JUSTICES OK PENALTY FOR POT USE BY INMATES

The Colorado legislature believes that marijuana is different from heroin
or cocaine, and on 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.