Pubdate: Sun, 29 Mar 2015
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: James Queally

COLORADO, WASHINGTON SEEK TO STOP POT LAWSUIT

In what's shaping up as a battle of states' rights, the top law 
enforcement officials in Colorado and Washington are urging the 
Supreme Court to reject a lawsuit from Oklahoma and Nebraska that 
seeks to strike down a Colorado law that legalized recreational marijuana use.

Oklahoma and Nebraska filed their suit directly with the Supreme 
Court, arguing that Colorado's legislation conflicts with federal 
drug regulations.

The Oklahoma and Nebraska attorneys general contend that easy access 
to marijuana has led to a surge in trafficking, with residents 
crossing into Colorado to purchase pot and sell it - illegally - at 
home in Nebraska or Oklahoma. Kansas has also considered joining the suit.

In a 49-page brief filed Friday, Colorado Atty. Gen. Cynthia Coffman 
urged the nation's highest court to throw out the suit.

"My office remains committed to defending Colorado's law," Coffman 
said in a statement. "At the same time, I share our border states' 
concerns regarding illegal marijuana activity, and my office, as well 
as our partner state and local law enforcement agencies, are 
committed to stopping marijuana diversion. This lawsuit, however, 
even if successful, won't fix America's national drug policy."

In 2012 voters in Colorado and Washington approved measures to 
legalize marijuana use. Colorado's law allows for the sale and 
possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for recreational use for 
anyone 21 and over with a valid driver's license.

Washington Atty. Gen. Bob Ferguson filed a friend-of-the-court brief 
Friday asking the high court to dump Nebraska and Oklahoma's lawsuit.

"I am disappointed that Nebraska and Oklahoma took this step to 
interfere with Colorado's popularly enacted initiative to legalize 
marijuana," he said in a statement. "I filed this brief to protect 
Washington's interests and the will of Washington's voters from 
interference by other states."

In their briefs, both Ferguson and Coffman argued that the Supreme 
Court should adhere to its longstanding policy of not settling policy 
disputes between the states.

Conversely, Aaron Cooper, a spokesman for Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Scott 
Pruitt, pointed to the recent takedown of an interstate drug ring as 
proof of the lawsuit's merits.

"This week Colorado announced its largest marijuana bust since 
legalization - a single criminal operation responsible for 
trafficking $12 million in illegal medical marijuana out of Colorado 
and into other states," Cooper said.

"Oklahoma is not challenging Colorado's decision to legalize 
marijuana for personal use or possession under Colorado state law. 
The only portion of the Colorado law Oklahoma is challenging is the 
section that transformed Colorado into a large-scale hub for the 
commercial growing and selling of marijuana."

The legal challenge filed by states bordering Colorado has been 
scoffed at by experts, and conservatives have even stepped forward to 
criticize the suit filed by the heavily Republican states. In 
January, a number of GOP legislators in Oklahoma asked Pruitt to drop 
the suit because it infringed on states' rights to pass their own laws.
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