Wyoming police officials divided on effects of Colorado's marijuana legalization

Sweetwater County Sheriff Mike Lowell knows people in his community buy marijuana from Colorado.

“When we ask where it came from, without exception, it’s Colorado,” Lowell said. “I assume they’re going across the border, purchasing and coming back.”

But those purchases in Colorado, where marijuana was legalized last year, haven’t translated into an increase in prosecutions for possessing the drug. In fact, marijuana charges in Sweetwater County dropped 18 percent from 2013 to 2014.

Overall, the county has maintained an average of 36 marijuana charges each year for the past three years.

“The change in drug arrests has been nonexistent,” Lowell said.

Law enforcement officials are divided on whether Wyomingites are consuming more marijuana since Colorado decriminalized the drug. Statistics aren’t helpful either.

According to figures released last month by the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, nearly 8 percent of arrests in Wyoming...

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