The Arizona Supreme Court will take another look at the state’s sentencing law for individuals convicted for drug-related crimes.
In 1996, after the three-strikes law cracked down on drug offenders, Arizona voters approved the Drug, Medicalization, Prevention and Control Act.
It was intended to relieve jail crowding by allowing anyone convicted of having, or using an illegal drug or paraphernalia, the chance to serve their sentence with probation.
As the Arizona Capitol Times reports, the law never specified that the act of selling a drug also counts as possession.
That loophole is now being challenged by a 2016 case involving a Tucson man who never had a drug conviction prior to his conviction for trying to sell narcotics.
The State Supreme Court will now consider “whether sales-related offenses” — or an incomplete drug transaction — should count toward ineligibility.
