Governors from legalized states unite, progress on Texas decrim bill, Cowboys' Jerry Jones wants NFL weed ban scrapped, thousands attend Mich. Hash Bash & more

April 3: Governors from legalized states unite, progress on Texas decrim bill, Cowboys' Jerry Jones wants NFL weed ban scrapped, thousands attend Mich. Hash Bash & more The Cannabist]( [thecannabist.co]( | [@cannabist]( | [fb/cannabist]( If someone forwarded this to you and you'd like to sign up yourself, just go here: [(. To view this on the web or share a link, [click here.]( [Four legal state governors team up, urge feds to keep marijuana enforcement status quo]( Governors in four states have joined forces with a marijuana message for two top officials in the Trump administration. In an open letter, the governors of the first four states to implement laws allowing recreational marijuana sales urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to maintain existing federal enforcement guidelines. Quote of the Day “As governors of states that have legalized marijuana in some form, we ask the Trump Administration to engage with us before embarking on any changes to regulatory and enforcement systems.” [-From an open letter signed by the governors of Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. We've posted the full letter on our site.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Texas marijuana decriminalization bill clears legislative committee]( A bill that would make carrying small amounts of marijuana a civil penalty in Texas instead of a criminal one is advancing in the state House. The House Criminal Jurisprudence committee on Monday approved a bill that would make possession of up to an ounce of marijuana punishable by a fine of up to $250 instead of a criminal charge. [DEA asks Colorado for info on marijuana crimes, "for the new administration"]( Amid speculation about how the Trump administration will confront marijuana legalization in states such as Colorado, a Drug Enforcement Administration supervisor has sent an e-mail to a prosecutor in the state attorney general's office seeking information, "for the new administration." The e-mail was sent by a supervisor on the financial investigations team in the DEA's Denver field office to Michael Melito, a senior assistant attorney general. Lifestyle [Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' NFL agenda topped by lifting ban on marijuana]( At a recent owner's meeting in Arizona, Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, reportedly raised several significant topics near and dear to his heart, including lifting the NFL's ban on marijuana use. Any change in the league's policy would have to be negotiated with the [NFL Players Association, which has been considering a "less punitive" approach to dealing with marijuana](. The union's pain management committee has been separately studying the issue of [marijuana use as a pain management tool]( and whether that should be permissible. [Colorado ganjapreneur wants to expand cannabis pairing tours to other states]( In the years since recreational marijuana legalization in Colorado, Philip Wolf, founder of Cultivating Spirits, has created a business that combines cannabis, food and wine tastings. Now Wolf and his new business partner Branden Nadon want to expand the business into California and Nevada, which also has legalized recreational marijuana. They also want to expand into other Colorado locations. Wolf’s idea to blend marijuana with a wine pairing experience came to him while he was visiting Barcelona, Spain. Regional News [Federal judge: Illinois cannabis biz can make campaign contributions]( Illinois' medical marijuana companies, operating in an industry abounding with rules, now have one less regulation they have to follow. A federal judge ruled last week that a provision preventing cannabis companies from making campaign contributions in Illinois wasn't constitutional. The ruling was in response to a 2015 lawsuit filed by two Libertarian Party candidates who sought contributions from the medical marijuana industry. [4 get federal prison for conspiring to ship weed from Colorado]( Four men who conspired to grow marijuana in Colorado to sell it in Florida have been sentenced to federal prison terms. The men were arrested in March 2016 in one of [multiple raids conducted last year in Pueblo County](. Recipe [Quinoa gets the “fried rice” treatment]( Here's an easy dinner to make using items you have on hand. As chef Laurie Wolf says, "For me it is a perfect way to use leftovers, and I love the texture of the quinoa after it is sauteed. Kind of crunchy." [ #AllThingsWeed [Johns Hopkins pulls out of study to test pot as a treatment for PTSD]( Eighteen months after joining a study on using marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, Johns Hopkins University has pulled out. A spokesman for the study's partner, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) said the dispute was over federal drug policy. The lead researchers from MAPS challenged federal rules in a PBS report that said the [government-grown marijuana provided for the study was poor quality and contaminated with mold.]( [Ecologists worried about illegal marijuana farmers using lethal chemicals]( When wildlife biologist Mourad Gabriel finds a Gatorade bottle nestled among leafy green plants on public land, that's a very bad sign. In most cases, it's a container for carbofuran, a neurotoxic insecticide you definitely should not ingest to improve your athletic performance. These bottles are lying around national forests and parks because they're being toted in by illegal pot farmers, who care about the environment as much as they do about the law. The chemicals are killing animals, lingering in the soil and threatening to contaminate towns' water supplies. [Thousands attend Ann Arbor's annual Hash Bash]( Several thousand people gathered on the University of Michigan's campus in Ann Arbor over the weekend to celebrate marijuana. The annual Hash Bash held on the school's Diag has become a rallying effort for legalizing marijuana use. You are receiving this newsletter because you signed up at The Denver Post. Please add "members@mail.denverpost.com" and "members@direct.denverpost.com" to your trusted senders list. To unsubscribe from this mailing, [click here.]( To change your e-mail preferences, [click here](. To view this newsletter on the web [click here.]( The Denver Post 101 West Colfax Ave. Denver, CO 80202