Arizona Republic: “Phoenix has suspended its 180-day requirement for holders of medical-marijuana permits to seek state licenses. The move is a result of the state lawsuit against the federal government regarding clarification of Arizona’s medical-marijuana law.”
Associated Press: “Joe Schwartz is a 90-year-old great-grandfather of three who enjoys a few puffs of pot each night before he crawls into bed in the Southern California retirement community he calls home. The World War II veteran and stroke sufferer smokes the drug to alleviate debilitating nausea and is one of about 150 senior citizens on this sprawling, 18,000-person gated campus who belongs to a thriving – and controversial – medical marijuana collective operating in the middle of one of the largest retirement communities in the United States.”
Arizona Capitol Times: “As a political reporter, covering medical marijuana has been pretty exciting. The well-coordinated effort that led to the narrowest victory for a ballot proposition in state history gave way to stories about the mechanics of implementing the law. There were stories to be told about how the Department of Health Services scrambled to write the program’s rules. Medical marijuana entrepreneurs looking to get into the blossoming industry that sprung from the transition of marijuana from a black to a white market felt like covering the Wild West. And all the while, marijuana has remained a contentious topic overall, providing the always sought conflict that underlies compelling journalism.”
Insurance Journal: “Medical marijuana dispensary owners face a variety of risks because of the controversy around the products they sell. Even when they are doing everything right in terms of following proper city ordinances and state regulations, there is still the potential that the dispensaries could be raided by state and city agencies. A new option for medical marijuana dispensaries from MMD Insurance Services can provide peace of mind and protection for dispensary owners who follow the medical marijuana laws in their city and state. The endorsement will reimburse the legal costs in the event of a raid if the owner is found to be not guilty.”
Willamette Week: “Two days after WW published a story exposing rifts between law enforcement and some medical-marijuana operations, U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton and many Oregon district attorneys have issued a stern warning to this booming local industry.
“The sale of marijuana for any purpose—including as medicine—violates both federal and Oregon law and will not be tolerated,” says the warning from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “People and businesses that conduct sales of marijuana face the risk of prosecution, civil enforcement action and seizure of assets.”
Read the full text of U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton’s June 3, 2011, letter. See also “Medical pot sellers will be prosecuted in Ore.”
Sonoran News: “On the heels of a lawsuit filed by the State of Arizona to determine the legality of the recently enacted Medical Marijuana Law, a legal defense fund, Don’t Let Medical Marijuana Die, has been established to protect the will of the voters and guarantee ill patients access to medication that relieves their pain and suffering.”
Arizona Daily Sun: “Flagstaff attorney Lee Phillips has spent the last week talking to other lawyers from across the state on how to best respond to the state’s legal challenge to the voter-approved Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. The consensus? Another legal action from either the American Civil Liberties Union or from the Marijuana Policy Project, the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the country, seeking to dismiss the suit.”
Wall St. Journal: “In what was once a pipe dream, medical-marijuana companies are courting private investors and even planning public stock sales. In Colorado, a seed supplier is raising $500,000 in a private financing round. In California, hydroponic-equipment supplier GrowOp Technology Ltd. has raised $1 million privately, with plans to launch an initial public offering this fall. Los Angeles-based Medicine Dispensing Systems, a company that has placed 60 medical-marijuana vending machines in 15 states, would also like to complete an IPO by year’s end.”
Arizona Republic: “With Arizona’s medical-marijuana-dispensary program on hold and no town regulations in place for smaller “caregiver” growing operations, Gilbert officials say they have no way of knowing who in town may be legally growing pot – or where. Town officials approached the Planning Commission on Wednesday seeking approval of new rules for marijuana cultivation, but the panel put off a decision until July, citing a need for more research.”
Arizona Republic: “From the political notebook: – I don’t know whether the legal action Gov. Jan Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne took seeking declaratory judgment about the legality of Arizona’s medical marijuana law will result in any clarity. But I do know this: The ambiguity of the federal government regarding its enforcement policies about medical marijuana is grossly irresponsible. The Obama administration has said that it probably won’t prosecute patients using medical marijuana under state laws for possession under federal law. But even that isn’t for sure.”
Arizona Capitol Times: “Arizona’s medical marijuana law continues to pay out. The payoff isn’t so great for sickened would-be patients and convalescing recreational users, as it is for journalists and attorneys. Last week, Gov. Jan Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne announced they would ask a federal judge to rule whether Arizona’s voter-approved medical marijuana law is incompatible with federal drug laws. That question could be answered fairly easily by a classroom of seventh-grade civics students . . . .Brewer and Horne contend it was filed to make sure state employees aren’t subject to prosecution by Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke. A former chief of staff to Gov. Janet Napolitano, Burke was appointed to his post by the Obama administration, which to date has generally treated public employees as the highest life form in the universe. In plainer English, the risk of state employees facing federal prosecution for undertaking administrative tasks demanded by the new state pot law is roughly one in 64 trillion.”
The story contains a quote from Richard Keyt, the creator of this website.
Phoenix New Times: “Larry Miller, 38, tried to rob medical marijuana from a Phoenix man yesterday afternoon, which was a colossal mistake — the man he tried to rob fatally shot him. . .. The seller called 9-1-1 to tell them he’d shot a man when he tried to steal his weed. When police arrived, the seller was giving first-aid to Miller. Miller was taken to an area hospital, where he later died. Now for the tricky part: can the seller be charged with a crime?”
Blue Mau Mau: “Franchising has now officially gone to pot. A marijuana hydroponics franchisor, weGrow, opened its first franchise Wednesday. It anticipates its new 21,000 square foot medical cannabis franchise will sell products to an estimated 100,000 medical marijuana growers who reside in the Phoenix area. ‘We’re not talking tomatoes,’ whimsically says Arizona’s first weGrow franchisee Sunny Singh. The superstore is weGrow’s third. It has two California stores: one store in Oakland opened its doors in January of 2010 and the Sacramento location launched in February of this year. While not selling pot itself, the franchise aims to be a one-stop shop for cannabis cultivators.”
The Bugle: “There has been a lot of interpretive work going on with Arizona’s medical marijuana law. Some of it is legal interpretation, and some is more theater-based. . . . The interpretations on both sides of the medical marijuana implement-don’t implement debate leave much to be desired. The voters would be better off with real government action rather than all of these dramatic readings.”
ACLU: “The American Civil Liberties Union today [May 27, 2011] agreed to represent the Arizona Medical Marijuana Association (AzMMA) in order to defend the constitutionality of Arizona’s medical marijuana law. . . . Three appellate decisions in California have previously rejected claims that California’s medical marijuana law is preempted by federal law. And earlier this month the Oregon Supreme Court backed away from its previous ruling that a part of Oregon’s medical marijuana law is preempted by federal law. ‘Contrary to the governor’s claims, the federal Controlled Substances Act includes an explicit provision permitting states to adopt their own drug laws,” said Scott Michelman, staff attorney with the ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project’.”
Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, said that he intends to issue a statement to clarify the position of the United States with respect to when it will prosecute people who comply with state legal medical marijuana laws.
See also “AG Says Feds Will ‘Work With’ States On Medical Marijuana,” which says
“U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday that the Justice Department will work with governors and other state officials to reach a ‘satisfactory resolution’ to the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries in states with medicinal cannabis programs. ‘We are in the process of working [on] these issues with the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island and other U.S. Attorneys across the country,’ Holder said”
Arizona Republic: “Arizona’s top health official refused Wednesday to accept an application from prospective operators of a medical marijuana dispensary, setting the stage for a possible legal challenge to push for full implementation of a voter-approved law. Department of Health Services Director Will Humble met with members of a group that wants to establish a dispensary in Scottsdale, but he politely declined to accept a binder with their application papers. The month long application period for dispensaries was to have begun Wednesday under rules previously adopted by the department.”
Arizona Republic: “A high-level international panel slammed the war on drugs as a failure Thursday and called on governments to undertake experiments to decriminalize the use of drugs, especially marijuana, to undermine the power of organized crime.”
Arizona Republic: “Arizona’s new medical-marijuana law is not just a legal headache for lawyers and lawmakers anymore. The law that passed narrowly last fall is a cultural page-turning event, prompting changes that just a few years ago would have seemed inconceivable. Like them or not – and we are not exactly thrilled with a lot of these developments – the changes wrought by the medical-marijuana law go far beyond what is dictated in statutes that declare pot a ‘medicine’.”
Arizona Republic: “It may not have been the grand opening he’d hoped for, but Dhar Mann says his Phoenix marijuana superstore will be a boon to first-time pot growers. Mann opened his third weGrow store Wednesday – twice the size of his two California locations at 21,000 square feet – amid legal uncertainty about Arizona’s voter-approved medical-pot law. A federal lawsuit filed last week by Gov. Jan Brewer has halted the monthlong marijuana-dispensary-application process, which was to have started Wednesday. Mann said he expected to cater to large-scale cultivation operations that served dispensaries but instead will focus on folks setting up grow rooms and gardens at home.”
See “‘Walmart of Weed’ to open in AZ, promote growing your own.”
East Valley Tribune: “An attorney who represents some would-be marijuana dispensaries is taking the first steps he believes will convince a state judge to force Department of Health Services to issue the necessary permits. Ryan Hurley said Tuesday he is working with clients to get one of them to submit an application this week to the health department. State health officials had said the first requests would be accepted Wednesday. And Laura Oxley, spokeswoman for the department, confirmed that any requests will be turned away.”
Arizona Department of Health Services Director Will Humble wrote the following on his blog on June 1, 2011:
“A prospective dispensary applicant came to our offices this morning in an effort to submit an application for a dispensary registration certificate. We declined to accept the application because, as I wrote on Friday, we won’t be accepting dispensary registration certificate applications until the outcome of legal action filed last week.
There were several members of the media present when the prospective applicant arrived. One of the reporters asked me a question about how the decision was made to halt the acceptance of dispensary registration certificate applications. I want to clarify my answer to that question. The decision to halt the acceptance of dispensary registration certificate applications was collaborative. It was the result of multiple discussions that followed the May 2 letter from the U.S. Attorney for Arizona – including conversations involving myself, the Governor, legal counsel and staff. It’s most accurate to say that the Governor and I reached the decision to suspend the acceptance of dispensary applications in consultation and coordination, as is typical for an issue of this significance.”
Los Angeles Wave: “The founder of the longest serving medical marijuana dispensary in the Southland has publicly vowed to cultivate pot for seriously ill HIV/AIDS patients in his backyard, after the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office recently dropped a criminal case against him days before it was due to go to trial. According to Paul Scott, executive director of the Inglewood Wellness Center, which opened in February 2000, and the Los Angeles Wellness Center, located at 312 Olympic Blvd., he was arrested and charged last June for cultivation of marijuana and the possession of marijuana for sale.”
Arizona Republic: “Residents living near Saguaro High School fought off a proposed medical-marijuana dispensary this week but opposition to 11 other dispensaries and five cultivation facilities proposed for Scottsdale was rather muted over the past two months. The Scottsdale Planning Commission, besieged by a packed hearing room, voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend denial of a city-use permit for Taxonomy Healing Practices in an office building southwest of McDonald Drive and Granite Reef Road.”
Arizona Republic: “If Ganja Gourmet’s plans to expand its edible-marijuana business to Phoenix come through, medical-pot users can expect it to be more of a cafe than a pharmacy. Its Denver location is stocked with tamales, pot pot pies and mousse cakes, designed to cater to those who would rather eat than smoke their medicine. ‘It’s safer than smoking and more socially acceptable,” said owner Steve Horwitz, who also believes there are health advantages to eating medical marijuana vs. smoking it’.”
Arizona Republic: “State health Director Will Humble was putting the finishing touches Tuesday on the letter he will give to prospective medical marijuana dispensary owners when he declines their applications. Though Humble and his staff have spent months preparing for Wednesday’s start of the dispensary application process, the federal lawsuit filed Friday by Gov. Jan Brewer has put the kibosh on it. ‘We’ll explain to them that we’re unable to accept applications right now, and thank them for their efforts,’ he said. ‘At least they’ll have something when they leave to document that they tried‘.”
mlive.com: “Three men were charged today with delivery and manufacturing marijuana for their association with the Dryden medical marijuana dispensary, according to the Lapeer County Sheriff’s Department. Randy Crowel, the 54-year-old owner of the facility, Mark Carter, 49, of Romeo and Patrick Salas, 53, of Romeo, face up to four years in prison if convicted. ‘The investigation supports that the Compassion Care Center of Michigan was non-compliant to the Michigan Medical Marijuana Law,’ said Lapeer County Sheriff Ron Kalanquin.”
See “Sheriff: Dryden medical marijuana dispensary was ‘turning quick dollar’.”
Arizona Republic: “Arizona’s health director put medical-marijuana dispensaries on hold just days before he was to begin accepting applications, citing the lawsuit filed by the state in federal court Friday to determine whether the new law conflicts with federal drug statutes. State Department of Health Services Director Will Humble is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, along with Gov. Jan Brewer and state Department of Public Safety Director Robert Halliday. The suit seeks a declaratory judgment as to whether compliance with Arizona’s voter-approved medical pot law shields state employees, patients, dispensary owners and others from federal prosecution.”
Here is what Director of the Arizona Department of Health Servcies Will Humble said on his blog yesterday:
“In light of recent communication from the U.S. Attorney for Arizona, the Governor asked the Attorney General to file a suit this week asking for a declaratory judgment from a federal court regarding the legality of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act and our Rules. We had been planning to begin accepting dispensary applications beginning next Wednesday, June 1 (continuing through June 30). However, as a result of this legal action, legal advice we’ve received from the AZ Attorney General’s Office and the overall uncertainty about the legality of the Act itself (especially the dispensary parts) we won’t be accepting dispensary applications in June after all. Whether we accept and process dispensary applications at a later date will depend on the outcome of legal action. However, we will continue to accept and process on-line applications for Qualifying Patient and Designated Caregiver ID cards on our website.”
Read more stories about the lawsuit:
“Richard Keyt, an attorney who helps companies set up dispensaries, said the lawsuit is worded in a way that the judge can reach only one conclusion: the federal Controlled Substances Act trumps the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. And Keyt said states cannot change federal law.”
“is anyone else disturbed at how a scarcity of dispensaries combined with thousands of qualified patients equals more black-market weed sales? By failing to defend the will of the people, Brewer and Horne will boost illegal drug sales. What concerns us most is how the politicians might use this fact to later criticize the program. My gosh, they’ll say, look how Prop 203 ended up fueling the cartels! What a bad law! But, of course, they’ll be the ones responsible if that happens.”
Read “Arizona U.S. Attorney: Brewer, Horne Twisting Medical Marijuana Memo.”
East Valley Tribune: “The top federal prosecutor in Arizona said Gov. Jan Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne are distorting the facts on the issue of medical marijuana and risks of federal prosecution.” This a must read article. The following text contains only a few of the zingers U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke fired at Governor Brewer and Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne. Dennis Burke:
“said that letter never mentioned state workers. ‘It’s fair to read into my letter what I included and what I didn’t,’’ he said. ‘And if I didn’t include state employees, I think that’s telling in itself.’’ And Burke said there was a simple way of dealing with the question. ‘You would think that a letter back from Attorney General Horne, as opposed to ‘I’m going to file a lawsuit and have a press conference,’ might have been a better course of action,’’ he said.”
“Burke said there appear to be elements of political grandstanding in both the press conference by Brewer and Horne earlier this week as well as the decision to sue.”
Given that Arizona’s U.S. Attorney is on record saying that the Governor and the Arizona Attorney General can get the answer they want to whether state employees will be charged with violating federal marijuana criminal laws without suing, Jan Brewer and Tom Horne should wipe the egg off their faces, dismiss their lawsuit and write a letter to Dennis Burke. That course of action will be cheaper and quicker than a federal lawsuit that will waste precious Arizona funds, takes months or years to resolve and will almost certainly cause the State of Arizona to be sued because it fails to implement Propostion 203, a duly enacted law of Arizona.
If Governor Brewer does not take the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s advice, she will have to invent another reason to stop the implementation of Arizona’s medical marijuana industry because she won’t be able to say she is worried about state employees being prosecuted. Dennis Burke has made it clear that state employees involved in implementing and administering Arizona’s medical marijuana laws will not be prosecuted.
Arizona Republic: “Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery on Thursday formally advised the Board of Supervisors to opt out of the state’s medical-marijuana program ‘unless and until the potential criminal prosecution of county employees is resolved.’ He urged supervisors not to accept or process any more applications for medical-marijuana dispensaries or cultivation sites, or to issue any permits on county-controlled land pending the outcome of the state’s lawsuit.”
The following is the Maricopa County Attorney’s summary of the issues he addresses in a May 26, 2011May 26,2011, letter to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors:
“In light of the potential that County employees could be subject to federal prosecution for violation ofthe Controlled Substances Act if they participate in actions that would implement the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, my Office advises the Board that it issue directives to the effect that, unless and until this apparent threat is conclusively removed, no County employee should: (a) accept any further applications for medical marijuana d ispensaries or cultivation sites; (b) further process any such pending applications; or (c) issue any certificates, permits or other authorizations or justification for medical marijuana dispensaries or cultivation sites. This advice is based up the legal analysis done by this Office and is not a ‘policy’ based recommendation.”