Marijuana Blog

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has signed a waiver that allows Attorney General Tom Horne to try to close down the marijuana dispensaries that her state health department is in the process of licensing.

AG Horne recently released a formal legal opinion which stated that the voter-approved medical marijuana in AZ violated federal law. Why would he bother stating this obvious fact formally unless he was planning on doing something about it?

For her part, the Governor said Thursday that she does not intend to block Health Director Will Humble from continuing the process of issuing state permits. And Humble, who conducted a lottery Tuesday to see who gets to serve each of the 126 health districts in the state, said the first of those shops could be open by the end of this month.

"I gave him a waiver and put kind of a wall between Mr. Horne and myself so that he could represent this position and he could still represent me with other attorneys on the other side,' Brewer said.

AG Horne said this arrangement will allow one of his deputies to continue to provide legal advice to Humble even as he personally pursues a court order declaring the dispensaries preempted by federal law.

As many may remember, Governor Brewer initially tried to halt the medical marijuana program. "I took it to court and I was ruled against, (with a judge) saying that I had to implement the law,” Brewer recalled Thursday ."So we moved forward under the direction of the court.”

But the governor said Horne and Montgomery remain free to try to shut down the dispensaries anyway.

"If they believe they have a reason to think they can get that overturned, they have that right and privilege to do that,” Brewer said. "But in the meantime we have and will continue to move forward until we hear differently.”

In other words, the battle over medical marijuana in AZ is far from over.

Source: http://www.cvbugle.com

Anyone who follows political trends can see the momentum for marijuana legalization growing. Every year the polls look better for advocates and every election cycle more and more states are considering cannabis law reform.

2012 may go down as the biggest year by far in the history of the movement. All thanks to the tireless efforts of countless advocates and activists.

The video below features a “senior political correspondent,” Andrew Whitman, interviewing Doug Fine, author of "Too High To Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution." The interview is followed by a panel discussion with show host Richard French, political journalist Dominic Carter and New York State Senator Greg Ball on the benefits and downfalls of legalizing marijuana.

These debates and shows are taking place all over the country. Just 20 years ago marijuana law reform was considered a fringe movement not worth anyone’s time. Not the discussion is everywhere, in just about every area of pop culture and in many political debates. Marijuana is well on its way to being just as accepted as alcohol, and considering it is a much safer substance, this is a great thing.