Potential federal crackdown on marijuana causes concern for local retailers

Alicia Stice, 

In the three months leading up to Feb. 14, 2012, Organic Alternatives medical marijuana dispensary owner Steve Ackerman sold off as much of his inventory as he could and destroyed what he could not.

That included both the marijuana plants he had growing and the products on his shelves. He knew that, come February, the police would be at the door of his Fort Collins shop — and every other dispensary in town — to make sure he closed his doors for good. Just a few months prior, Fort Collins voters banned medical marijuana dispensaries from operating within city limits.

"We basically just sold out of everything," he said. "We had to destroy it."

Five years later, the Trump administration has indicated it will likely step up enforcement of federal drug laws that prohibit marijuana use and sales. As cannabis retailers in Fort Collins wait for more information, the uncertainty feels familiar to those who were around for the exile that began in 2012.

Ackerman was able to reopen his store in Fort Collins a year and half after he shut it down following the November 2012 election when city voters overturned the dispensary ban and voters statewide voted to decriminalize recreational marijuana use.

But the effects of the city's short-lived ban on medical marijuana dispensaries have lingered. Ackerman remembers there were 21 dispensaries in the city prior to the ban; now the city has 11.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters last week that he expected to see "greater enforcement" of federal laws prohibiting recreational marijuana use.

The 2011 election barring dispensaries in Fort Collins city limits was more straightforward than increased federal enforcement would be, mostly because having conflicting federal and state laws puts local law-enforcement officers in an awkward position. Because the 2011 election was local, it posed no such dilemma to Fort Collins police officers, who are bound to enforce city, not federal, laws.

"If we were asked to enforce (federal marijuana law), that's really tricky," Fort Collins Police Services Lt. Jeremy Yonce said. "If we were asked today, I'd be in the city attorney's office asking for advice."

Nobody is quite sure what it would look like if the federal government began enforcing its law on businesses deemed legal by the state. Although federal officers have stepped in to halt illegal marijuana operations in Colorado, they have steered clear of licensed businesses.

In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said Colorado’s regulations allowing the personal use of marijuana are part of the state’s constitution.

He also said Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner spoke with Attorney General Jeff Sessions before the latter's confirmation, and was under the impression that marijuana enforcement would not be a top priority of Donald Trump's White House.

Spicer's recent comments, however, have worried Colorado marijuana industry insiders.

"I think we're getting confusing messages," Ackerman said. "Our governor said he'd had conversations with the attorney general, and the attorney general said it was not a priority for him.

That being said, you just don't know. There's just mixed messages with this White House."

Mark Bolton, a marijuana adviser in the governor's office, said it was too early to know how the state would respond to federal intervention into the Colorado cannabis industry.

"It would be premature to speculate on what the administration may or may not do," he wrote.

"We have worked with the Department of Justice since legalization to develop a framework that respects voters and promotes public safety."