Attorney General addresses how to enforce marijuana use in Nebraska

It’s legal in Colorado. But how do you keep pot from coming into nebraska?

That will be one of the main focuses during Attorney General Doug Peterson’s trip to western Nebraska, where he’ll meet with different law enforcement officials.

Legalizaed marijuana has posed a new problem in western Nebraska.

“Some of our smaller counties—they’re jail costs have tripled, just because of this,” said Scotts Bluff County Sheriff Mark Overman.

“The most consistent message I hear across western Nebraska is they’re concerned about impaired drivers,” Attorney General Doug Peterson said.  

“That’s a new thing and the volume of that has become more of a concern.”

It’s one of the biggest issues Peterson plans to address during his 2–day tour.

“Some kids assume that just because they can get it in Colorado for recreational use, that it’s not illegal in Nebraska,” Peterson said.

“The people in the marijuana industry are trying to normalize it because it has a tremendous opportunity for financial gain if they can get states across the midwest to follow what happened in Colorado.  That’s a multi–billion dollar type of market,” he added.

But Nebraska law enforcement says they’re the ones paying the price.

“It’s all attributable to this,” Sheriff Overman said.

“If you talk to drug task forces in Lincoln and Omaha—and even Wisconsin and Illinois—and you look at the drug incident reports coming through, it’s Colorado, Colorado, Colorado.  Colorado is now the source state.”

Nebraska and Oklahoma filed a lawsuit against Colorado last December, over its marijuana legalization laws.

The lawsuit could take years to resolve.

In the meantime, Peterson plans on helping authorities find a better way to enforce illegal trafficking across state borders.

“[We’ll talk about] how to properly measure the amount of the drugs now that we’re looking at edibles.”

The tour will begin Thursday morning, with law enforcement officials in Chadron.