Federal Attorneys Even Question Arizona Governors Bizarre Medical Marijuana Lawsuit

 By Howard Fischer

Federal attorneys asked a judge on Monday to throw out a lawsuit filed by Gov. Jan Brewer seeking a ruling about the legality of the state’s medical marijuana law.

Deputy U.S. Attorney Scott Risner said there is no legal basis for the lawsuit. Risner told U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton in legal papers filed in her court that, absent some actual threat of prosecution under federal drug laws by his office, the question is purely academic and therefore not a proper subject for litigation.

But state Attorney General Tom Horne, who filed the lawsuit in May on the governor’s behalf, said Risner is telling only part of the story.

The fight surrounds the decision by Arizona voters last year to set up a system allowing those with a doctor’s recommendation and a state-issued ID card to purchase marijuana from state-regulated dispensaries.

Since that time, several federal prosecutors, including Dennis Burke, the U.S. Attorney for Arizona, warned that possession and sale of the drug remains illegal under federal law. Brewer then directed Horne to ask a federal court whether Arizona could implement its program anyway.

In the interim, the state health department, at Brewer’s direction, decided not to license any dispensaries, though they have continued to certify patients as medical marijuana users.

Risner said the problem with Horne’s lawsuit is that no state employee involved in issuing licenses — those that Brewer said she was most concerned about — is facing prosecution.

But Horne said that’s not exactly true.

He pointed out that federal prosecutors, in their letters to state officials in Arizona and elsewhere, essentially said that medical marijuana users have nothing to fear. It’s what those letters did not say, Horne said, which amounts to a threat.

“They gave no assurance to state employees, they gave no assurance to dispensaries,’’ he said.

“And they said they were going to vigorously prosecute anyone who is involved in the distribution of marijuana,’’ Horne continued, a category that could include state workers. “What unbelievable hypocrites!’’

Horne also brushed aside Risner’s argument that there can be no risk of prosecution to state health workers since they are neither accepting nor processing applications from those who want to operate dispensaries.

“We asked for the court decision and we said we’ll hold it up until there is a court decision,’’ Horne complained. He called it “sophistry’’ for the Department of Justice to now argue that the state, by putting the license-issuing process on hold, is now not entitled to a ruling on the very issue that is holding up the process in the first place.

Risner did not return a call to his office seeking comment.

It’s not just the Department of Justice trying to have the governor’s lawsuit dismissed. Would-be dispensary operators and the American Civil Liberties Union are making similar arguments in their own legal filings.

Bolton has not set a date for a hearing.

-Article From East Valley Tribune

Arizona’s First Medical Marijuana Collective Opens Its Doors To Patients

Last Monday, an Arizona based medical marijuana group opened the doors to the first Collective offered to Arizona’s registered medical marijuana card holders. Arizona Cannabis Society LLC opened the doors to their first Collective in grand fashion Monday morning at 11am by handing out FREE medical marijuana to the first 100 patients through the door.

The Collective, which is known as Arizona Cannabis Society, launched a program which is designed for medical marijuana patients that are not interested in cultivating their own medical marijuana plants but are approved to cultivate or for patients that do not want to appoint a registered caregiver this early in the states medical marijuana program.

Arizona Cannabis Society accepts “agency rights” in its name from the patients in order to cultivate 12 medical marijuana plants for each patient they sign up. The Collective cultivates marijuana for the patients and in return patients are able to come to the Collective facilities to receive their medication from the staff at the reimbursement cost of the production. This makes it far more affordable for patients to get quality medical marijuana from a legal source. The group gave away free grams of medical marijuana to the first 100 patients that signed up for the Collective.

The Arizona legislation (ARS 28-1) states patients may reimburse caregivers for reasonable production costs of the medication with one exception, labor. The Collective only assists its own members as it cannot cultivate for anyone that isn’t a member. The AZCS Collective offers patients an alternative to Compassion Clubs that are gaining in popularity across the valley and is completely ARS 28.1 compliant.

Arizona Cannabis Society also offers free classes to members as well as the following services; massage therapy, acupuncture, aroma therapy, cultivation consulting, legal consulting and certification services for new medical marijuana patients. The facility also has a paraphernalia room where patients and staff can discuss various usage methods.

Visit or call today for more information regarding membership fee’s or assistance with medical marijuana services.

(Press Release)

Medical Marijuana Clubs Pop Up As Arizona Law is Debated

by Emily Holden

Medical-marijuana dispensaries can’t yet operate in Arizona pending a judge’s ruling on Proposition 203. But that doesn’t necessarily keep cardholders from finding pot.

At least a handful of clubs that provide patients with medical marijuana have opened up in the Valley to fill that void.

Because the new state law allows most medical-marijuana cardholders to grow their own pot and share it with each other – as long as there are no dispensaries near – these clubs have developed as a go-between.

Joe Yuhas, a spokesman for the Arizona Medical Marijuana Association, which led the campaign for Prop. 203, said the law was meant to create a “regulated industry” of dispensaries. Instead, Yuhas said, the pot clubs are an unintended consequence of the state and federal dispute over whether Arizona’s new law conflicts with federal statutes banning marijuana.

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

The development of marijuana clubs has raised questions about their legality in two areas: the payment for the product and local zoning of the clubs.

The state Department of Health Services said it has “serious concerns about the legality of so-called cannabis clubs.” Health officials have asked the Attorney General’s Office to determine if the clubs are legal.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery agreed the clubs are an “untested area” but said he will prosecute anyone trying to operate outside the narrow provisions of the law.

However, club owners said they’re operating legally.

Dispensaries stalled

In November, voters approved Prop. 203, which legalized medical-marijuana use for people with certain debilitating conditions. The law allowed patients – as long as they don’t live within 25 miles of a dispensary – and caregivers to grow marijuana.

The state was expected to issue up to 126 dispensary permits by August.

But U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, following the lead of other federal prosecutors, warned prospective pot growers and sellers that they could be prosecuted under federal drug-trafficking laws.

Gov. Jan Brewer

In response to the warning, Gov. Jan Brewer and Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne filed a lawsuit in late May asking a federal judge to determine whether compliance with the law would leave state employees, dispensary owners and patients vulnerable to prosecution for violating federal drug statutes.

The ADHS then halted its dispensary-licensing process.

Meanwhile, the state has licensed 5,697 patients with medical-marijuana cards to grow their own.

The department also has approved 270 caregivers to grow marijuana for their patients.

Under the law, medical-marijuana patients can grow up to 12 plants of their own. Patients and caregivers can share it with other cardholders “if nothing of value is transferred in return.”

Patients can pay caregivers for the costs and materials they use to grow pot but not for their work.

Inside the clubs

Caregivers can grow up to 72 plants total for themselves and five others. Some have given excess marijuana to these new clubs.

Since the clubs aren’t regulated, there is no way to say for sure how many operate in the Valley.

But at least seven advertise and operate openly. Others are underground and recruit patients by word of mouth.

Owners of the 2811 Club in Phoenix have heavily promoted their club. Founder Al Sobol said hundreds of people have visited.

Tucked away in a shopping center off Bell Road, members of the 2811 Club lounge on plush-leather couches and gather around small coffee tables to read about strains of marijuana. Smoking is not allowed in the club.

In a back room, an instructor demonstrates how to make Italian salad dressing with pot. And, at a glass display counter, a volunteer hands out 3-gram samples of marijuana to cardholders.

The club scans the cards and verifies the patients’ identity with a thumb-print machine. An armed security guard stands by.

Sobol said that most members are older than 50 and that only a few are in their 20s. Members can consult with volunteers to find the best sample for insomnia or chronic pain.

Mike Miller said he spends his days at the 2811 Club so he can be around people who understand his health problems.

Miller, a diabetic, had to have a leg amputated five years ago after a wound in his foot never healed. He said he has been on painkillers and other medications since then. Miller said he hardly left his house until he got his medical-marijuana card and found the 2811 Club.

“I’m hoping that the only time I would ever need a pain pill again is aspirin,” Miller said.

Donating for pot

There is no set payment arrangement for the various clubs.

The 2811 Club charges members an initial application fee of $25 and a $75 entry fee each visit to attend classes and get a free sample.

The club offers marijuana through the Arizona Compassion Association, a co-op of patients and legal caregivers that has a display in the club. Sobol said the 2811 Club makes donations to the growers to help with expenses of growing marijuana.

Sobol said as long as patients aren’t directly paying for pot, the 2811 Club and the Arizona Compassion Association aren’t acting as dispensaries.

“We don’t sell marijuana here,” Sobol said, adding that clubs that do sell are “absolutely wrong” in their interpretation of Prop. 203.

Yoki A Má, another club in Mesa, has a similar payment arrangement, charging a $65 visit fee and giving members an eighth of an ounce of pot.

Club President Craig Scherf also said he is confident that his club is operating within the confines of the law.

But state and local authorities have not yet determined whether this arrangement constitutes transferring something of value.

Montgomery, the county attorney, said he hasn’t received any cases about medical-marijuana clubs, but he wouldn’t be surprised to get some soon. He said he can’t determine whether they’re all illegal because each case is unique.

“It sounds to me like someone is asking for something of value in order to participate,” Montgomery said. “The closer you get to asking someone to provide money to receive marijuana sounds like a salient violation of the statute.”

Ryan Hurley, an attorney who represents potential dispensary owners for Rose Law Group, said he would advise the potential medical-marijuana dispensary owners he represents against opening clubs.

“At best, it’s a stretch under the law,” Hurley said. “I think it’s very, very risky.”

Local zoning

Aside from the legality of payment issues, there are also some questions about where medical-marijuana clubs can operate.

Because clubs aren’t dispensaries, zoning regulations don’t apply to them.

Ken Strobeck, executive director of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, worked with localities earlier this year to set up dispensary-zoning laws. Strobeck said he hasn’t heard of anyone trying to zone a medical-marijuana club.

Scherf said he is trying to open a second Yoki A Má club in Tempe.

Tempe Planning Manager Lisa Collins said she isn’t sure how local law enforcement would react to a medical-marijuana club, but the club would not need special approval to open.

She said a club might need a sales-tax license to operate as a retail business, but it wouldn’t need one if it was only providing a service for a fee.

A club would need to get construction plans approved, but it probably wouldn’t need to disclose the nature of its business, she said.

Because clubs aren’t regulated like dispensaries, they’re easier to open and run.

Sobol said he initially meant for the 2811 Club to someday become a dispensary, but he has changed his mind, in part, because there are no zoning laws about clubs.

Still, Scherf said clubs are setting up far from residential areas, schools, churches and parks to avoid trouble. His club in Mesa is surrounded by industrial businesses.

Enforcing the laws

Because there’s so much ambiguity, Phoenix police said it’s still too premature to determine whether the clubs are operating legally.

Sgt. Steve Martos, a police spokesman, said his agency hasn’t made any arrests relating to medical-marijuana clubs.

“We are looking into whether or not they are covered by the new law,” Martos said.

Gilbert police have arrested several cardholders for possession but said those arrests involved other crimes.

Robbie Sherwood, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Arizona, recently reiterated his agency’s stance on medical marijuana: Nobody is safe from prosecution.

 

Article From The Arizona Republic

ACLU Asks Federal Judge To Throw Out Arizona Governor’s Medical Marijuana Lawsuit

The American Civil Liberties Union today asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit filed in May by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer that seeks to have her state’s medical marijuana law struck down.

In a motion filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, the ACLU charges that the lawsuit should be dismissed because, among other reasons, there has been no threat that state employees charged with carrying out the state’s law would be prosecuted by federal authorities.

“On the pretext of protecting her state employees, Gov. Brewer is simply seeking to thwart the will of Arizona’s voters and unconscionably block sick people from accessing their vital medicine,” said Scott Michelman, staff attorney with the ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project. “People should have the freedom to choose the medicine their doctors believe will be most effective for them.”

In May, Brewer filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke and potential dispensary applicants seeking a ruling from a federal court that the law is preempted by federal law and should be struck down. The ACLU, along with the Phoenix law firm Gammage & Burnham, represents the Arizona Medical Marijuana Association (AzMMA), a non-profit, membership-based professional association that seeks to advance the interests of Arizona’s medical marijuana profession and the patients it serves, and that is a named defendant in Brewer’s lawsuit.

Brewer’s lawsuit claims that Arizona officials fear federal prosecution for implementing the law, even though Burke said in the days leading up to Brewer filing the lawsuit that the federal government has “no intention of targeting or going after people who are implementing or who are in compliance with state law.”

Brewer’s lawsuit also claims that Arizona’s medical marijuana law is in conflict with the federal Controlled Substances Act. But three appellate court decisions in California have previously rejected claims that California’s medical marijuana law is preempted by federal law. And the Oregon Supreme Court in May backed away from its previous ruling that a part of Oregon’s medical marijuana law is preempted by federal law.

A majority of Arizona voters in 2010 passed Proposition 203, which allows terminally and seriously ill patients in Arizona who find relief from marijuana to use it with a doctor’s recommendation. The law allows marijuana to be distributed by tightly regulated clinics to patients with state-issued registry cards and creates penalties for false statements and fraudulent cards.

“Gov. Brewer’s efforts to derail Prop 203 are bad for patients and bad for public safety,” said Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona. “This law received broad public support because it was thoughtfully written to give patients access to vital medicine, while at the same time creating a well-regulated system of distribution. By preventing state health officials from doing their jobs, Brewer is actually doing more harm than good and creating chaos in a system sanctioned by Arizona voters.”

Along with Michelman, attorneys on the case are Daniel J. Pochoda of the ACLU of Arizona, Lisa T. Hauser and Cameron C. Artigue of Gammage & Burnham, Flagstaff, Ariz. attorney Thomas W. Deene, who represents the Arizona Association of Dispensary Professionals, Inc. and attorneys from the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Rose Law Group PC, who represent the remainder of the named non-federal defendants in Brewer’s lawsuit.

A copy of today’s motion is available online at: download

Arizona v. U.S. – Motion to Dismiss