Denver criminal defense lawyer / hold off on the Cheetos?

If you haven't been living under a rock since November you know that Colorado voters chose to make marijuana "legal" in the state in November's elections. While apparently somewhat reluctant, the legislature and governor Hickenlooper have promised to respect the wishes of the voters on this matter.

However, the marijuana issue lies in a strange dark area. While Colorado has legalized marijuana (as has Washington, and also a number of other states if you have basically a sham prescription) it's still considered a schedule one drug for the purposes of the federal controlled substances act. That means at the federal level, it's still illegal not only to grow, process and sell the stuff, it's also illegal to just have it in your possession. But as a practical matter federal prosecutions make up a tiny portion of total law enforcement actions.

There's a reason for this. The DEA and FBI which are responsible for most federal prosecutions employ a tiny percentage of total law enforcement employees. Their job is mostly to deal with big problems that cross state lines or cases that are too big for state governments to deal with. Well, that and cases where the federal prosecutor has an axe to grind. But really that's not going to get most end-users in trouble.

What could really limit the legalization scheme is if the federal government decides to start going after the shops that traffic marijuana in Colorado and Washington. Additionally, Colorado's statute specifically calls for tax money from marijuana to be collected and used for schools. How will the federal government choose to treat a state agency with the specific mission of profiting (or collecting tax money, is there a difference?) from something it believes under the schedules is a harmful drug with no redeeming value? This is the real question. It's not about the end users who probably have little to fear in terms of prosecution.