Arizona Pro-Pot Activist Billy Hayes Faces Serious Prison Time but Doesn’t Know When to Quit

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Billy Benjamin Hayes Jr., 39, is one of Arizona’s most vocal marijuana activists. Few people welcomed the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act when voters passed it in 2010 more than Hayes. The lanky father of three is a marijuana enthusiast, a grower for nearly his whole life who imbibes regularly, whether by smoking, vaporizing, or eating.
His name often is seen in Internet forums of the Arizona Department of Health Services, the agency that oversees the medical-marijuana program. Having learned just enough law to be dangerous during an eight-month stint in prison on a marijuana-possession violation, he’s sued the federal government (unsuccessfully) over the law’s 
”25-mile rule,” which limits where patients can grow marijuana, and helps his pro bono pot-activist lawyer, Tom Dean, write court motions.
Hayes needs an attorney because he’s also an entrepreneur who just may be ahead of his time. Ray Stern at the Phoenix New Times has more on Hayes and the state of Arizona’s medical marijuana system.

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