Police Can Keep Cannabis in Colorado

The Colorado Supreme Court recently ruled that police cannot return cannabis to defendants, even innocent ones.

According to The Denver Post, this is because doing so would technically make the police distributors of cannabis, which is a conflict of interest and illegal. This decision was in response to one by the Colorado Court of Appeals, which ruled that police officers had to return cannabis if the defendant was found not guilty. This ruling overturns that decision, allowing officers to keep the herb.

“The return provision requires law enforcement officers to return, or distribute, marijuana,” the official wording of the decision claims. “Thus compliance with the return provision necessarily requires law enforcement officer to violate federal law.”

“The two (laws) cannot consistently stand together,” the ruling continues, referring to the fact that state law cannot contradict federal. “This court has held that an act is ‘lawful’ only if it complies with both state and federal law. Here, the officers could not be ‘lawfully engaged’ in law enforcement activities given that such conduct would violate federal law.”

Three justices dissented, claiming that the Controlled Substance Act offers protection to officers and allows them to handle and manage substances without being drug dealers. Still, it seems that the overwhelming consensus was that it is not OK for police officers to ever be in the position of distributing a controlled substance.

“(In the court’s opinion, having law enforcement) distribute marijuana back to the person acquitted, they would then be crossing the line into being actively engaged into distribution rather than passively allowing it to happen,” Regulatory Tom Downey told Denver Post in response to the ruling.

Many feel that this historic decision will set the precedent in other states where cannabis is legal, where lawmakers are trying to decide how to most fairly handle legalization.