Mackey mushes afoul of the law

Alaska mushing hero Lance Mackey -- a four-time winner of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race and three-time champion of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race -- was on the way to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, Friday night with more than just a bunch of dog teams chasing him.

This time the law was after Mackey, too.

An Anchorage judge issued a bench warrant for Mackey's arrest Friday after he failed to appear for a hearing on a minor charge of possession of marijuana. It is unclear, however, as to whether the problem was with Mackey or with the court system. Court records indicate that an arraignment originally scheduled for Feb. 17 was moved up by five days.

The court system's database said the case had been "calendared in error" for Feb. 17. It was unclear whether Mackey was notified of the calendar change to Feb. 12. The 1,000-mile Quest started in Fairbanks on Feb. 6. If Mackey completes the course as fast as he has in past years, he conceivably could finish and be back in Anchorage by Feb. 17.

On Friday, he was the third musher out of Dawson City, Yukon, about 450 miles from the Quest finish line. The lead mushers are expected in Whitehorse by Tuesday, Feb. 16.

Mackey has never made a secret of his use of marijuana. A cancer survivor, he suffers with lingering pain from surgery and radiation that destroyed his saliva glands. He has been on the medical marijuana registry, which allows him legal use of the drug in Alaska. But according to Ted Stevens International Airport communications director Roger Wetherell, Mackey confessed to an airport police officer on Jan. 13 that he'd allowed his marijuana registration to expire.

Mackey's problem at the airport began at 6:08 a.m. on Jan. 13 when he went through a security scanner on the way to the Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race in Bethel, where he would eventually finish third behind musher John Baker from Kotzebue and fellow Iditarod champ Martin Buser from Big Lake.

At the airport on the way to Bethel, Wetherall said, Mackey was subject to a pat-down search by a representative of the federal Transportation Security Administration. The TSA searcher fund a bag of what appeared to be marijuana in Mackey's pocket and summoned an airport police officer.

Wetherell said Mackey was cooperative with police. He told the officer the green, leafy substance in question was indeed marijuana, and added that he had some more, along with a medical marijuana card, in his checked baggage.

"He stated he did, in fact, have a medical card for marijuana,'' Wetherell said, but "he said his card was expired.''

Wetherell said he did not know if the airport police pulled Mackey's bags off the Bethel flight at that time to check his statements, or simply elected to cite the musher. The only drugs seized were those in Mackey's possession during the pat-down.

The marijuana in question amounted to approximately 7.8 grams, or two-tenths of an ounce, Wetherell said. That would be enough to roll seven to eight of what are commonly called "joints." The exact street value of the drugs is unknown, but estimated to be in the range of $75 to $125 depending on the quality in Anchorage. The value would increase significantly in Bethel, a rural village in Southwest Alaska.

Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com.