Casey Hardison

JACKSON (WNE) — Casey Hardison, an infamous DIY chemist and longtime advocate of psychedelic drugs, says the Wyoming Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional — and he got to say so Tuesday in Teton County District Court.

Hardison said drug laws are “an assault on his due process and equal protection rights” protected by the constitution because the controlled substance act doesn’t apply to use of spirits, wine, malt beverages or tobacco.

“It is as if the majority is saying these are good drugs and those are bad drugs,” Hardison told 9th Judicial District Judge Timothy Day and 21 others during Tuesday morning’s virtual hearing. “It is precisely this kind of arbitrary, absolute power in Article 1 Section 7 the Wyoming Constitution prohibits. The act must be declared null and void.”

Hardison, 49, is in Teton County Jail awaiting trial on five felony charges of delivery of marijuana and aggravated assault. Agents with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation said Hardison tried to run them over with his car during a botched undercover drug raid in Jackson in 2018.

Teton County Deputy Prosecutor Carly Anderson argued that Hardison’s opinions on the lack of constitutionality of the state’s drug laws are just his way of trying to legalize marijuana, which she said was a legislative issue.

“Defendant guises his case for legalization of marijuana under constitutional arguments,” Anderson wrote in her most recent reply in the court’s case file. “A review of defendant’s constitutional challenges will show he failed to meet his high burden of proving the unconstitutionality of the Wyoming Controlled Substance Act and the court should deny his motion to dismiss.”

The Wyoming Supreme Court has suspended in-person jury trials because of the pandemic, and Hardison’s trial is scheduled for January.