Colorado AG: Home hash oil production is illegal

Colorado’s top law enforcement official says manufacturing high-potency marijuana oil is not legal under the state’s first-in-the-nation recreational marijuana law.

State Attorney General John Suthers wrote in a court brief Tuesday that the law prohibits the dangerous production of hash oil, which has caused a number of fiery explosions and injuries this year as pot users try to make it at home. Some prosecutors have been charging individual hash-oil creators with felonies, while others have not pursued criminal charges at all.

Suthers filed a brief in response to a western Colorado man’s contention that Mesa County prosecutors improperly charged him with a crime for manufacturing hash oil. An attorney for Eugene Christenson argued in a court filing that the substance is legal under Amendment 64, which legalized marijuana.

Suthers says it’s a safety issue.