Gov. John Hickenlooper said Colorado residents made a mistake legalizing marijuana.
Hickenlooper, a Democrat, openly opposed the 2012 referendum to legalize pot and said he wished he could have flipped the vote.
“If I could’ve waved a wand the day after the election, I would’ve reversed the election and said, ‘This was a bad idea,’” Hickenlooper said Friday on CNBC.
“You don’t want to be the first person to do something like this,” he said.
Hickenlooper suggested other governors “wait a couple of years” before legalizing marijuana, so they can see what Colorado does — specifically with federal law and regulation.
“There’s a whole regulatory environment … that really regulates alcohol,” he added. “We’re starting from scratch and we don’t have a federal partner because [marijuana] is still illegal federally.”
Hickenlooper expressed similar views in an interview with Huffington Post Friday morning at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“It’s interesting, we’ve obviously learned a tremendous amount, the whole team has been going at light speed,” Hickenlooper said, adding other states should wait to see what “unintended consequences” of legalization are in Colorado.
Hickenlooper also called the war on drugs a “dismal failure” but is looking forward to see how Colorado deals with the legal marijuana market over the next two years.
Colorado passed Amendment 64 — which allows the recreational use of marijuana by adults — in November 2012, making it the first state to end marijuana prohibition in the U.S.
Oregon, Alaska and Washington have since legalized the drug.
