Obama administration SCOTUS brief seen as boon to Colorado recreational marijuana industry

Oklahoma and Nebraska banded together in a lawsuit in 2014, asking the Supreme Court to shut down Colorado’s recreational marijuana industry.

Leaders in those states say the trafficking of pot across state lines puts a strain on law enforcement officers.

Now, the states have been dealt a blow by a top lawyer in President Obama’s administration.

“It had very little chance of success before and it has almost no chance now,” KRDO political analyst and UCCS professor Josh Dunn said. “It’s going to be very difficult for Oklahoma and Nebraska to gain any traction with this case.”

U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verilli wrote a brief to the Supreme Court asking the justices not to hear the case.

“No matter how small it is it’s a step in the right direction,” Jason Warf, the executive director of the Southern Colorado Cannabis Council, said. “Anyone in a position of power like this, it carries a lot of weight.”

“The illegal products being distributed in Colorado are being trafficked across state lines thereby injuring neighboring states like Oklahoma,” Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt said..

Dunn argues the opinion of Verilli is a signal from the Obama administration that it will uphold Amendment 64 and the will of the voters.

“This brief should end whatever little hope they already had,” Dunn said.

We contacted several pot shops in Manitou Springs Thursday but they all declined our requests for interviews.