Mackey is a throat cancer survivor who carries a medical marijuana card and has admitted to using pot on the Iditarod trail in the past. He was found with 7.8 grams -- or about a quarter of an ounce -- of marijuana at the Anchorage airport as he boarded a flight Jan. 13, according to the state Department of Transportation.
Mackey told an airport security officer working for the state that he had a medical marijuana card in his checked baggage, but the card had expired, said Transportation Department spokesman Roger Wetherell. The card was also for a different form of the drug than the one Mackey was carrying, Wetherell said.
Mackey was charged with sixth-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance -- a minor misdemeanor -- and allowed to continue on to Bethel. He was originally scheduled to appear in court in Anchorage Feb. 17, according to court records and first reported by the Alaska Dispatch Web site.
But earlier this month the appearance date was changed to Friday, when Mackey would be on the race trail.
Mackey thought the court appearance wasn't until Feb. 23, a time he planned on being in Anchorage, said Theresa Daily, who runs a mushing Web site and handles public relations for Mackey and other mushers.
"They prescribed the pill form for him, and he's trying that," said Daily, who has been in touch with Mackey's wife during the Quest. "He's quit everything right now just to be on the good, up and up with Iditarod."
Mackey has won the Iditarod three years in a row. This year race organizers plan to give mushers a drug test, which Mackey has said he will comply with, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported in December.
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