Mayors to Federal Government: Let States Decide Own Marijuana Policies

The United States Conference of Mayors on Monday urged the federal government to allow states to decide their own marijuana policies.

The group, which represents cities with populations of more than 30,000, passed a resolution submitted by mayors of cities including San Diego, Las Vegas and Seattle, according to The Huffington Post.

“In November, voters in my city and state strongly approved a ballot measure to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana,” Mayor Steve Hogan of Aurora, Colorado, said in a statement after the vote. “The bipartisan resolution we passed today simply asks the federal government to give us time to implement these new policies properly and without interference.”

The mayors urged the president “to reexamine the priorities of federal agencies to prevent the expenditure of resources on actions that undermine the duly enacted marijuana laws of states.”

The resolution stated that “enforcing the costly and ineffective prohibition on marijuana drains limited resources that could be better spent on programs that more effectively serve the public and keep our cities safe from serious and violent crime.” The impact of these costs are felt particularly strongly on the local level, because 97 percent of marijuana arrests are conducted by municipal or state law enforcement, the resolution noted.