Feds move to turn off tap for pot growers

The federal government plans to harsh the buzz of marijuana growers in Washington state and Colorado, where it’s mostly legal to use and sell the plant, by curtailing access to the one thing weed cultivators need: water and plenty of it.

The Department of the Interior says it doesn’t want federally controlled water going to marijuana cultivation. Interior’s Bureau of Land Reclamation, which controls dams and canals in the West, says it will refer violations to the Justice Department, though few believed that DOJ would go after irrigation districts if they were not actually the ones growing the pot.

Marijuana remains solidly illegal under federal law, even as state rules relax by decriminalizing personal use or legalizing the sale and possession of small amounts.

But growers in the west might not actually be left high and dry (or at least dry). The directive will likely have little impact, as the majority of water in both states is “commingled” with state water, and the Bureau, mighty as it is, doesn’t command an army of zealous field agents.

"We're not an investigative agency. We're an agency that provides water to irrigation districts," Dan DuBray, a spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation, told The Associated Press.

"The limit of our proactive stance is that if asked, we're not approving it, and if we become aware of it, we report it."

It’s not clear what penalties federal authorities could impose. Last summer, the Department of Justice said it wouldn’t sue states that legalized marijuana.

This isn’t the first time politicians have been in a haze about how pot can be legal in a state but illegal on the federal level. Earlier this month, a House subcommittee held hearings grilling officials from Washington, D.C. on how the capital city’s decision to decriminalize small amounts of reefer could sync with more restrictive federal laws that also apply to the city’s residents.