POLITICIANS STONEWALLING MEDICAL-POT PROVISIONS

White-collar crime has been eradicated in Arizona.

There are zero violations of civil rights. Not a single consumer in
the entire state is being ripped off. There is no public corruption.
No environmental laws are being broken.

And, oh yes, the border with Mexico is totally and completely
secure.

All of this must be so.

Otherwise, Attorney General Tom Horne (and Gov. Jan Brewer) couldn't
spend so much time and energy trying to delay, disrupt and demolish
Arizona's medical-marijuana law.

Apparently, they have nothing better to do.

This particular law (Proposition 203) was passed by voters in the last
election. It sent the message that voters in Arizona, like voters in
more than a dozen other states, were willing to challenge federal
authority when it came to drug-enforcement policy. Sort of like the
message Senate Bill 1070 sent concerning immigration-enforcement policy.

Given that, you'd expect Brewer and Horne, the state's top proponents
of "state's rights," to protect the proposition with every fiber of
their beings.

Instead, they're doing just the opposite.

If anything, they've sunk to new political lows in order to prevent
otherwise regular folks from achieving medicinal highs.

"It's really unfortunate that instead of helping to create a policy
that would allow patients to get their marijuana, they are trying to
come up with ways to stop it," said Al Sobol, founder of the 2811
Club, which Horne contends is acting as an unlicensed dispensary.

Sobol added, "They have an obligation as government officials to
uphold the law. And whether they like it or not, the medical-marijuana
law is now the law of the land. They should be exercising as much
power as they can to make sure that these people have a safe way of
acquiring the marijuana - and they're doing just the opposite."

Horne is asking a judge to shut down the handful of clubs like Sobol's
that have cropped up recently. The reason that the clubs came into
being is that Horne and Brewer are preventing the state's full
implementation of the new law, claiming that county and state
officials are at risk of being arrested. The fact that this hasn't
happened in any of the other states with medical-marijuana laws didn't
stop them. The fact that the U.S. attorney said that he wasn't
interested in arresting bureaucrats didn't stop them.

They were against the proposition before the election. They're still
against it.

"Another thing that really bothers me is that we asked the courts to
review this business model weeks ago," Sobol said. "Not only that, but
we've been totally transparent in this. We've invited the attorney
general and governor here, and they've ignored us."

At the 2811 Club, members are charged an application fee of $25 and a
$75 entry fee for classes and free samples. Sobol believes that as
long as patients aren't charged for the marijuana, his club isn't a
dispensary.

Horne disagrees, saying in a press release, "These people are
marketing themselves as being able to lawfully transfer marijuana, and
that type of deception and blatantly illegal activity must be stopped."

Sobol said that he is happy that the issue is in the hands of a
judge.

"It's a game that Horne and Brewer are playing," he said. "They don't
like the law.

"I welcome this (court challenge). The last thing that I want is for
people like Horne or Brewer to make a decision on this. I want the
courts to weigh in with their legal opinion. If the courts come back
and say we can't do this, I will shut down the same day. But I
honestly don't believe that will happen."

If it does, medical-marijuana patients will find themselves, again, in
political limbo.

"The politicians call us deceptive, when it's just the opposite,"
Sobol said. "Here are government officials selling medical-marijuana
cards to people for $150, then telling them they can't use them.

"If I did that, I'd be in jail."