The newly enacted Arizona medical marijuana laws are still facing new trials and tribulations after AZ Gov., Jan Brewer, decided to file a federal suit.
Arizona medical marijuana laws are once again under scrutiny by the very person who should be lauding the legal system and voters for stating their voice and passing them: Governor Jan Brewer.
Classically known as a proponent against these Arizona medical marijuana laws, something the Brewer has publically voiced, and also something that saw the newly passed laws rewritten so that they could not be shut down by state legislature, like they did after proposition 200 was passed by a 2-1 margin in 1996, but was later dumped by the state using legislative laws; the new Arizona medical marijuana laws require a supermajority vote of 2/3 to get ousted by state legislature, something that would be next to impossible for Brewer to pull off.
But the sly Gov has an ace up her sleeve. Brewer cites her concerns in a recent press release, stating that US Attorney Eric Holder’s letter to the Gov of Washington (in April, 2011) leaves her concerned the federal prosecution of state employees for processing applications for Arizona medical marijuana cards and permits for marijuana dispensaries. She specifically cited a United States Attorney for the District of Arizona Dennis Burke to Arizona Department of Health Services Director Will Humble letter, regarding the legality of the state approved Arizona medical marijuana program.
The item of concern in Burke’s letter states that “growing, distributing and possessing cannabis in any capacity, other than as part of a federally authorized research program, is a violation of federal law regardless of state laws that purport to permit such activities.”
But the same letter adheres to a 2009 letter penned by Deputy Attorney General David Ogden that guides US Attorneys to not “focus their limited resources on those seriously ill individuals who use marijuana as part of a medically recommended treatment.”
Now the battle is headed for a legal showdown
In a statement to the press Brewer said that “I won't stand aside while state employees and average Arizonans acting in good faith are unwittingly put at risk. In light of the explicit warnings on this issue offered by Arizona's U.S. attorney, as well as many other federal prosecutors, clarity and judicial direction are in order.”
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne is set to file the suit shortly.
The state still plans on issuing Arizona medical marijuana cards in the meantime.
Currently there are more than 4,000 patients who have been approved for Arizona medical marijuana cards by the state health department.
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