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| Justices OK penalty for pot use by inmates |
| By Rocky Mountain News |
| Published: 11/10/2003 |
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The Colorado legislature believes that marijuana is different from heroin or cocaine, and last Monday, the Colorado Supreme Court said that's OK. Colorado law enforces punishment on state prison inmates who use marijuana in prison, but gives users of heroin and cocaine the option of avoiding punishment by successfully completing drug treatment. And that's fair, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in the case of Roderick A. Goodale, an inmate in the Buena Vista Correctional Facility who was charged in Chaffee County last year with using marijuana in prison. Goodale, 33, contended he was charged unfairly with marijuana use because prisoners who used more serious drugs are given the option of avoiding charges by successfully completing treatment. Chaffee County District Judge Kenneth Plotz agreed and threw out the marijuana charge against Goodale. Chaffee County prosecutors appealed. The legislature's decision to treat marijuana-using prisoners differently from prisoners who use more serious drugs didn't get an unqualified endorsement from the justices, however. "We begin our analysis by noting that 'It is not the role of this court to act as overseer of all legislative action and declare statutes unconstitutional merely because we believe they could be drafted better or more fairly applied,' " Justice Nancy Rice wrote for the unanimous court, citing earlier rulings about the court's role in such matters. Rice said the legislature isn't required to order "symmetry of punishment" for lesser and greater crimes, as long as it has a good reason for differentiating. She cited rulings by the Colorado Supreme Court in 1965, 1969, 1974 and 1987 that the legislature isn't obliged to treat marijuana differently from other drugs, but may do so. |
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