The first four legal marijuana states respond to A.G.

By The Cannabist Staff

Over the past 10 days, the governors of the first four recreational marijuana states sent responses to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ July 24 letters outlining concerns about each state’s program.

Sessions’ letter was itself a response to a joint letter the four governors sent Sessions and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in early April.

Alaska replied first

Gov. Bill Walker and Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth, in a letter dated Aug. 14, said that the 2015 data cited by Sessions “cannot be fairly attributed” to Alaska’s marijuana industry, since sales began there in 2016.

“The report simply does not speak to the success or failure of the new regulatory framework,” they wrote.

The Alaska leaders also noted that youth use rates in their state are below the national average and declining; the state continues to enforce and prosecute illegal marijuana crimes; and that the regulatory framework’s seed-to-sale tracking program, age and advertising restrictions, and education…