MEDI-POT ATTORNEYS SEEKING TO FORCE ISSUE

2 Dispensaries' Lawyers Want Court to Order Acceptance Of
Applications

PHOENIX - Attorneys for two owners of would-be marijuana dispensaries
went to court Tuesday in a bid to force the Department of Health
Services to accept and process their applications.

The lawsuits contend that the agency and its director, Will Humble,
are violating the mandate by voters to license 125 shops to sell
marijuana to Arizonans entitled to purchase it as medicine. They want
an order compelling Humble to proceed with the licensing. But Humble
said he and Gov. Jan Brewer are refusing to proceed based on advice
from Attorney General Tom Horne.

Horne contends the medical-marijuana law voters approved in November
may conflict with federal statutes that make it a felony to sell,
possess or transport marijuana. Horne questions whether having state
employees processing dispensary applications leaves them liable for
helping others violate federal law. Humble will not even make blank
applications available.

"That's a violation of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act," said Ken
Frakes, an attorney in one of the lawsuits filed in Maricopa County
Superior Court.

Frakes said the law requires the health department to adopt rules to
license dispensaries. And those rules, he noted, spell out
applications were supposed to be accepted beginning June 1.

Refusing to even accept applications, he said, "thwarts the will of
the voters in this state."

In a separate legal action, attorney David Dow is asking the Arizona
Court of Appeals to order Humble to start accepting applications
within 30 days.

Horne said he is doing nothing wrong by advising the law be put on
hold while he waits to hear from a federal judge on whether the state
can implement its medical-marijuana law despite federal statutes.

No date has been set for the hearing.

Dow said what is going on in federal court is irrelevant. He pointed
out state courts in California have already have concluded that having
state employees issuing medical-pot permits does not violate federal
law.

Frakes also said it makes no sense to wait for that federal court case
to proceed.

He predicted the federal judge will refuse to rule on the issue, as
the state is simply asking for what amounts to an advisory ruling.
Frakes said that only when a medical-marijuana user or dispensary
owner is being prosecuted under federal drug laws would the case be
considered "ripe" for ruling.

The law approved by voters last November entitles anyone with a
doctor's recommendation to obtain up to 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana
every two weeks.

It requires the health department to license dispensaries, which also
would have the legal right to cultivate their own marijuana or
purchase it from another.

Both attorneys said their clients already have invested substantial
sums in their bids to get one or more of the 125 dispensary permits
authorized under the law.