Pubdate: Tue, 22 Mar 2016
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2016 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Adam Liptak, New York Times

SUPREME COURT DECLINES TO HEAR MARIJUANA LAWSUIT

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an unusual 
lawsuit challenging Colorado's legalization of recreational marijuana.

"The State of Colorado authorizes, oversees, protects and profits 
from a sprawling $100-million-per-month marijuana growing, processing 
and retailing organization that exported thousands of pounds of 
marijuana to some 36 states in 2014," two neighboring states, 
Nebraska and Oklahoma, told the court.

"If this entity were based south of our border, the federal 
government would prosecute it as a drug cartel," the states said.

In 2012, Colorado voters amended the state's Constitution to allow 
recreational use of marijuana and to regulate its sale and distribution.

Nebraska and Oklahoma did not challenge the law's decriminalization 
of the drug's possession and use but said other parts of the law were 
at odds with federal law and had vast spillover effects, taxing 
neighboring states' criminal justice systems and hurting the health 
of their residents.

Colorado told the justices that its neighbors were pursuing a curious 
and counterproductive strategy in the case.

"Nebraska and Oklahoma concede that Colorado has power to legalize 
the cultivation and use of marijuana - a substance that for decades 
has seen enormous demand and has, until recently, been supplied 
exclusively through a multi-billion-dollar black market," Colorado's 
brief said. "Yet the plaintiff states seek to strike down the laws 
and regulations that are designed to channel demand away from this 
black market and into a licensed and closely monitored retail system."

Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr., the federal government's 
top appellate lawyer, urged the justices to refuse to hear the case.

Verrilli and Colorado officials added that the states could pursue 
their objections in a more conventional suit, filed in a federal trial court.

The Supreme Court did not explain why it declined to hear the case. 
Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., 
dissented, saying the court was required to hear it.
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