Oklahoma and Nebraska are still hoping to find the support in federal court to put a stop to the Colorado cannabis industry, according to a recent report from The Cannabist.
On Tuesday, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver is slated to begin hashing out the arguments in an appeals case, which insists that the legal weed being sold throughout the state of Colorado has created an wild-eyed spectacle of interstate lawlessness.
The case, which is a merger of two separate appeals, is a feeble attempt by Oklahoma and Nebraska to continue swinging at the very complaint that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected in March of last year.
The mess began back in 2014, right after Colorado launched the nation’s first recreational pot market, when the attorney generals of the two neighboring states started raising hell because they felt the sale of legal marijuana was taxing the resources of their respective law enforcement agencies.
The complaint, which they did not waste any time submitting to the U.S. Supreme Court, claimed that the implementation of Amendment 64 had caused the two states to suffer “a direct and significant detrimental impact,” as a result of increased drug trafficking.
Throughout the case, most pot proponents did not see the lawsuit as posing a significant threat to the cannabis industry, but policy experts were all saying the verdict could have “devastating implications” for retail marijuana sales. This is because a ruling in favor of Oklahoma and Nebraska could have shut the doors on all marijuana cultivation and dispensary operations nationwide.
But in the end, the nation’s highest court dismissed the controversial case, electing not to offer any accompanying statement to indicate a reason. The only final word on the case came from Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, who contested the Court’s opinion, because they felt the plaintiff states had a case that deserved to be heard.
It is not yet known how long the augments in the appeals case will carry on. However, MERRY JANE will keep you posted, as updates become available.