poledriver
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
- Messages
- 11,543
Colorado’s neighbors say they’re spending too much on minor pot offenses. So maybe they should stop prosecuting them
Nebraska and Oklahoma are suing Colorado to put an end to the state's recreational marijuana market. The 83-page lawsuit complains that "the State of Colorado has created a dangerous gap in the federal drug control system enacted by the United States Congress. Marijuana flows from this gap into neighboring states, undermining Plaintiff States’ own marijuana bans, draining their treasuries, and placing stress on their criminal justice systems."
Two central ideas animate the lawsuit. The first is that marijuana is still illegal under federal drug laws, and that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution prohibits states from enacting local laws in violation of federal ones. The second, as Eugene Volokh notes, is that "the lawsuit is basically a public nuisance 'pot pollution' lawsuit." In other words, Colorado's weed is overflowing the state boundaries into Nebraska and Oklahoma, leaving those states with a mess to clean up.
The Supreme Court may be tempted to take up the case on the basis of the first argument. Justice Antonin Scalia has already tipped his hat on this point, making a coy reference to the Supremacy Clause when asked recently what he thought of Colorado's laws. There's no doubt that laws in Colorado, Washington and soon elsewhere are in direct contradiction of the federal Controlled Substances Act. The Justice Department has only allowed legalization to proceed on the basis of a sort of gentlemen's agreement outlined in a 2013 memo, which promises that the Drug Enforcement Administration will look the other way so long as states that legalize weed follow a few common-sense guidelines in doing so.
But on a practical level, Nebraska and Oklahoma's nuisance argument is a stretch. Cops along those states' borders with Colorado have been complaining about an uptick in marijuana possession arrests all year. It seems that most of these are simple possession arrests stemming from traffic stops. "We don’t go after it," said a Nebraska sheriff quoted in the Post earlier this year, "but this Colorado marijuana is very potent, very aromatic, and we often trip over it if somebody’s speeding and we pull them over.”
He went on: “Every time we stop somebody, that’s taking up my deputy’s time with your Colorado pot. We have to pay overtime, pay the prosecutor, pay to incarcerate them, pay for their defense if they’re indigent. Colorado’s taxing it, but everybody else is paying the price.”
Continued with comments -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...s-so-maybe-they-should-stop-prosecuting-them/
Nebraska and Oklahoma are suing Colorado to put an end to the state's recreational marijuana market. The 83-page lawsuit complains that "the State of Colorado has created a dangerous gap in the federal drug control system enacted by the United States Congress. Marijuana flows from this gap into neighboring states, undermining Plaintiff States’ own marijuana bans, draining their treasuries, and placing stress on their criminal justice systems."
Two central ideas animate the lawsuit. The first is that marijuana is still illegal under federal drug laws, and that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution prohibits states from enacting local laws in violation of federal ones. The second, as Eugene Volokh notes, is that "the lawsuit is basically a public nuisance 'pot pollution' lawsuit." In other words, Colorado's weed is overflowing the state boundaries into Nebraska and Oklahoma, leaving those states with a mess to clean up.
The Supreme Court may be tempted to take up the case on the basis of the first argument. Justice Antonin Scalia has already tipped his hat on this point, making a coy reference to the Supremacy Clause when asked recently what he thought of Colorado's laws. There's no doubt that laws in Colorado, Washington and soon elsewhere are in direct contradiction of the federal Controlled Substances Act. The Justice Department has only allowed legalization to proceed on the basis of a sort of gentlemen's agreement outlined in a 2013 memo, which promises that the Drug Enforcement Administration will look the other way so long as states that legalize weed follow a few common-sense guidelines in doing so.
But on a practical level, Nebraska and Oklahoma's nuisance argument is a stretch. Cops along those states' borders with Colorado have been complaining about an uptick in marijuana possession arrests all year. It seems that most of these are simple possession arrests stemming from traffic stops. "We don’t go after it," said a Nebraska sheriff quoted in the Post earlier this year, "but this Colorado marijuana is very potent, very aromatic, and we often trip over it if somebody’s speeding and we pull them over.”
He went on: “Every time we stop somebody, that’s taking up my deputy’s time with your Colorado pot. We have to pay overtime, pay the prosecutor, pay to incarcerate them, pay for their defense if they’re indigent. Colorado’s taxing it, but everybody else is paying the price.”
Continued with comments -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...s-so-maybe-they-should-stop-prosecuting-them/
