Arizona’s medical-marijuana law is so vague, the state can’t prosecute patients who sell pot to other patients, a Pima County Superior Court judge has ruled.
The offbeat, July 2 ruling and dismissal of a criminal case by Judge Richard Fields has the potential to open up all sorts of entrepreneurial opportunities for Arizonans to sell marijuana legally.
If it survives an appeal, that is.
Although voters in 2010 approved a system of regulated dispensaries to sell marijuana, part of the text that is now enshrined in Arizona law states that “a registered qualifying patient or registered designated caregiver is not subject to arrest, prosecution or penalty in any manner” for various marijuana-related offenses.
Here’s where it gets interesting: Those qualified Arizonans can’t be prosecuted “for offering or providing marijuana to a registered qualifying patient or a registered designated caregiver for the registered qualifying patient’s medical use or to a registered nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary if nothing of value is transferred in return and the person giving the marijuana does not knowingly cause the recipient to possess more than the allowable amount of marijuana.”
Read more on how the courts are interpreting that law, and why it’s a good thing for patients over at the Phoenix New Times.