1060633950433890304\">says he will try to pass<\/a>\u00a0before leaving office.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, was clear about his position on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenBennetCO\/status\/1060278693766021120\">Twitter.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur institutions are being tested,\u201d he wrote after the news of Sessions\u2019 resignation broke. \u201cThe Senate Majority must stand up for the rule of law instead of cowering from its responsibility as an independent check on this President and his effort to undermine the Mueller investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>The next U.S. attorney general is going to have to respect the decision of Colorado and other states to legalize recreational and medical marijuana &#8212; at least if Republican Sen. Cory Gardner has his way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6811,6857,7163,5662,8006,6964,6813,77,5667,56,9,7308,6855,5019,441,7717,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[6816,6859,7165,5668,8007,6967,6818,2655,5673,2636,7311,6856,5022,3015,7740],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8522"}],"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=8522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}