Marijuana arrests are up in Deuel County, Nebraska, which borders Colorado.
"The biggest form we're seeing it in is in edible products," says Sheriff Adam Hayward. "Any food product you can think of they put it in and that's what we're seeing. We're finding more of that now than loose bud marijuana that we were seeing a year or two ago. We've seen an increase since recreational use was passed over there. Basically, we're just doing our everyday stuff, routine traffic stops, whatever the traffic violation may be, and we're finding that a lot more people are carrying this stuff, a lot more people are going over and picking it up. We're doing our job like we're used to, but it's becoming more a common thing to run into people who have this product. We are very troubled by the fact that their change in law has become our problem. This all comes out of Colorado."
Since Jan 1, there have been 30 felony marijuana cases in the county compared to 35 all of last year. Deuel County borders Colorado at I-80 and I-78 on the Western corner of the state. So do five other Colorado counties.
Colorado State Rep. Amy Stephens (R-Monument) has introduced a bill to use surplus money from marijuana taxes as grants for law enforcement agencies in bordering states. However, authorities in Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Texas have not seen an increase in cases involving Colorado marijuana products.
