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Montgomery, Ala. - Alabama, which has some of the nation's toughest drug laws, has become an unlikely ally of California in its defense of marijuana use for medical reasons.
When the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on California's medical marijuana law, the documents sitting before the justices included legal arguments filed by Alabama Attorney General Troy King, who sided with California and against the Bush administration.
To the Republican attorney general, it's an issue of states' rights rather than drug-control policy.
"I could not disagree more with the public policy that underlies the California law. I think it's flawed. I think it's bad public policy, but if somebody can go in and tell California you can't regulate drugs the way you want to regulate them in California, the next step is they could come to Alabama and tell us we can't do it," King said in an interview.
Alabama is not a lenient state when it comes to marijuana. Between 1995 and 2002, the state averaged 9,446 arrests per year for possession of marijuana, according to the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center. And in Alabama, someone convicted three times of possessing marijuana can end up serving as much as life in prison.
Alabama's drug laws aside, the attorney general's office has become a defender of states' rights when pertinent cases go before the Supreme Court. The office even has a staff member, Solicitor General Kevin Newsom, whose job is to keep an eye out for important cases.
Newsom, a Harvard Law School graduate, is no stranger to Supreme Court cases, having served as a clerk to Justice David Souter.
With his help, Alabama raised similar states' rights issues in October when the Supreme Court heard arguments on whether states should be able execute killers who are 16 and 17 years old.
King draws a sharp contrast between the states' rights arguments he is making today and those used by Gov. George C. Wallace to defend segregation in the 1960s.
"I'm not sure a lot of the issues he talked about were states' rights issues. I'm not sure segregation is a states' rights issue. Whether the state of Alabama is going to criminalize marijuana use, that is clearly something the state should do. But when you begin talking about segregation, you've got constitutional provisions that provide that everybody is equal," the attorney general said.
The issue before the Supreme Court on Monday was a California law that allows citizens to grow and possess marijuana for medical reasons. Last December, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals - the same federal court that angered conservatives when it said the phrase "under God" should be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance - upheld the California law.
The Bush administration, which opposes the law, appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Bush administration argued that medical marijuana would undermine federal drug control programs. It also argued that the federal government could step in under the Commerce Clause because the marijuana grown for medical use could end up on the illegal market and could cross state lines.
Not so, said King. His legal brief argued that the federal government has no authority because the medical marijuana is grown and consumed within California, and "it is not economic or commercial in any meaningful sense."
King wasn't alone in filing his arguments. They were signed by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Mississippi - two states also known for tough drug laws.
If things had gone differently 25 years ago, Alabama might have had the medical marijuana case before the Supreme Court rather than California.
In 1979, when medical marijuana was first being discussed nationally, the Alabama Legislature passed a law allowing a marijuana research program for chemotherapy and glaucoma patients that would be supervised by the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners.
State Sen. Larry Dixon, executive director of the Board of Medical Examiners, said the experimental program used a pill that contained one of the substances in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinols. The pill provided the pain relief of marijuana without the high caused by smoking marijuana.
The program did not prove successful, and the final blow came when the federal government, which used a farm in Mississippi to grow the marijuana used to make the pills, discontinued production, Dixon said.
Even though Alabama's medical marijuana program has been dead for many years, the Legislature has never repealed the law allowing it.
Phillip Rawls
Associated Press
https://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/10339855.htm
When the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on California's medical marijuana law, the documents sitting before the justices included legal arguments filed by Alabama Attorney General Troy King, who sided with California and against the Bush administration.
To the Republican attorney general, it's an issue of states' rights rather than drug-control policy.
"I could not disagree more with the public policy that underlies the California law. I think it's flawed. I think it's bad public policy, but if somebody can go in and tell California you can't regulate drugs the way you want to regulate them in California, the next step is they could come to Alabama and tell us we can't do it," King said in an interview.
Alabama is not a lenient state when it comes to marijuana. Between 1995 and 2002, the state averaged 9,446 arrests per year for possession of marijuana, according to the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center. And in Alabama, someone convicted three times of possessing marijuana can end up serving as much as life in prison.
Alabama's drug laws aside, the attorney general's office has become a defender of states' rights when pertinent cases go before the Supreme Court. The office even has a staff member, Solicitor General Kevin Newsom, whose job is to keep an eye out for important cases.
Newsom, a Harvard Law School graduate, is no stranger to Supreme Court cases, having served as a clerk to Justice David Souter.
With his help, Alabama raised similar states' rights issues in October when the Supreme Court heard arguments on whether states should be able execute killers who are 16 and 17 years old.
King draws a sharp contrast between the states' rights arguments he is making today and those used by Gov. George C. Wallace to defend segregation in the 1960s.
"I'm not sure a lot of the issues he talked about were states' rights issues. I'm not sure segregation is a states' rights issue. Whether the state of Alabama is going to criminalize marijuana use, that is clearly something the state should do. But when you begin talking about segregation, you've got constitutional provisions that provide that everybody is equal," the attorney general said.
The issue before the Supreme Court on Monday was a California law that allows citizens to grow and possess marijuana for medical reasons. Last December, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals - the same federal court that angered conservatives when it said the phrase "under God" should be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance - upheld the California law.
The Bush administration, which opposes the law, appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Bush administration argued that medical marijuana would undermine federal drug control programs. It also argued that the federal government could step in under the Commerce Clause because the marijuana grown for medical use could end up on the illegal market and could cross state lines.
Not so, said King. His legal brief argued that the federal government has no authority because the medical marijuana is grown and consumed within California, and "it is not economic or commercial in any meaningful sense."
King wasn't alone in filing his arguments. They were signed by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Mississippi - two states also known for tough drug laws.
If things had gone differently 25 years ago, Alabama might have had the medical marijuana case before the Supreme Court rather than California.
In 1979, when medical marijuana was first being discussed nationally, the Alabama Legislature passed a law allowing a marijuana research program for chemotherapy and glaucoma patients that would be supervised by the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners.
State Sen. Larry Dixon, executive director of the Board of Medical Examiners, said the experimental program used a pill that contained one of the substances in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinols. The pill provided the pain relief of marijuana without the high caused by smoking marijuana.
The program did not prove successful, and the final blow came when the federal government, which used a farm in Mississippi to grow the marijuana used to make the pills, discontinued production, Dixon said.
Even though Alabama's medical marijuana program has been dead for many years, the Legislature has never repealed the law allowing it.
Phillip Rawls
Associated Press
https://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/10339855.htm
