by David P. Greisman

Prosecutors in Kansas have dropped drug charges against former heavyweight titleholder Tommy Morrison, according to The Wichita Eagle.

Morrison, 43, had been arrested in March 2010 while sitting in his parked vehicle outside of a gym. He would later be charged with one count of possessing marijuana with a prior conviction and one count of possessing drug paraphernalia, the newspaper reported.

Morrison had a preliminary court hearing scheduled for Feb. 22, but instead the charges were dropped that day.

A similar case against Morrison stemming from 2011 also ended with charges being dropped.

Morrison was arrested in February of that year after a Kansas state trooper pulled him over, glanced inside the car and then spotted what was suspected to be eight grams of marijuana, according to The Emporia Gazette.

He’d been charged with one felony count of “possession of certain hallucinogenic drugs with two prior convictions,” as well as one misdemeanor count of “possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia into human body,” the newspaper reported.

But those charges had to be dropped when the arresting officer, who was the only trooper present at the scene, died in a motorcycle crash before the case could be brought to trial.

Morrison won a heavyweight world title in 1993 with a decision victory over George Foreman, only to lose it four months later in a first-round stoppage loss to Michael Bentt.

He spent more than a decade out of the sport from 1996 to 2007 for what has been said to be a positive test for HIV. Morrison fought once in 2007 and once in 2008, raising his record to 48-3-1 (42 knockouts).

David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow David on Twitter at twitter.com/fightingwords2 or on Facebook at facebook.com/fightingwordsboxing, or send questions and comments to fightingwords1@gmail.com