Arizona Republic: “Gov. Jan Brewer is a champion of states’ rights. Except when she’s not. Like, for instance, when it comes to defending a citizen-approved proposition authorizing dispensaries for medical marijuana.”
Tucson Weekly: “Well, it seems Gov. Jan and her crew may have toppled their medical-marijuana man, and they might be out of the game. A federal judge seemingly ripped the state a new one on Dec. 12 in the first oral arguments in the governor’s lawsuit that stalled Arizona’s MMJ program.”
Arizona Republic: “Although the status of medical marijuana remains a bit hazy in Arizona, facilities that help people apply for patient cards continue to spring up — including in Gilbert. The Green Cross Patient Center opened in Gilbert nearly two months ago in a small strip mall on the southern side of Baseline Road, between Gilbert and Lindsay roads. Owner and director Charles ‘Chuck’ Hall made it clear that the facility is not a dispensary and that there is no marijuana on site. ‘We are here to help patients get a doctor’s recommendation and to help them with the paperwork,’ he said.”
Press Democrat: “The Obama administration’s statewide crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries has landed a one-two punch in Marin County. The Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, the state’s oldest dispensary, has posted a sign at its Fairfax storefront officeannouncing that the dispensary will shut down Dec. 17. And Medi-Cone, a medical marijuana collective that was cultivating, harvesting and packaging medical marijuana for several Bay Area dispensaries ceased operations last week due to increased scrutiny by authorities
Yuma Sun: “Gov. Jan Brewer decided Wednesday to ask a federal judge to overturn a key portion of the state’s voter-approved medical marijuana law. The move comes two days after Bolton told attorneys for the state she would throw out Brewer’s original lawsuit which simply asked the judge to decide if state employees can be prosecuted under the federal Controlled Substances Act for processing permits. Bolton said the state has to pick a side: Either federal law trumps last year’s initiative, or the state can implement its law despite federal statutes. . . . Brewer has chosen the former position, even though that’s contrary to what voters mandated.”
Governor Brewer has taken the exact opposite position with respect to Arizona’s Proposition 1070, the anti-illegal immigration law that will be considered by the United States Supreme Court. In the SB 1070 case Governor Brewer is asking the Supreme Court to rule that Arizona can implement its law despite federal statutes. Isn’t it the job of the Governor to enforce the laws of Arizona rather than making a personal choice as to which laws she will enforce?
Arizona Republic: “U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton tore apart the state’s medical-marijuana lawsuit Monday, saying Arizona has to pick a side in the conflict over state and federal law. Bolton stopped short of dismissing the case, saying she would issue a ruling later. But she told Assistant Attorney General Lori Davis she would throw it out unless the state decides whether or not to support its own law. ‘That’s how lawsuits work,’ Bolton said. ‘The plaintiff takes a position’.”
Phoenix New Times: “Governor Jan Brewer’s lawsuit against Arizona’s medical marijuana law took a beating today in federal court, where a judge told the state’s lawyers to pick a side on the issue. . . . Brewer and Horne, however, don’t have the chutzpah to actually argue against the voter-approved law — something that could be politically dangerous. . . . Their lawsuit relies on the creation of 20 fictitious defendants — 10 who believe the new state law violates federal law, and 10 who don’t believe it — to bolster their position that a dispute exists. But Bolton said today that she planned to dismiss all of the fictitious defendants, adding that the tactic cannot ‘persist’ in federal court. Arizona would need to choose which side it’s on before the suit can proceed, Bolton told Lori Davis, an assistant attorney general.”
East Vally Tribune: “A federal judge chided Attorney General Tom Horne Monday, saying he was asking her to do his job: advising state agencies on the law. . . . ‘You don’t come to court and say, ‘Well, this our best advice, you give it a shot,” she told Assistant Attorney General Lori Davis. Davis protested that the state finds itself in ‘an impossible position,’ being told by voters to license dispensaries but fearing that the workers who process the applications can be charged with helping facilitate the distribution of marijuana. She said Bolton should tell the state – and the governor – whether it’s OK to proceed. ‘That’s what the AG is for, Bolton responded. ‘It’s not the courts that give (legal) advice’.”
East Valley Tribune: “Attorneys for would-be marijuana dispensaries asked a state judge Wednesday to order Gov. Jan Brewer to follow the law approved by voters and begin issuing licenses as the statute directs. ‘I don’t care whether she likes it or doesn’t like it,’ Ty Taber told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Richard Gama. ‘Her sole job and responsibility is to implement that act.’ Assistant Attorney General Lori Davis did not dispute that last year’s voter-approved law requires the state Department of Health Services to license about 125 dispensaries where certified medical marijuana users can obtain the drug. And she conceded that Brewer has, in fact, directed the Department of Health Services not to issue any of those licenses.”
Sedona Red Rock News: “While medical marijuana possession and use was legalized by voters in November 2010, one local woman said she was fired earlier this year simply for being a cardholder. Now she is suing Verde Valley Community Hospice, a company located in Old Town Cottonwood, for wrongful termination and defamation.”
Phoenix New Times: “Tempe police teamed up with Nevada authorities this week to bust the Yoki A Ma’ medical marijuana club, arresting six people. . . . In the three other club-busts that we’re aware of, though, either no charges were ever filed or the charges were dropped. Those cases, if you’ll recall involved: the Medical Marijuana Advocacy Group of Tempe (no charges); Al Sobol’s 2811 Club, LLC, (no charges); and the Arizona Go Green Co-op, (charges dropped). Authorities could still charge the operators from the first two clubs or re-charge the folks from Go Green, (though Horne’s office told us a couple of weeks ago it didn’t intend to pursue that case, which was initiated by the Drug Enforcement Agency.) . . . The six arrested were: * Craig Allen Scherf . . . Nicole Dawn Scherf . . . Richard Ray Hagerman . . . Renee Bruggeman . . . Rodger Murray . . . Mark Siegezwki . . . . Nicole Marie Clemens.”
See “Las Vegas woman arrested in medical marijuana dispensary crackdown.”
Phoenix New Times: “All charges have been dropped from September’s high-profile bust by the Drug Enforcement Agency of a Tempe medical marijuana clinic. The DEA arrested James Chaney and Rachel Beeder of Arizona Go Green Co-Op on September 29 following a morning raid on the clinic and Chaney’s Phoenix home. . . . The DEA turned over prosecution of the case to the office of Tom Horne, state Attorney General. But Horne, despite his previous legal action against the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, dropped the charges last month against Beeder and Chaney. . . . Nor were charges ever filed in two high-profile busts in June by Gilbert PD: Garry Ferguson and the Medical Marijuana Advocacy Group in Tempe, and the raid of a Gilbert patient’s home over two ounces of weed.
KSAZ Fox 10: “A new one-stop medical marijuana shop is getting ready to open in the valley. But with so many questions about Arizona’s medical marijuana law, many of these facilities have already opened up, only to be shut down. It’s called Elements Caregiver Collective, and the name says it all. This company said that because caregivers supply the marijuana, what they’re doing is 100 percent legal.”
The New Republic: “When you get a new car, you start noticing the same model all over the highway. It’s the same way when you figure out what California’s marijuana dispensaries look like—green crosses and signage about “medicine” and “420” start popping up all over the City of Angels: On your commute to work, in your neighborhood, around the corner from your favorite restaurant. To put it bluntly, it’s not hard to find weed in California. But that all might be about to change. The state’s four U.S. Attorneys are gamely trying to alter the broadly popular status quo with arrests and threats of prosecution and property seizure for landlords who rent to dispensaries, a campaign announced in a rare joint press conference in October. Medical marijuana advocates call it an “intense crackdown” and have launched a lawsuit claiming the federal attorneys’ tactics violate California’s tenth amendment rights.”
Arizona Republic: “Northeast Phoenix’s first medical-marijuana operation is scheduled to open next week. Elements Caregiver Collective touts itself as Phoenix’s ‘first caregiver collective and a one-stop shop for medical marijuana and wellness services.’ The shop, which holds a Phoenix permit for a dispensary, plans to offer a range of services, as well as medical marijuana. Ingrid Joiya, is the operator. A press release about the facility went out last week, but she could not be reached for comment this week. The shop is in a small strip center at 12620 N. Cave Creek Road. . . . The business will sell memberships to patients, who will donate the marijuana they grow in exchange for ‘reasonable reimbursement,’ the press release says.”
[The following was the basis for Doug Banfelder’s comments at last week’s Prop 203 Solidarity meeting.]
Medical Marijuana – Supported by the Majority, Under Attack by a Radical Minority
Who here feels like a Radical Tonight?! Its easy to feel that way while we’re under attack – but consider this – We are Actually the MAJORITY!
Tonight as we meet we face an organized, energized opposition. U.S. Attorneys have been unleashed by the DOJ, dispensaries raided, letters threatening legal action against property owners, and IRS harassment of dispensaries is escalating, despite the good faith efforts of most canna businesses to comply with often ambiguous state laws, or, as with the IRS, rules that are blatantly discriminatory and unjust. That’s radical!
At the state and local level, anyone engaged in the production or distribution end of medical marijuana is feeling the heat. Governor Brewer and Attorney General Horne’s federal suit for a declaratory judgement is certain to be dismissed, but the intended result, confusion, has been achieved. That’s radical!
We’ve all heard reports that local police seemingly don’t know which parts of the AMMA remain in place, putting patients at risk. Caregivers must either grow in their homes or in commercial buildings, making them subject to the not altogether unfounded fears of building owners concerned that their property may be seized. County Attorneys seek every opportunity to keep the prohibition machine in place, stubbornly continuing the failed “tough on crime” approach. That’s radical!
Why is all this going on? The only logical answer can be this: our opponents know that we are winning the public debate, and that our success WILL bring about the end of marijuana prohibition. Consider: 25% of the American people live in states that have approved Medical Marijuana laws; we have an unprecedented level of support in the United States Congress, with three bills recently introduced; and, a Gallup poll just revealed that a majority of Americans, for the first time ever, support the full legalization of cannabis. And, as a MAJORITY of Arizonans voted to approve Prop 203 last November proves, WE are NOT the radical ones!
No, we are the MAJORITY. This means the best way to fight back is from WITHIN the system. It’s how Prop 203 got passed, right? So then how do we get from here to where we want to be? Several things have to happen, and starting RIGHT NOW is not too soon.
Lets begin by agreeing that our opponents are a RADICAL MINORITY, and that we are part of a MAJORITY that approved Prop 203.
Second, we all must be registered to vote and know who our State Representatives are. Every legislative district has two members of the House and one Senator.
Third, all of us, especially those patients who are able, need to contact their legislators and say “I’m a medical marijuana patient/caregiver/businessperson, and I request (not “ask”) that you support continued patient access to the medicine that works best for me/my patients.”
It does not matter that legislators cannot undo Prop 203 (due to the Voter Protection Act); we need to understand that so far, their opinions have been formed by conversations with people like Drug Free AZ leaders Carolyn Short and addiction psychiatrist Edward Gogek – a minority of prohibitionist RADICALS who want to make AZ patients into criminals!
Always keep in mind that lobbyists and business interests drive the dialogue at the legislature. And that the legislature CAN kill 203 with “death by a thousand cuts.” Remember Rep. Steve Farley’s bill from last session to tax MMJ 300%? We must eliminate that kind of threat by letting our House and Senate members know how we feel NOW, BEFORE they run bad bills that put us on the defense. They respond to pressure, so it is up to ALL of us, THE MAJORITY, here in this room tonight!
We know the awesome powers of cannabis; we know that History is on OUR side; and we know that by committing to pulling together, we will win this public policy debate over the RADICAL MINORITY who oppose WE the MAJORITY.
So let’s act like the MAJORITY we ARE by getting all Prop 203 supporters registered to vote, contacting our Representatives, and working together to overcome the Governor and AG’s attacks – we CAN have America’s BEST MMJ program, guarantee patient access to medicine, create business opportunity for growers, property owners and dispensary operators and earn the respect we deserve as a MAJORITY of everyday Arizonans supporting medical marijuana.
ABC News: “In its effort to shut down California’s booming medical marijuana dispensaries, the Justice Department is seeking to seize the property where the clinics are based, even going after at least one bank that holds the mortgage on a clinic. Chase bank received a letter to evict the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, according to Greg Anton, attorney for the clinic. The bank owns the note on the building in Fairfax, Calif. According to Anton, the bank received a similar letter from U.S. attorney Melinda Haag for the northern district of California that was sent to the Alliance’s landlord on Sept. 28 and other medical marijuana dispensaries. The letters threatened that unless the owners evicted the cannabis clinics within 45 days, they could face criminal action.”
Verde Independent: “One of the major foes of the state’s medical marijuana law wants Gov. Jan Brewer to order the state health department to stop issuing cards allowing patients to obtain and grow the drug. Carolyn Short noted that Brewer has blocked the agency from processing applications from those who want to run the dispensaries that the 2010 voter approved initiative requires to be set up to sell the drug. Brewer said she feared that state workers could be charged under federal law with being involved, even peripherally, with distributing marijuana.”
Breitbart: “Chicago pot smokers may soon be able to light up without fear of jail time. Several Windy City councilmen said Thursday they plan to introduce a local law that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana in order to cut costs and free up police to handle more serious crimes.”
Ray Stern of the Phoenix New Times wrote an in depth article examining President Obama’s who he says is trying to hack medical marijuana off at the knees.
“The new federal crackdown on medical marijuana announced on October 7 by California’s four U.S. Attorneys sent chills through the industry. It was a stunning reversal by the Obama administration. . . . If the feds shut down every dispensary in the land, medical-marijuana patients still can possess pot legally under state laws — they’ll just have to go back to buying it from Mexican drug cartels rather than from taxpaying and job-providing Americans.”
Daily News: “THE medical marijuana laws never have been as simple as California voters intended. Now, though, the tangle of federal, state and local policies is getting downright silly. Before something really bad happens, authorities must nip this confusion – pardon the expression – in the bud. Fifteen years after Prop. 215 made marijuana for medical use exempt from anti-drug laws, the story is going five directions at once. The Obama administration announced a stepped-up effort this month to shut down dispensaries that purport to sell medical marijuana but actually deal recreational pot for big money. U.S. attorneys also are considering action against media that accept dispensaries’ ads.”
Arizona Republic: “The state has given more than 13,000 Arizonans permission to use medical marijuana to treat chronic illness and other debilitating conditions since the program took effect in April, and nearly 11,000 have the state’s OK to grow pot. . . . The Republic asked two leading voices on either side of the medical marijuana debate to offer their opinions on where this confounding issue may be headed.”
East Valley Tribune: “The lawyer for one of the state’s medical marijuana clubs accused the governor and state attorney general on Friday of conspiring to undermine the voter-approved initiative making the drug legal for some ill people. ‘We believe that there’s a clear and blatant pattern that has transpired over the last few months,’ said Thomas Dean. He said that directly includes both Gov. Jan Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne. ‘There’s plenty of evidence that was done in a way that was conspiratorial, fraudulent,’ Dean told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Dean Fink.”
AJC: “A letter from federal prosecutors accomplished what nearly $600,000 in legal fees couldn’t do in this Orange County suburb: it shut down medical marijuana shops. Two weeks after California’s four U.S. attorneys announced they were cracking down on dozens of operations across the state growing and selling medical pot illegally, all eight collectives that occupied the second floor of a Lake Forest mini-mall have closed. Across the Central District of California, which stretches from Santa Barbara to San Bernardino counties, many of the 38 clinics have closed because landlords, threatened with criminal charges or seizure of their assets, were given just 14 days to evict their clients”
California Watch: “Federal prosecutors are preparing to target newspapers, radio stations and other media outlets that advertise medical marijuana dispensaries in California, another escalation in the Obama administration’s newly invigorated war against the state’s pot industry. This month, U.S. attorneys representing four districts in California announced that the government would single out landlords and property owners who rent buildings or land where dispensaries sell or cultivators grow marijuana. Now, newspapers and other media outlets could be next.”
Hot Air: “A record-high 50% of Americans now say the use of marijuana should be made legal, up from 46% last year. Support for legalizing marijuana is directly and inversely proportional to age, ranging from 62% approval among those 18 to 29 down to 31% among those 65 and older. Liberals are twice as likely as conservatives to favor legalizing marijuana. And Democrats and independents are more likely to be in favor than are Republicans.”
Phoenix New Times: “Before Wednesday’s raid of a marijuana promoter Al Sobol’s . . . [2811 Club], Phoenix police officials discussed a pending court case on the legality, in general, of such clubs. . . . The whole situation reeks of dirty politics. . . . Horne, an ambitious politician who wants to be governor, could use the potential victory in the clubs case to advance his political opposition to the medical marijuana law.”
Phoenix New Times: “President Obama doesn’t just want to seize the property of California medical-marijuana dispensaries and hit them with huge tax bills. Now the Obama Administration plans to prosecute people who place ads for dispensaries — and possibly the newspapers that print them.”
See “US attorney eyes going after media running pot ads. The chief federal prosecutor in San Diego [Laura Duffy] is contemplating expanding a federal crackdown on the medical marijuana industry by going after newspapers, radio stationsand other outlets that run advertisements for California’s pot dispensaries, her office told The Associated Press on Thursday. . . . ‘I’m not just seeing print advertising,’ Duffy told California Watch. ‘I’m actually hearing radio and seeing TV advertising. It’s gone mainstream. Not only is it inappropriate – one has to wonder what kind of message we’re sending to our children – it’s against the law’.”
See also “Medical marijuana crackdown gets reaction from those in industry.”
Downtown Devil: “A researcher and professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine’s downtown Phoenix campus criticized a government institute for obstructing a study on the medical value of marijuana at a presentation Tuesday at the Phoenix Theater. A study on marijuana in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been repeatedly obstructed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), researcher and University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix professor Sue Sisley said.”
Arizona Republic: “A non-profit corporation has filed a lawsuit against Fountain Hills, claiming the town’s medical-marijuana ordinance ‘unreasonably restricts’ potential locations for a dispensary. Pure Medical Marijuana & Wellness Center II filed the civil suit in Maricopa County Superior Court. The town and Town Council are named as defendants. . . . One medical-marijuana dispensary will be allowed within the town”
Query: Are Pure Medical Marijuana & Wellness Center II, Inc., and its attorney unaware that the medical marijuana industry in the United States is dead. See “Medical Marijuana Dispensaries are Dead in the United States.”
Arizona Republic: “Phoenix police seized records, cash and high-grade marijuana after serving a search warrant at a Phoenix medical-marijuana club Wednesday. Detectives believe Club 2811, 17233 N. Holmes Blvd., Suite 1615, twisted Arizona’s medical-marijuana law for profit, according to police.”
The following is the text of an email message sent by The Consiglieri Group on October 13, 2011:
“THE 2811 Club was Raided by the Phoenix Police yesterday.
Even though a Superior Court Judge decided that the club can remain open during the litigation, the Police , under the direction of the Arizona Attorney General decided to ignore the judges ruling and attempted to close the club by force. We are the only club in Arizona that has operated in full compliance with the law. We have made ever effort to be transparent in the operation of our club. We have invited all law enforcement to visit our facility. We have repeatly stated that if you can show us one law that we are in violation of we will close our doors. The Attorney General’s office has been unable to produce any violations. The comments from the police were,
‘We are going to close this place down one way or the other’.
The Attorney General has ignored the hundreds of black market illegal operations that have sprung up across the valley in the past few weeks. People illegally selling pounds of marijuana to anyone with or without a card. Advertising the sale of marijuana on the internet and from store fronts , with credit card payments and fedex delivery. While this blackmarket flourishes, patients are put at great risk, acquiring their marijuana from back alleys and the internet. Patients are getting mugged and ripped off. Apparently our elected officials could care less about patient safety. The police chose to attack an open , honest and legitimate operation insteadt of focusing their resources on criminal enterprises. Public safety should be the first concern of our our elected officials, but clearly it has taken a back seat here. The Governor is intentionally trying to create anarchy in the marijuana industry to justify a repeal of the law. It is clear that this police operation was politically motivated. All Arizona residents should be outraged, not about marijuana, but about this egregious government abuse. The Governor, and the Attorney general have a duty under our constitution to uphold our laws. The Arizona Medical Marijuana Act is the law of the land. With their actions today, they have violated the civil rights of every resident of Arizona.
The police removed all of our electronic equipment including our POS system, computers, and large screen TV’s. We are therefore unable to provide our normal club educational resource services. However, we will remain open to allow patients to exchange their marijuana. We will have patients available that have excess marijuana which they want to freely give to other patients as permitted under the AZMMA. As always there is no charge for this exchange. Additionally, until we can restore full service we will waive the membership fees to the club. Consequently, admittance to the Club will be FREE. ( you must be a qualifed MM card holder to enter our club). Come get your FREE MARIJUANA, while supplies last.
Additionally, we ask you to show your support and visit our club today ( Thursday). We also need you to sign a petition that will be sent to the Judge. We will be open from 10am to 5 pm today. Please stop by get some free marijuana and sign our petition.
Sincerely
Allan Sobol”
Tucson Citizen: “Late last week US attorneys announced a crackdown on the “large, for-profit medical marijuana industry” in California. . . . An ABC News poll from 2010 showed 81% of Americans support medical marijuana. . . . Back to my question: Why crack down now? My personal theory is that this is all Governor Jan Brewer’s and Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s fault.”