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Judge Nixes MMJ Users Right To Grow Their Own
Posted by CN Staff on November 14, 2013 at 12:55:27 PT
By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services
Source: Arizona Daily Star
Phoenix -- Medical marijuana users have no constitutional right to grow their own drug, a trial judge has ruled.Judge Katherine Cooper of Maricopa County Superior Court threw out a challenge by two men to a provision in the 2010 voter-approved Arizona Medical Marijuana Act that says only those living farther than 25 miles from a state-regulated dispensary can cultivate the plants. She said there is no basis for their claim that the provision limits their health-care rights.
But Cooper left the door open for the men to raise a separate challenge that the 25-mile rule amounts to a violation of their rights under constitutional provisions guaranteeing everyone equal protection of the law. She said, though, they have yet to make a case for that claim.The 2010 law allows those with a doctor’s recommendation to get a card from the state allowing them to obtain and possess up to 2˝ ounces of marijuana every two weeks.That law also envisioned a system of state-regulated dispensaries to sell the drug. But it also says anyone who lives farther than 25 miles from a dispensary could grow up to 12 plants at any one time.Initially, that exemption applied to everyone because it took the state more than a year to license dispensaries. But state Health Director Will Humble said just about all of the approximately 40,000 medical-marijuana cardholders in Arizona now live close enough to a dispensary.The challengers, who had been growing their own, did not want to give up that right.They cited provisions of a 2012 constitutional amendment that says individuals cannot be forced to participate in any health-care system.Attorney Michael Walz said forcing those who are entitled to use medical marijuana to buy their drugs at retail from a dispensary amounts to forcing them to participate in that system.Cooper disagreed.“Dispensaries are not a ‘health-care system,’ ” the judge wrote.She said they do not manage, process, enroll or pay for health-care services for qualifying patients.And Cooper said the amendment the men are relying on clearly applies to mandated health insurance, “not to a businesses that sell controlled substances.”Anyway, the judge wrote, participating in the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act is hardly a compulsory program.Instead, she pointed out, it simply allows those who qualify to legally obtain and possess marijuana.“It does not compel people to use medical marijuana or even obtain a qualifying registry card,” Cooper said.An appeal is likely.Source: Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ)Author: Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services Published: November 14, 2013Copyright: 2013 Arizona Daily StarContact: letters azstarnet.comWebsite: http://www.azstarnet.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/m02cyArdCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
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Comment #7 posted by museman on November 16, 2013 at 10:42:47 PT
runruff
Yes! But I think it's already outlasted the USA. Because it has been the FSA, or the FSA in the planning and implementing stage since before I was born. I didn't know until the military and I started smoking herb.Funny how smoking it makes you aware of truths that those who don't or didn't seem to be blissfully ignorant of, and often militantly defensive. And the 'military mind' is held in high esteem when it should be banned from the face of the planet. That is also the source of modern 'law' enforcement. Our economy is based on a war machine, and so is politics. Thus a 'war' on this and a 'war' on that. And uncannily mainstream religion is complicit in that travesty and untruth as well as public schools and 'higher' (not even) academics.Welcome to the Fascist States of Amerika -the FSA!"Smoke pot smoke pot, everybody smoke pot!"LEGALIZE FREEDOM
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Comment #6 posted by runruff on November 16, 2013 at 05:53:44 PT
Shelf life of legal obstacle.
Not to worry, Cannabis will be around, legal and socially acceptable, long after this ignorant judge is gone and forgotten.Cannabis has been in use 7-10 thousand years? It will be around so long as people find a use for it, which is more than I can say for fashionable laws invented by power hungry politicians. Cannabis use will out last the DoJ and probably our so called USA as well.
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Comment #5 posted by Richard Zuckerman on November 15, 2013 at 10:28:04 PT:
If legalization...
If Cannabis is to finally become legalized, then we can embark on the process of asking for expungement of all of the Cannabis convictions.
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on November 15, 2013 at 04:56:35 PT
News from NPR 
Denver's Smell-O-Scope Targets Marijuana's Skunky ScentURL: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/11/14/245254291/denvers-smell-o-scope-targets-marijuanas-skunky-scent
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Comment #3 posted by The GCW on November 14, 2013 at 15:33:53 PT
Can they grow their own plant?
"Phoenix -- Medical marijuana users have no constitutional right to grow their own drug, a trial judge has ruled."-0-Can they grow their own plant?Cannabis is a plant, not a drug, for Christ's sake.Hold some in Your hand and observe.
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Comment #2 posted by museman on November 14, 2013 at 14:24:05 PT
"An appeal is likely."
Ya Think?LEGALIZE FREEDOM
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Comment #1 posted by ekim on November 14, 2013 at 13:10:16 PT
please take a look at todays show
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/11/14/a_nun_takes_on_the_drug
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