Arizona’s
Attorney General Targets Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Protected By State Law
In 2010,
Arizona’s voters enacted the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, which permits
patients to use and clinics to provide medical cannabis without having to fear
state prosecution, provided they obtain a permit from the state. The state
began the process of distributing permits to clinics via lottery this week.
Yet, despite
the fact that Arizona law no longer authorizes lawful marijuana dispensaries to
be targeted by state officials, Attorney General Tom Horne (R-AZ) doesn’t seem to have received the memo:
Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a waiver,
which will allow Attorney General Tom Horne
to try to close down the marijuana dispensaries that her state health
department is in the process of licensing.
The move comes in the wake of Horne’s
formal legal opinion that the state cannot legally permit anyone to sell
marijuana, even only to those who have a doctor’s recommendation to use the
drug. Horne said as long as the drug
remains illegal under federal law, the state is powerless to authorize anything
to the contrary.
But the governor said Thursday she does
not intend to block Health Director Will Humble from continuing the process of
issuing state permits. And Humble, who conducted a lottery Tuesday to see who
gets to serve each of the 126 health districts in the state, said the first of those
shops could be open by the end of the month.
So one state
agency will continue to issue permits to dispensaries telling them they are
legally authorized to distribute marijuana to patients, while another state
agency has vowed to shut these dispensaries down. If nothing else, this
arrangement is tremendously cruel to the people who work in these dispensaries.
When a state agency issues someone a permit saying their actions will not be
subject to state prosecution, the permit holder should be able to rely on that
promise.
Moreover,
Horne’s claim that he is required to go after state dispensaries because
marijuana is illegal under federal law is questionable at best. While it is
true that state laws are “preempted” by federal laws that conflict with them, a
fact that Horne relies upon in his anti-dispensary memo, nothing in Arizona’s medical marijuana law presents a genuine conflict with
federal law. Rather, the Arizona law ensures that dispensaries who have valid
state permits will not be targeted by state officials for providing medical
marijuana. If the federal government wants to bring prosecutions, that’s up to
them.
Even if federal
law did force Arizona to bring prosecutions against people the state does not
want to prosecute — and it does not — such a law would be unconstitutional.
Horne may not be aware of this fact, but the Supreme Court decided an obscure case called NFIB
v. Sebelius last
June which reaffirmed that “the Constitution has never been understood to
confer upon Congress the ability to require the States to govern according to
Congress’ instructions.” The feds do have the constitutional authority to target marijuana dispensaries,
but they must use their own officials and their own resources to do so.
Of course,
Horne has not hesitated to make outlandish states rights arguments in defense
of Arizona’s harsh anti-immigration law or as part of an assault on the Affordable Care Act. But it’s
clear now that he only believes in states rights when doing so is convenient
for him. The minute Arizona’s voters passed a medical marijuana law, he
suddenly believes that Arizona is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the federal
government.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/10/671121/arizonas-attorney-general-targets-medical-marijuana-dispensaries-protected-by-state-law/?mobile=nc
My Opinion:
Both AZ Governor Jan Brewer and AZ Attorney General Tom Horne should not Resign they should be re-called from the office for which they hold for Violating their Oath of Office, which they swore to uphold to defend the Constitution.
(initiative, referendum and recall)
The Federal laws only pertain to commerce, therefore if you are a Non-profit organization they don't apply to you.
My Opinion:
Both AZ Governor Jan Brewer and AZ Attorney General Tom Horne should not Resign they should be re-called from the office for which they hold for Violating their Oath of Office, which they swore to uphold to defend the Constitution.
(initiative, referendum and recall)
The Federal laws only pertain to commerce, therefore if you are a Non-profit organization they don't apply to you.
