FILE - In this July 28, 2016 file photo, Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado speaks during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. With one eye on a $500 million state budget gap and the other on Washington, Hickenlooper and a split Colorado Legislature enter the 2017 lawmaking session with little expectation of fiscal reform and plenty of uncertainty over transportation, the state's Medicaid bills, affordable housing and illegal pot sales. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

DENVER | Days after the Trump administration said the Department of Justice was going to step up enforcement of laws prohibiting the recreational use of marijuana, Gov. John Hickenlooper said he wasn’t sure the federal government could take such action in Colorado.

Hickenlooper, in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” told moderator Chuck Todd on Sunday that Colorado’s regulations allowing the personal use of marijuana are part of the state’s constitution.

Hickenlooper says Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner spoke with Sen. Jeff Sessions before he was confirmed as attorney general and that he was led to believe marijuana enforcement wasn’t going to be a priority, but things might have changed with Thursday’s announcement by White House spokesman Sean Spicer.

Hickenlooper was in Washington, D.C., for the National Governors Association winter meeting.