Governors demand Trump administration keep hands off pot laws

The governors of four western states that allow recreational marijuana warned the Trump administration against cracking down on pot sales inside their borders.

“We understand you and others in the administration have some concerns regarding marijuana,” the governors of Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska wrote Monday in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

“We sympathize, as many of us expressed apprehensions before our states adopted current laws.”

The letter was signed by Govs. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), Kate Brown (D-Ore.) and Bill Walker (I-Alaska), who represent the first four states to allow recreational marijuana use.

Since then, another four states — California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada — and Washington, D.C., have voted to allow recreational marijuana.

The governors said the marijuana laws have not only strengthened their local economies, but also “reduced inequitable incarcerations.”

Marijuana is prohibited under federal law, but a growing number of states provide safe havens by declining to enforce the ban within their own borders.

The Obama administration opted not to interfere with the marijuana policies in these states. But some have questioned whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions will crack down.