Pubdate: Sat, 28 Mar 2015
Source: Albuquerque Journal (NM)
Copyright: 2015 The Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.abqjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/10
Author: Kristen Wyatt, the Associated Press

COLORADO DEFENDS POT LAW IN HIGH COURT FILING

Neb., Okla. Suing Over Legalization

DENVER (AP) - States are free to legalize marijuana, Colorado argued 
Friday in a filing to the U.S. Supreme Court in response to a lawsuit 
from neighboring states that have asked the nation's highest court to 
shut down Colorado's pot law.

The filing marks the first time Colorado has defended legal marijuana 
in writing. The federal government did not sue to block the state's 
2012 vote to legalize pot for all adults over 21.

Colorado said that Nebraska and Oklahoma should sue the federal 
government for not enforcing the Controlled Substances Act, not other 
states. Colorado said the states' "quarrel is not with Colorado but 
with the federal government's" approach to letting states experiment 
with pot law.

"Nebraska and Oklahoma filed this case in an attempt to reach across 
their borders and selectively invalidate state laws with which they 
disagree," Colorado argued.

Because federal drug law bans marijuana for any purpose, including 
medical, the federal government can't throw out recreational pot laws 
but not medical pot laws in effect in 23 states and Washington, D.C., 
Colorado argued.

"Congress has endorsed a policy, at least with respect to medical 
marijuana, supportive of state regulatory and licensure laws," 
Colorado wrote. "This suit threatens to upset those administrative 
and political decisions."

The U.S. Supreme Court has not said whether it will hear the 
challenge, and it has no deadline for doing so.

Colorado Republican Attorney General Cynthia Coffman opposes 
marijuana legalization, but she said the problem needs to be fixed by 
federal drug authorities. "This lawsuit ... won't fix America's 
national drug policy- at least not without leadership from 
Washington, D.C., which remains noticeably absent," Coffman said in a 
statement.

In addition to the lawsuit from Nebraska and Oklahoma, Colorado faces 
three more marijuana challenges in a lower federal court.

A set of county sheriffs from Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska have 
filed a separate lawsuit in federal court in Denver. The third 
lawsuit comes from a Colorado hotel owner who argues that marijuana 
is hurting his business.

Two other states that have legalized recreational marijuana, Oregon 
and Washington, filed their own briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court on 
Friday arguing that states are free to legalize pot.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom