Colorado, Washington square off with border states over pot lawsuit

The top law enforcement officials in Colorado and Washington are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a lawsuit from states that seek to strike down Colorado laws that legalize recreational marijuana use.

Oklahoma and Nebraska filed their suit with the Supreme Court, arguing Colorado’s move to legalize marijuana conflicts with federal drug regulations.

The Oklahoma and Nebraska attorneys general contend that easy access to marijuana has led to a surge in trafficking, with residents crossing into Colorado to purchase pot legally and sell it illicitly at home in Nebraska or Oklahoma. Kansas has also considered joining the suit.

In a 49-page brief filed Friday, Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman urged the nation’s highest court to throw out the suit.

“My office remains committed to defending Colorado’s law,” Coffman said in a statement. “At the same time, I share our border states’ concerns regarding illegal marijuana activity, and my office, as well as our partner state and local law enforcement agencies, are committed to stopping marijuana diversion. This lawsuit, however, even if successful, won’t fix America’s national drug policy.”

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a friend-of-the-court brief Friday asking the Supreme Court to dump Nebraska and Oklahoma’s lawsuit, suggesting it could also threaten laws in his state.

“I am disappointed that Nebraska and Oklahoma took this step to interfere with Colorado’s popularly enacted initiative to legalize marijuana,” he said in a statement.

In their briefs, Coffman and Ferguson argued the Supreme Court should adhere to its long-standing policy of not settling policy disputes between the states.

Citing evidence of the lawsuit’s merits, Aaron Cooper, a spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, pointed to the recent take-down of an interstate drug ring that was trafficking medical marijuana from Colorado to other states.