Jeff Sessions, southern Colorado law enforcement discuss marijuana enforcement

On Friday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with several law enforcement officials from all over Colorado — one of the main topics of discussion was the legalization of recreational marijuana and what it means for local police agencies.

El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder said he was able to talk to Sessions about what worked well when Colorado legalized cannabis, and what aspects continue to make it difficult for law enforcement to regulate.

“He did have some questions about what went wrong, and what could they have done better on the front end when it came to regulating some of these grows. So he was very well aware of that,” said Sheriff Elder.

One major issue that was brought up was the plant count. State law in Colorado recently changed to cap recreational growers to only 12 plants per property. That change gave law enforcement more freedom to approach large grow operations and question their legality.

Without that cap before, pretty much anyone could grow dozens of marijuana plants.

Many law enforcement agencies said that opened the door for illegal grows to move in and begin operations, and start shipping the product out of state.

Elder says the new rule changes have helped his office be able to crack down on black market growers.

Some other key attendees from southern Colorado were Colorado Springs Police Chief Pete Carey and Pueblo Police Chief Troy Davenport.