Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper says the only way to stay on the federal government’s good side in the fight against cannabis is to “regulate the living daylights out of it.”
The democrat told Cheddar in an interview Wednesday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ negative stance towards marijuana creates friction between state and federal authorities.
“It’s very frustrating,” he said. “If states really are the laboratories of democracy, [legalization] is a huge social experiment going on all across the country.”
That friction only creates uncertainty in the cannabis industry, leaving business leaders in a lurch.
“[But Sessions] wants that uncertainty, he wants it to be bad for business,” said Hickenlooper.
In order to maintain a positive relationship with the federal government, states like Colorado have to make sure there’s no risk of funny business, so opponents won’t be able to make a case against them.
“We’re going to make sure that it is not corrupt, we don’t have gangs, we don’t have cartels, we are really going to work as hard as we can to make this…clean and above board,” Hickenlooper explained, pointing out that Colorado’s cannabis industry is currently worth $1.5 billion a year and “there’s taxes collected” on that.
In 2012, Colorado became one of the first states to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes.
“You can’t have laws that nobody obeys,” he said. “It’s just not good for society.”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-one-thing-that-wakes-colorado-governor-john-hickenlooper-up-at-night).
Elon Musk is dialing back his threat to decommission a capsule used to take astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station for NASA. T
President Donald Trump is threatening to cut Elon Musk’s government contracts as their fractured alliance rapidly escalated into a public feud.
President Donald Trump wants his “big, beautiful” bill of tax breaks and spending cuts on his desk to be singed into law by Independence Day. And he’s pushing the slow-rolling Senate to make it happen sooner rather than later. Trump met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the White House early this week and has been dialing senators for one-on-one chats, using both the carrot and stick to encourage them to act. But it’s still a long road ahead for the bill. Senators want to make changes to protect Medicaid and to make sure some tax breaks become permanent. Elon Musk called the whole bill a "disgusting abomination.”
China has blasted the U.S. for issuing AI chip export control guidelines, stopping the sale of chip design software to China, and planning to revoke Chinese student visas.
Would U.S. companies go back to Russia if there’s a peace deal over Ukraine?
The explosive growth of the data centers is eliciting some pushback.
President Donald Trump’s doubling of tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum could hit Americans in an unexpected place: grocery aisles.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday allowed the president to temporarily continue collecting the tariffs under the emergency powers law while he appeals the trade court’s decision.
President Donald Trump wants the world to know he’s no “chicken” just because he’s repeatedly backed off high tariff threats.
Wall Street is rallying after President Donald Trump delayed a 50% tariff on goods coming from the European Union.
