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LINCOLN — Nebraska and Oklahoma are asking to join an existing case challenging Colorado’s legal marijuana.

Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt earlier this month filed a motion to intervene in the case before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

The case consolidates two lawsuits, one brought by a group of law enforcement officers and the other by property owners, that were dismissed by lower courts. Their appeal includes Nebraska’s primary argument that Colorado’s legalization of recreational marijuana violates the federal Controlled Substance Act, Peterson said Friday.

The Obama administration has said it opposes legalizing marijuana but that it will not take enforcement action in states that legalize, tax and regulate the drug to keep it from children.

The fight was expected to land in the federal courts after the U.S. Supreme Court last month declined to hear a lawsuit by Nebraska and Oklahoma that argued Colorado cannot legally sell a drug when it is prohibited under federal law.