HELENA, Mont. — Medical marijuana businesses worried that federal agents will close them down now have a road map to avoid prosecution, courtesy of the Justice Department’s decision to allow legal pot in Colorado and Washington state.

The agency said last week that even though the drug remains illegal under federal law, it won’t intervene to block state pot laws or prosecute as long as states create strict and effective controls that follow eight conditions.

“The DOJ is saying you guys need to color inside the lines,” said Teri Robnett, founder of the Cannabis Patients Action Network, a Westminster, Colo.-based medical marijuana advocacy group. “If you color inside the lines, we’ll let you keep your crayons.

The DOJ’s policy memo comes after voters in Colorado and Washington last fall passed first-in-the-nation laws to allow recreational pot use and follows similar agency statements in recent years that helped spur the creation of medical marijuana systems across the U.S.

The DOJ memo outlines eight areas of “marijuana-related conduct” that it won’t tolerate, from distribution to children to use of firearms and drugged driving. Marijuana advocates say they welcome them as guidelines for medical marijuana states to tailor their laws and a way for other states to enact new laws without fear of federal reprisal.

In Oregon, state health officials are drawing up regulations for a new medical marijuana program for next year. U.S. Attorney Amanda Marshall has said the state will need to create strong teeth when it writes the regulations, and make sure it can enforce them.