Gravely ill and severely disabled?

Real sorry about that, but you should still be thrown in jail for using marijuana, says a ruling by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Image: stanfordlawyer.law.stanford.edu

Justice Raymond C. Fisher of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals says the Americans With Disabilities Act provides no protection for medical-marijuana patients.

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Image: Jamie Peachey

A $500,000 loan to a Colorado company intended for a medical-marijuana facility doesn't have to be paid back because pot is illegal under federal law, a county judge has ruled.

The bombshell ruling, (tip of the hat to lawyer Richard Keyt's medical-marijuana blog), has major implications for the budding dispensary industry in Arizona. Applications for dispensaries are set to be accepted this month, and state-authorized, medical-pot retail and grow centers are expected to open by late summer.

Although this isn't a precedent-setting ruling that other judges must consider, the basic concept of the April 17 ruling is a wake-up call for lenders and investors.

As Keyt wrote in his blog, if this goes to an appeals court and is upheld, "any contract that has a purpose related to Arizona medical marijuana may be unenforceable and not worth the paper it is written on!"

In reading the ruling by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael McVey, it's easy to see how Keyt came to that conclusion.

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Image: Jamie Peachey

Liquid marijuana tinctures could be illegal under Arizona law, despite the 2010 Medical Marijuana Act.

One thing to add about our blog post today on the raid of Arizona Cannabis Society:

Phoenix police say they intend to submit charges on some of the people involved, including charges related to the production of concentrated marijuana.

That brings up the thorny question of whether such concentrates are legal under Arizona's 2010 Medical Marijuana Act. The answer will become more important in a few months, with the opening of medical-pot dispensaries that plan on selling these type of products.

Many marijuana "edibles," for example, are made first by preparing concentrate that is then infused into food products. Pot-loaded foods, liquid tinctures, kief -- a powder made from the crystals of marijuana buds -- and hash all allow patients to opt out of smoking marijuana to obtain its benefits.

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Image: Jamie Peachey

Bill Hayes, seen here at a cannabis club last June, was detained today after police raided his medical-marijuana collective, Arizona Cannabis Society.

Arizona Cannabis Society, a medical-marijuana caregiver collective featured prominently in a March New Times blog post, was raided today by Phoenix police.

Founder Bill Hayes is still being detained, cops say. However, police have no intention of booking anyone into jail today, says Phoenix Police Sergeant Trent Crump. Several people found at the three locations where warrants were served were detained briefly and released.

Crump says the operation was well out-of-bounds of the 2010 Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. After a month and a half of undercover work, police served search warrants on three locations related to AZCS. At one location, nearly 900 pot plants were found -- yet not a single person involved was a qualified caregiver, Crump says.

Under state law, qualified pot patients can grow up to 12 plants each. Caregivers can grow the same 12 plants for up to five patients each.

In other words, cops are saying the cannabis club had way too many plants.

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Bob Melamede, University of Colorado biology associate professor and president of Cannabis Science, Inc., touts the alleged benefits of marijuana as a cancer-fighting drug.

The makers of a new documentary have teamed up with Cannabis Science, Inc., a Colorado firm, to promote the idea that marijuana can cure many types of cancer.

"Chronic Future - Killing Cancer," a 76-minute film by local guys Henry Miller and Corey Pritchard, is scheduled to premiere tomorrow (Thursday) at Harkins Theater Shea 14.

Originally planned to be called "Chronic Future - the 2811 Story," the film features the activities of medical-marijuana-marketer Al Sobol and the 2811 Club, LLC., one of the clubs we told you about last year that arose from the chaos of Governor Jan Brewer's decision to stall the roll-out of voter-approved dispensaries. Sobol's place was raided by Phoenix police in October while Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Dean Fink pondered the legality of such clubs in response to a lawsuit filed against them by state Attorney General Tom Horne. That case is still pending.

Sobol, known for his attention-getting antics, sent out an e-mail a couple of days ago blasting the movie and apologizing to his friends and associates for being "scammed" by the filmmakers.

"The producers rented the theater for a night to show the movie as part of a grand marketing scheme to sell Hemp Oil," Sobol wrote. "I fear these marketers, like the snake oils salesman before them, are selling nothing more than false hope for presumably big bucks. That is cruel for the people that suffer with real diseases."

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Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a bill yesterday that bans the use or possession of medical marijuana on college campuses, other schools campuses and childcare facilities.

Opponents, including Joe Yuhas of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Association, predict the new law will end up being contested in court because it violates the 1998 Voter Protection Act. That constitutional amendment bans the State Legislature from tampering with a voter-approved law unless it furthers the spirit of the law.

For state-registered pot patients who may have "medicine" while university property, the new law means a return to the risk of being busted under the state's felony pot law.

Students who live in Arizona State University dorm rooms are already banned from possessing alcohol, so a ban on marijuana just for them might have made sense. The new law would presumably be extended to a student's car parked on the property of a school or childcare center.
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Image: Arizona Department of Health Services

Will Humble, director of the state Department of Health Services, says he isn't worried he'll be prosecuted federally for carrying out the wishes of Arizona voters.

If the feds decide to pull up their jackboots and bust state employees for administering Arizona's medical-marijuana program, the director of the state Department of Health Services could be a target.

After all, Will Humble is the boss at DHS, the state agency that will be approving applications for dispensaries and inspecting marijuana grow-shops and inventory.

But Humble says he's not worried -- despite a February 16 letter by Acting Arizona U.S. Attorney Ann Scheel warning that state employees aren't "immune" from prosecution under federal drug laws.

"As long as they stay true to their job, I can't imagine a prosecutor would bring a case like that," Humble says.

Humble points out that the feds are well aware the state was ordered to implement the voter-approved program by a state judge. State employees who "never took a sample, never did anything untoward and kept their noses clean" will probably be safe, he says -- adding quickly that that's just his opinion.

The February 16 letter by Scheel (see below) was "much ado about not much," Humble says.

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Image: Jamie Peachey

One of the many medical-pot plants growing at the Arizona Cannabis Society in El Mirage.

The freedom to grow marijuana granted by the state's 2010 medical-pot law is blossoming along with the plants in an El Mirage warehouse.

Bill Hayes, founder of the Arizona Cannabis Society, invited New Times inside last week for a peek at their operation. (See our slideshow of the tour here.)

A couple of years ago, this marijuana nursery would have been kept top-secret by growers who risked going to prison for it. But because of the successful passage of the 2010 Medical Marijuana Act, those growers are now gainfully employed in a legal business.

Hayes had no problem with New Times publishing the company's address. (It's 8376 N. El Mirage Road.) Nor did he mind if we let readers know that, by overseeing a crop of high-quality pot, he's just doing what he's done illegally for much of his life.

Following a probation violation stemming from his third bust, he was sentenced to a year in prison.

"I spent that year at the law library," says Hayes, 36. "I refuse to stop growing pot."

These days, no one's making him stop. Under Arizona law, as a qualified medical-marijuana patient, he can legally grow 12 plants. Employees and volunteers at the collective are patients themselves, and some are registered caregivers, meaning they can grow 12 plants for each of five patients.

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Image: Jamie Peachey

Bill Hayes, a medical marijuana patient and volunteer for the Arizona Compassion Club, has filed a federal complaint to stop the state from re-illegalizing the growing of marijuana in certain areas.

A new lawsuit over Arizona's Medical Marijuana Act targets the provision that bans patients and caregivers from growing pot within 25 miles of an open dispensary.

Bill Hayes, a marijuana activist and qualified patient who lives in Surprise, argues in a federal complaint filed yesterday that the provision violates the equal protection clause of the state constitution. He wants to be able to keep growing pot even if a dispensary opens nearby. (See the lawsuit below).

An amendment to another lawsuit in Maricopa Superior Court, meanwhile, seeks to further alter the rules regarding dispensaries created last year by the state Department of Health Services.

The marijuana law, approved narrowly by voters in November of 2010, states that patients and caregivers can't grow pot if a dispensary is open within 25 miles. So far, that hasn't been a problem because the medical-pot stores, which at one point were expected to be open by last fall, have been seriously delayed.

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Photo Illustration: New Times

Followers of the highs and lows of Arizona's Medical Marijuana Act should enjoy the newly released transcript of the federal court hearing that ended Governor Jan Brewer's anti-pot lawsuit.

The January 4 dismissal of Brewer's lawsuit, which was clearly intended to thwart a new medical marijuana law, came after a December 12 hearing that didn't go well for one of Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne's lawyers.

Horne, who hasn't been averse to stepping into a courtroom on occasion since being elected in 2010, stayed away from this one and let assistant Attorney General Lori Davis take one for the team.

In the transcript, Davis, (who apparently works out of her Paradise Valley home now according to State Bar records), absorbs the flurry of legal blows from U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton, who takes a "you-gotta-be-kidding-me" approach to the state's ambiguous position.

The hearing turned into a checkmate for Brewer and Horne, who had claimed their lawsuit was "neutral" since filing it in May even as they begged the federal government to do something about the law. They didn't want to side with medical marijuana supporters and the voters who passed the law in November of 2010. But siding against it was politically dangerous and violated Arizona's Voter Protection Act.

So they didn't take a side. And Bolton called Davis on it.

"That's not how lawsuits work," she tells Davis on page 21. "The plaintiff takes a position and doesn't take two diametrically opposed positions. You have to advocate your position."

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