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AZ Governor Directs State To License Marijuana Dispensaries

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 13, 2012 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Giving up her idea of suing the federal government over Arizona’s medical marijuana law, Governor Jan Brewer said Friday she is directing the state health department to start accepting applications for cannabis dispensaries.

A suit filed by Brewer and her attorney general was dismissed by a federal judge on January 4. The complaint, filed back in May, sought “clarification” on whether state employees who license medical marijuana dispensaries could themselves face federal prosecution.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled that state officials faced no such threat, and threw the suit out. The governors of Washington and Rhode Island have cited similar reasons — claiming they feared state employees would be federally prosecuted — for vetoing or delaying dispensaries in their states.

Judge Nixes Lawsuit Challenging AZ Medical Marijuana Law

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 5, 2012 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Council of Conservative Citizens

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton: Gov. Jan Brewer and her Attorney General “have not shown that any action against state employees in this state is imminent or even threatened”

A federal judge on Wednesday granted an American Civil Liberties Union request to throw out a lawsuit filed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer seeking to strike down the state’s voter-approved medical marijuana law that would allow sick patients to access important medicine.

Gov. Brewer, a notorious opponent of medical marijuana, argued in the May lawsuit that state officials fear federal prosecution for implementing the law — this in spite of the fact that Arizona’s former top federal prosecutor specifically said publicly that the federal government “has no intention of targeting or going after people who are implementing or who are in compliance with state law.”

Arizona Governor, AG Playing Politics With Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 24, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

The Weed Blog

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer won’t allow medical marijuana dispensaries to open in her state, and now she’s trying to shut down the clubs that opened to provide safe access while patients wait for dispensaries.

The lawyer for one of Arizona’s medical marijuana clubs on Friday accused the governor and state attorney general of conspiring to undermine the voter-approved initiative legalizing cannabis for medicinal use.

“We believe that there’s a clear and blatant pattern that has transpired over the last few months,” said Thomas Dean, reports Howard Fischer at Capitol Media Services. Dean said that both Gov. Jan Brewer and Atty. Gen. Tom Horne had worked to stymie the will of the voters.

“There’s plenty of evidence that it was done in a way that was conspiratorial, fraudulent,” Dean told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Dean Fink.

Dean told the judge he wants to question both Gov. Brewer and Atty. Gen. Horne under oath to prove his point.

But that’s not going to happen, at least not in the way Dean envisions, Assistant Attorney General Lori Davis told the judge.

Arizona Attorney General Files Lawsuit Against Cannabis Clubs

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 9, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Photo: James King/Phoenix New Times

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne says he’s “taking a softer approach” and “trying to be a good guy” by not just having the clubs raided and their employees arrested

Attorney General Tom Horne of Arizona on Monday filed a civil action agains four medical cannabis clubs, trying to stop them from providing patients with marijuana under the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. The cannabis clubs have sprung up to provide safe access to patients since dispensaries aren’t yet allowed to open in Arizona, pending a judge’s ruling.

The motion, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, names four clubs and one individual reports Ray Stern at Phoenix New Times: The 2811 Club, Arizona Compassion Association, Yoki A Ma’ Club, Arizona Compassion Club and Michael R. Miller.

Horne wants a judge’s ruling that the clubs aren’t legal. He also seeks an injunction to stop them from selling marijuana. He claims he’s “taking a softer approach” and “trying to be a good guy” by not just having the clubs raided and their employes arrested.

DOJ: State Workers Can Legally Run Med Marijuana Programs

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 5, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

Graphic: CDS

Hey, eagle dude, is that a bud you’re holding?

The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday filed a legal brief indicating the federal government would not prosecute state employees for implementing state medical marijuana programs, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.

The DOJ brief asks that a lawsuit filed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican, be thrown out, reports Eric W. Dolan at The Raw Story.

Brewer’s claims had no merit, according to the Department of Justice, which noted that her lawsuit failed to provide credible evidence that state employees were under threat of imminent federal prosecution.

The governors of Arizona, Rhode Island and Washington have all refused to implement medical marijuana laws because they said they feared criminal prosecution of state employees by federal U.S. attorneys.

The DOJ announcement is particularly ironic and poignant, since it completely removes the one objection Washington Governor Christine Gregoire cited when she vetoed almost all of SB 5073, which would have explicitly legalized medical marijuana dispensaries in that state.

Medical Marijuana Clubs Open As Arizona Law Is Debated

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 18, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Howard Fischer/Capitol Media Services

Mike Miller of the Arizona Compassion Association presides over the counter at The 2811 Club.

Medical marijuana dispensaries aren’t yet allowed to open in Arizona, pending a judge’s ruling on Proposition 203, the ballot initiative approved by voters last November. But that’s not keeping some patients from finding cannabis.

At least a few clubs providing patients with medical marijuana have opened to fill that need, reports Emily Holden at The Arizona Republic.

The new state law allows medical marijuana cardholders to grow their own cannabis and to share it with each other, as long as there are no dispensaries within 25 miles. Since no dispensaries are yet allowed, all patients are currently eligible to grow. These clubs have developed as go-between.

The new law was meant to create a regulated industry of dispensaries, said Joe Yuhas, spokesman for the Arizona Medical Marijuana Association, which led the campaign for Prop 203. Instead, the pot clubs are an unintended consequence of the dispute between state and federal laws regarding pot.

“We’re going to see more and more developments like this,” Yuhas said.

Arizona AG Worked With Anti-Marijuana Leader On Lawsuit

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 9, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Photo: James King/Phoenix New Times

Whack-job Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne started working on a nefarious plan to stop medical marijuana almost as soon as voters had approved it last November.

Elected state officials busily working to defeat the will of their state’s own voters — it’s an unseemly spectacle, and it’s unfolding as we speak in Arizona. Making the entire scene even more ugly is the fact that seriously ill patients are needless suffering as a result.

Within weeks of Arizona voters approving medical marijuana in their state, the top law enforcement official in the state was devising ways to stymie the will of the people. Whack-job Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne discussed a plan to launch legal action agains the state’s medical marijuana law during a January meeting with the law’s biggest opponent, it has been revealed.

Carolyn Short, who led last year’s unsuccessful campaign to stop Proposition 203, which legalized medical marijuana in Arizona, refers to the meeting in a February 16 letter [PDF] to state Department of Health Services Director Will Humble, reports Ray Stern at Phoenix New Times:

Are You As ‘Fed’ Up As Me With Federal Marijuana Policies?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 1, 2011 Culture

Photo: Eric Kayne

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

I am totally Fed up.

If you haven’t heard already, ex-presidents, prime ministers, eminent economists and the Big Dudes of the business community will be meeting to discuss how the world’s drug policies “just ain’t working.” The quote is mine.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy will host a press conference at the prestigious Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York on Thursday, to pull the trigger on their findings that describe the Drug War as a failure and call for a “paradigm shift” in approaching the issue.

The commission will demand that the focus change from criminal justice towards a public health approach. The global advocacy organization Avaaz, which has nine million members, will present a petition in support of the commission’s recommendations to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The commission cites such factors as the cartel-related violence in Mexico, President Barack Obama’s comment that it was “perfectly legitimate” to question whether the War On Drugs was working, and the wider global economic crisis. These factors have the world leaders questioning whether it is time to change our course when it comes to the War On Drugs.

Arizona Governor Can’t Stop Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 26, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Opposing Views

Jan Brewer was against Proposition 203 before it passed — and now that it’s law, she wants to ignore the voters.

Prosecutors will still be prohibited from convicting legal medical marijuana patients

The misguided efforts of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne to quash the state’s new medical marijuana won’t work, reports Ray Stern at Phoenix New Times.

Authorized patients can possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis legally in Arizona since the passage of Proposition 203 by voters — with or without “state approval,” New Times reports.

“That’s why Brewer and Horne, two Republicans who are putting politics above the wishes of the electorate, haven’t mentioned any plans to stop the state from handing out medical marijuana registration cards,” Stern writes. “The smartly written Arizona Medical Marijuana Act anticipated an anti-democratic reaction like the one we saw Tuesday and included a powerful work-around.”

Is Rural Arizona Freaking Out Over Medical Marijuana?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 17, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Photo: SWOP-USA

Apparently somehow unaware that marijuana is already easily available to practically any young person in America who wants it, one volunteer police officer in Kingman, Arizona, is pulling all kinds of drama-king moves over the coming of legal, medicinal cannabis to his town.

Harley Pettit of Kingman, Arizona says he’s seen young people get in trouble for everything from drugs and alcohol to vandalism. And Harley says that in a small community “with not a lot to do,” the last thing young people need is another way to get into trouble, reports Alyson Zepeda of Cronkite News Service.

And, of course, Harley is worried that’s what this newfangled medical marijuana stuff is going to give them. Well, news flash, Harley — for those of us who aren’t stuck in some king-hell 1950s time warp, young people are already smoking marijuana, they have been for 40 years, and they don’t have to buy it from medical marijuana dispensaries.

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