PHOENIX - A House panel voted Wednesday to ban medical marijuana use and possession on college and university campuses, setting the stage for a lawsuit.

The unanimous vote by members of the House Committee on Higher Education came after Rep. Amanda Reeve, R-Phoenix, said the schools fear loss of both direct federal aid and federally backed student loans if they allow faculty and students to possess the drug.

That was backed by Kristen Boilini who lobbies for several community colleges. She said the law will reinforce policies the schools already have in place.

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The jihad against the medical use of marijuana approved by the state voters has now moved to the Arizona Legislature.

Gov. Jan Brewer tried to put roadblocks in the path of implementing the law, but even she seems to have pretty much given up after the state was chastised by a federal judge for not following the wishes of the voters.

But now State Rep. Amanda Reeve, R-Phoenix, has sponsored a bill to ban students on university and college campuses from using medical marijuana even if they have met the requirements under the law and have a medical need.

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PHOENIX -- State lawmakers are moving today to deny university and college students living on campus the right to use medical marijuana even if they have the legally required doctor's recommendation for the drug.

Legislation crafted by Rep. Amanda Reeve, R-Phoenix, would make it illegal not only to use but even to possess marijuana on the campus of any public or private post-secondary institution. That would include not only the state university system and network of community colleges but also various private schools that offer degrees or certificates.

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Could Locate in City As Soon As Summer

Former state attempts to prohibit the licensing of medical marijuana dispensaries are expected to stop, giving the green light to those looking to set up shop.

"The Department of Health has announced the state isn't going to file anymore appeals," Growth Management Director Alton Bruce said. This decision looks to directly impact Coolidge, as four separate parties have already expressed interest in a city location.

"Three of whom identified locations in the Safeway plaza," he added, explaining that each will be required to submit a competing application. "It will only be one that is licensed (by the state)."

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Arizona Governor Jan Brewer recently announced Jan. 13, that she will begin processing applications for medical marijuana dispensaries.

Brewer released the statement after her lawsuit was dismissed Jan. 4 by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton.

Brewer's lawsuit stopped dispensaries from finalizing the licensing process and opening their doors just before the state was going to begin the 30-day application period.

Brewer's decision will now allow state health officials to start the process for licensing the dispensaries.

However, pending lawsuits could delay the licensing process to be finalized and ultimately delay dispensaries from opening their doors for business.

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PHOENIX -- The state's first medical marijuana dispensaries could be up, running and selling the drug by mid July.

State Health Director Will Humble announced Tuesday he will not appeal a court ruling invalidating some of the rules he had crafted limiting who can own and operate the shops, including a requirement to be a resident for at least three years. Those rules also gave favorable treatment to applicants who had never declared bankruptcy.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Richard Gama said last week that the 2010 voter-approved initiative creating a medical marijuana system in Arizona did not allow for such restrictions.

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Inside a freshly-painted office building in north Phoenix, Lynette Shockley unpacked pieces of a black canvas tent to assemble so she can grow medical pot for patients and herself.

Around her, dozens of other registered caregivers erected their own grow tents and hauled in boxes of high-pressure sodium lights and duct systems to prepare for the opening of the 5,000-square-foot medical-marijuana cultivation center, soon to be a headquarters of sorts for 45 caregivers and 500 green leafy plants.

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Now she's really gone and done it.

By "she," I mean Arizona's fine and esteemed Gov. Jan Brewer, and by "it," I mean launched the state toward full implementation of the voter-passed Medical Marijuana Act. Now that two judges--one federal, one Superior Court--have scolded Gov. Jan into doing what we told her to do more than a year ago, she has decided to start taking applications from hopeful MMJ dispensary operators.

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I am writing concerning the Guest Commentary on legalizing all drugs except for methamphetamine (Jan. 12). I never thought that I would be saying this, but I disagree.

Meth is not the only drug that needs to be illegal. Crack cocaine is just as bad as meth, and should not be legal. Having done both, and after being clean for at least 12 years, I know both are bad. I don't even think heroin and morphine should be legal. I've seen a few too many people hurt because of those drugs.

I don't see anything wrong with legalizing marijuana and other herbal drugs.

John Key

[end]

Attention all tokers: This is your week, that hallowed time when you can march to the Arizona Department of Health Services and offer up all manner of explanation for why a bit of weed would ease your considerable suffering.

Already we have two petitions in, hoping to add six new ailments to the list of debilitating diseases and conditions that would allow you to legally (under state law, anyway) smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Medical marijuana eked its way into Arizona in 2010, winning a whopping 50.13 percent of the vote. The law allows anyone with a doctor's recommendation to obtain a state-issued card entitling them to 2 1/2 ounces of pot every two weeks.

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Arizona officials will not appeal last week's judicial ruling that the state must allow medical-marijuana dispensaries and cannot restrict who operates them based on where they live or their financial history.

Judge Richard Gama's decision broadened the pool of potential dispensary owners and cleared the way for the state's medical-pot industry. The only remaining question was whether state officials would challenge the ruling.

Will Humble, director of the state's health department, on Tuesday said his department will begin accepting applications sometime this year. The state anticipates licensing up to 125 dispensaries.

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Attention all tokers: This is your week, that hallowed time when you can march to the Arizona Department of Health Services and offer up all manner of explanation for why a bit of weed would ease your considerable suffering.

Already we have two petitions in, hoping to add six new ailments to the list of debilitating diseases and conditions that would allow you to legally (under state law, anyway) smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Medical marijuana eked its way into Arizona in 2010, winning a whopping 50.13 percent of the vote. The law allows anyone with a doctor's recommendation to obtain a state-issued card, entitling them to 2.5 ounces of pot every two weeks.

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A new request for a medical-marijuana dispensary in northeast Phoenix is the city's first to have a permit hearing since legal issues surrounding state law apparently have been resolved.

The hearing is at 9 a.m. Thursday at Phoenix City Hall, 200 W. Washington St.

The site needs at least two variances from the city law governing location of dispensaries -- variances that hearing officers have been reluctant to grant.

The dispensary applicant, Linda Sonder of American Healthcare Alternatives, has identified a vacant building on the southeastern corner of Cactus and Cave Creek roads as her site. The building formerly housed a convenience store and a payday-loan operation.

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The jury will be out for a long time on whether Arizona can develop a world-best medical marijuana system, but at least two judges have ruled that state government messed up the process.

When the second judicial ruling came last week, Gov. Jan Brewer had already said the state would begin to accept and issue marijuana dispensary licenses, a key component of the program approved by voters in 2010. The second decision, from a Maricopa County Superior Court Judge, said Brewer illegally delayed implementation of the law.

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PHOENIX - The state's first medical marijuana dispensaries could be up, running and selling the drug by mid-July.

State Health Director Will Humble announced Tuesday he will not appeal a court ruling invalidating some of the rules he had crafted limiting who can own and operate the shops, including a requirement to be a resident for at least three years. Those rules also gave favorable treatment to applicants who had never declared bankruptcy.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Richard Gama said last week that the 2010 voter-approved initiative creating a medical marijuana system in Arizona did not allow for such restrictions.

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Regarding the Courier's Jan. 6 editorial, if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be fully legal and there would be no medical marijuana debate. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican immigration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched federal bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.

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Wanting to Walk-In? J.M. Can Highly Recommend the Green Halo

Walking into The Green Halo is like walking into a dream-a well-appointed dream stocked with a broad array of medications in various forms to meet your every need.

It's like a poppy field leading to Oz, but there's no snow to put you to sleep and no flying monkeys. The Green Halo is all Glenda the Good Witch and Lollipop Guild.

Finding Tucson's only walk-in dispensary is super-easy. It's about 200 yards south of Interstate 10 on Wilmot Road. That seems like a bit of a haul for town folk, but since it's right next to the interstate, it's a trade-off. It's only about a 15-minute trip from downtown. I'm going to say they picked an excellent spot. Easy in; easy out. They close earlier than the caregivers where I usually get meds, but I don't have to call Green Halo to see if they're home. If it's between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., they're home.

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Now that both a federal and a state judge have each told Gov. Brewer she lacks a legal reason to delay implementing the Medical Marijuana Act, it's time to focus on how to put meaningful rules in place and enforce them.

By meaningful, we mean rules that will ensure that only patients who need marijuana for medical reasons receive it and that limits in the act on cultivation, possession and distribution are strictly enforced.

The opposite is occurring in Colorado and Montana, where there's such a backlash to the explosion of recreational marijuana use far beyond medicinal needs that lawmakers and civic groups are seeking to repeal the enabling laws in those states.

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J.M. Smith has nothing to worry about regarding the move to take cannabis out of Schedule 1 ("Locked Up," Medical MJ, Jan. 5).

If history is any prelude to the future, the petitions for rescheduling cannabis will languish for years in the Drug Enforcement Administration inbox. After lawsuits to force action and discussion, and probably with dissent from the agency's administrative law judges, the head of the DEA will deny the petition by fiat.

Jay Bergstrom

[end]

PHOENIX - A state judge has ordered Gov. Jan Brewer to finally fully implement the 2010 voter-approved Medical Marijuana Act, saying she acted illegally in holding it up.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Richard Gama rejected the governor's argument that she has the discretion to delay enactment of parts of the law while she sought a ruling from another court about the liability of state workers under federal drug laws.

"Defendants cite no authority for this proposition, and the court has found none," Gama wrote in his ruling made public Wednesday.

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