Last Year, WSMT blogged about whether water could be lawfully appropriated for Marijuana cultivation.  2/11/16 blog post.  We provided three arguments why that would be allowed.

Almost exactly a year later, the Division  water referee agreed In Re High Valley Farms, LLC, 14CW3095 with two of the reasons we set forth in our blog from last year – namely that appropriation of water is controlled by state law, and that the word “lawfully” in the state law definition of beneficial use of water means that the appropriation, not the use of the water, must be lawful.  A copy of the February 17, 2017 order is available here.