OKLAHOMA CITY (Legal Newsline) – Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt filed a brief that asks the Supreme Court of the United States to consider the question of whether Colorado’s recreational marijuana law violates federal law.
The brief comes after arguments from the Obama administration that claimed the Supreme Court should ignore the case. The states of Oklahoma and Nebraska, however, want the court to sue Colorado for the damage its laws are causing their citizens.
“The state of Colorado would be prosecuted as a drug cartel if it were based south of the border,” Pruitt said. “The Obama administration has failed to enforce federal law, and that neglect has allowed Oklahoma and Nebraska to suffer harm from Colorado’s marijuana trafficking. This lawsuit is not about whether states are required to criminalize marijuana or enforce federal law. Instead, this litigation is the last resort of Oklahoma and Nebraska – made necessary by the Obama administration’s neglect – to stop the flow of Colorado marijuana into our states.”
Oklahoma noted in the brief that Colorado’s law, which generates $100 million per month from marijuana, led to the export of at least 2 tons of marijuana to 36 states in 2014.