Oklahoma and Nebraska: Time to Get on the Right Side of History

Well, it was only going to be a matter of time before other states started to have a problem with Colorado’s progressive marijuana policy.

Last week, neighboring states Oklahoma and Nebraska officially filed suit against the state of Colorado and their laws allowing the cultivation and sale of marijuana for anyone over the age of 21. The Attorney Generals for both states filed a suit with the United States Supreme Court, claiming that the law has impacted their law enforcement’s ability to uphold the federal guidelines that continue to put marijuana in a class of drugs with heroin and cocaine.

I could easily continue on here about how Oklahoma and Nebraska are citing the Supremacy clause in the constitution that says that federal laws should supersede state laws, and that they are seeking that the feds step in after almost a year, but it’s a waste of time to write it and a waste of your time to read about it.

As a Colorado resident who is employed in the marijuana industry and who writes for this website, I can’t say that I’m not biased in this case. Of course I am on the side of Colorado, whose Attorney General has said that he will defend Amendment 64 and believes that this suit has no merit. Luckily, I also have the facts on my side and rapidly have history on it, as well.

And the facts are that only 7% of the considerable amount of marijuana sold at legal Colorado marijuana dispensaries were purchased by out-of-state residents; it is obviously inevitable that some of this was going to get out of Colorado and into the hands of people in other states that already use marijuana, despite the fact that it remains illegal in their state.

The state of Colorado has definitely done what they can to make sure that marijuana does not get into the hands of minors and other people who should not have access to the drug, but Colorado alone cannot be held responsible for the actions of everyone that comes through here to score some legal herb.

Colorado and Washington states might have been the first states to change the insanely outdated policies on marijuana, and as more and more states continue to move into the future with every election, the bottom line is that other states are going to need to move with them.

When you look at the overall trends, and see President Obama pardoning several non-violent drug offenders who have been jailed for years under arcane marijuana laws, and then notice that more and more states are starting to join Colorado, the complaints of the supposedly overworked police forces of states like Oklahoma and Nebraska read as just downright silly.

While the state-by-state approach to reforming marijuana policy will certainly lead to more conflicts like this with other bordering states, of the increasing number of states choosing sensible marijuana reform, it’s obvious which side needs to re-think their stance.

Instead of wasting their citizens’ tax dollars on enforcing the outdated laws, it’s high time (pun intended) that they focus their resources into something that is going to actually help people (like treatment for actual drug addicts and violent offenders, not busting tourists who bring back a joint or two on their ski vacation).