The Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit from several states challenging Colorado’s marijuana decriminalization law. The states had argued the law has led to more marijuana in their jurisdictions and that federal law restricting marijuana should pre-empt the Colorado law.
Nebraska and Oklahoma filed the lawsuit in 2014. The states that border Colorado argued that the marijuana law passed in 2012 has resulted in increasing drug trafficking in their states, where the drug is illegal.
But the court voted 6-2, with Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissenting, to reject the lawsuit. No reason was given.
Alito and Thomas wrote in a court filing that the lawsuit falls within the court’s jurisdiction and that the justices should take it up.
Normally, the Supreme Court takes up disputes between states, which is why Nebraska and Oklahoma bypassed lower courts to file its lawsuit with the high court.
“Federal law is unambiguous: If there is a controversy between two states, this court — and only this court — has jurisdiction over it,” the filing from Alito and Thomas reads.
The two justices argued the case should be brought up because marijuana is illegal under federal law.
The states argued in their original lawsuit that the Colorado law creates “a dangerous gap” in the federal drug control system.
Under the Colorado law, someone in the state can buy and use marijuana but not take it into an airport or take it across state lines.
However, Nebraska and Oklahoma argued that they have incurred more costs for incarcerating felons on charges related to Colorado-sourced marijuana. The states also have had to pay more for law enforcement personnel to battle the uptick in cases. The lawsuit cites a report from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a program that is run by the White House to enhance and coordinate drug-fighting activities in a certain area.
The report found that highway seizures of Colorado marijuana destined for other states increased by nearly 400 percent from 2008 to 2013. The average pounds of marijuana that are seized by law enforcement increased 33.5 percent from 2005 to 2008 compared to 2009 to 2013, the report said.
Incarceration statistics for both states show small spikes in the incarcerated population, according to the latest annual reports available.
An annual report from Nebraska’s Department of Correctional Services found that the average monthly population in the state’s prisons was 4,871, compared to 4,622 in 2013.
Oklahoma had 28,182 incarcerated people in 2014, compared to 26,539 in 2013, according to data from the state’s department of corrections.
Marijuana has generated a lot of money for Colorado, with sales for recreational and medical marijuana totaling nearly $1 billion last year, according to a report in the Denver Post.
