Pubdate: Sat, 11 Aug 2012
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2012 The Arizona Republic
Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: E. J. Montini

MONTGOMERY, HORNE SIMPLY HATE THIS LAW

State Attorney General Tom Horne and Maricopa County Attorney Bill 
Montgomery must think of Ryan Hurley as the boogeyman.

He's actually worse than that. He's a lawyer.

Which still puts him ahead of Horne and Montgomery, who are lawyers 
and politicians, as well as two men doing everything they can to keep 
the state from fully implementing the medical-marijuana law that -- 
for a third time -- was approved by voters.

Apparently the top law-enforcement officials in the state have solved 
Arizona's crime problem and now have time to frighten sick people and 
threaten those who want to help them.

Most recently, Horne issued a non-binding opinion saying that federal 
law supersedes Arizona's medical-marijuana law and that allowing 
marijuana dispensaries to move forward could get people arrested. Not 
by federal authorities, who have expressed no interest in prosecuting 
medical-marijuana cases, but by Montgomery, who publicly proclaimed 
that he is prepared to consider prosecuting cases the feds aren't 
interested in.

Hurley represents some of the folks who plan to open 
medical-marijuana dispensaries in Arizona.

He told me, "His (Montgomery's) press conference amounted to fear and 
intimidation rather than anything new. The county attorney enforces 
and prosecutes state law, not federal law. ... So this sort of notion 
that he's going to be out there arresting people under state law is 
just silly."

Silly, yes.

But also predictable.

The state's elected officials have been attacking the voter-approved 
law from the beginning. It began when Gov. Jan Brewer and Horne filed 
a federal lawsuit, which went nowhere.

Since then, there has been hand-wringing and foot-dragging and 
doom-saying until finally, last week, the state health department 
issued 97 dispensary-registration certificates. These were selected 
by a lottery from among 433 applicants. Each of those potential 
dispensary owners apparently was unimpressed by the dire predictions 
of arrest and financial ruin by Horne and Montgomery.

I asked Hurley if he was surprised by the vehemence with which the 
politicians are fighting implementation.

"It was a little surprising," he said. "Their stated intention from 
day one was to try to resolve this in a civil fashion in the courts, 
and that seems to have gone the other way. It's unfortunate because 
what they're going to end up doing is forcing cancer patients into 
the black market, into back alleys to pick up their medicine."

Montgomery and Horne want the issue back into the courts.

"If he (Montgomery) is successful in delaying or impeding the 
dispensary program, all he is going to be doing is allowing this 
unregulated gray market to pop up," Hurley said. "And patients aren't 
protected and growers aren't protected. The dispensaries offer a 
safe, legal, compliant way for people to get their medicine, and that 
is what people voted for."

Horne and Montgomery point to problems with medical marijuana in 
California and Colorado.

"Arizona is more like Colorado than California," Hurley said. 
"California has no specific state law that authorizes dispensaries. . 
But unlike any state in the nation, we strictly limited the number of 
dispensaries we have. And the regulations people had to go through 
here to get a license were much steeper than other places. Our model, 
our law, is better than anyone else's so far and should be allowed to 
work the way it was designed."

He added, "Besides, even in California, where there is a lot of 
uncertainty, these notions that the sky is going to fall just don't 
hold up. You talk to LAPD, you talk to Denver PD, you look at the 
studies by the Rand Corporation, and there is absolutely no 
statistical increase in crime associated with medical marijuana. Period."

Trying to keep Arizona's medical-marijuana law from taking effect 
isn't about crime, however. It's about politicians who hate the idea 
of medical marijuana so much they are trying to override the will of 
voters. Or are they?

After all, the same voters who approved the marijuana initiative 
elected Brewer, Horne and Montgomery.

A fact that lends itself to a question I've heard from many 
out-of-state colleagues: "What are you people smoking?"
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom