Pubdate: Tue, 22 Mar 2016
Source: Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette (Fayetteville, AR)
Copyright: 2016 Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC.
Contact: http://www.nwaonline.com/submit/letter/
Website: http://www.nwaonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/828

HIGH COURT: WON'T CONSIDER SUIT ON COLORADO 'POT' LAW

DENVER - The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it won't 
consider a lawsuit filed by two other states challenging Colorado's 
marijuana law. But lawyers say Nebraska and Oklahoma officials could 
pursue other legal challenges down the road.

For now, the many states considering marijuana laws this year won't 
have immediate guidance from the nation's high court about whether 
they're free to flout federal drug law by regulating the drug.

Instead, 26 states and the District of Columbia, which allow 
marijuana for medical or recreational purposes, don't have any 
immediate roadblocks on their laws.

Nebraska's attorney general said Monday that his state would consider 
trying again to challenge Colorado's law, just not directly to the 
nation's highest court.

"What it basically tells us is to go forth in the federal district 
court to start off the lawsuit," Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson said.

A lawsuit by some Nebraska and Kansas law enforcement officials was 
dismissed last month by a federal court in Denver.

"It doesn't mean that all the legal wrangling is done," said Sam 
Kamin, a University of Denver law professor who studies drug law.

"It just means that for a case to end up before the Supreme Court 
before we have a new president is extremely unlikely," Kamin added.

Marijuana legalization advocates immediately seized on the Supreme 
Court's announcement as a signal that states are free to legalize 
marijuana if they wish.

"States have every right to regulate the cultivation and sale of 
marijuana, just as Nebraska and Oklahoma have the right to maintain 
their failed prohibition policies," said Mason Tvert, spokesman for 
the Marijuana Policy Project.

"Colorado has done more to control marijuana than just about any 
other state in the nation. It will continue to set an example for 
other states that are considering similar laws in legislatures and at 
the ballot box."

But Colorado officials weren't so sure. Colorado Attorney General 
Cynthia Coffman, a Republican who opposes legal marijuana, said that 
while Nebraska and Oklahoma chose the wrong legal approach, marijuana 
is very much a question in need of federal guidance.

"The legal questions surrounding [marijuana] still require stronger 
leadership from Washington," Coffman said in a statement Monday.

COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS Information for 
this article was contributed by Kristen Wyatt and Anna Gronewold of 
The Associated Press and by Adam Liptak of The New York Times.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom