Legalization of marijuana in the U.S. is likely an argument about “when” not “if.” But blazing the trail is going to get trickier unless Congress acts.

Josephine County could be ground zero. The county is suing the state of Oregon over marijuana laws. It wants the state to give it more freedom to regulate pot. In other words, it is asking the state for the very thing the state has essentially asked from the federal government: freedom to regulate pot. So, can you really blame it?

Josephine County is a breadbasket for growing marijuana in Oregon. Before it was legal to grow recreational marijuana, the county was home to plenty of illegal grows. And with legalization, more grows grew.

The county has struggled to regulate them. Last year, the county tightened its regulations. It banned commercial grows on plots of 5 acres or less and zoned for rural or residential purposes. And it also put strict limits on larger plots.

Growers appealed the regulations to the state’s Land Use Board of Appeals. LUBA found that the county followed incorrect procedures to pass the regulations.

County officials went nuclear. They filed suit in federal court asking the court to declare state laws on pot invalid, find that the federal Controlled Substances Act has supremacy over state law, declare that local authorities can police pot under the Controlled Substances Act and ignore the state laws and more. If all of the county’s requests come true, a federal judge ruling on the case could call into question legalized recreational and medical marijuana across the nation.

It has been challenging to enforce marijuana regulations in some places. But that doesn’t mean that legalization should be burned to the ground. Law-abiding, taxpaying growers shouldn’t be shut down or sharply curtailed in Josephine County or across the country. They aren’t to blame for regulatory failures.

If Josephine County is short of resources to regulate a legal industry, the county or the state should do something to ensure it has the resources. Congress should help by making it clear to banks that federal agents aren’t going to swoop in when pot businesses keep accounts and write checks.