Arizona Republic:  “Two prospective medical marijuana dispensary owners sued the Arizona Department of Health Services and its director Tuesday in hopes of forcing the state to launch the stalled permit application process.  Serenity Arizona and Medzona Group had the property leases, zoning permits and capital to open up to six dispensaries across the state and planned to apply for permits this month.”

See “Marijuana-Dispensary Hopefuls Sue State Over Governor Brewer’s Attack on Voter-Approved Law.”

Two different lawsuits were filed today.  The Rose Law Group filed one and attorney David Dow filed the other with the Arizona Court of Appeals.

The following is from Will Humble’s blog:

Today I was served with a lawsuit that challenges the State (and the Department) for not implementing the dispensary portion of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. The case, filed in the AZ Court of Appeals, asks a judge to order us to follow the rules that we published on April 14 and begin accepting dispensary applications.

We worked very hard to implement the law until we received a letter from the U.S. Attorney in Arizona. That letter, dated May 2, states the Department of Justice will: “…continue to vigorously prosecute individuals and organizations that participate in activity…involving marijuana, even if such activities are permitted under state law.” “Individuals and organizations…that knowingly facilitate the actions of traffickers should also know that compliance with AMMA will not protect them from federal prosecution….”

With that information, the Governor and I (with the advice of attorneys) decided not to continue with full implementation of the Act until we receive clarification about whether it’s legal from the federal court. We’ve suspended the implementation of dispensary portions of the law and aren’t currently accepting any applications. As of today, we’ve had three groups try to apply for a dispensary certificate and we’ve turned them away.

We began accepting and processing applications for Qualifying Patients and Designated Caregivers several weeks ago and we’re still accepting and processing these applications. As of June 9th, we’ve approved more than 5,000 Patient and 126 Caregiver cards.”

Note that Mr. Humble failed to explain why he and Governor Brewer shut down only the dispensary component of Arizona’s medical marijuana law while allowing state employees to continue to risk federal prosecution by facilitating the growing and use of marijuana by thousands of patients and caregivers under Arizona’s medicl marijuana laws.