Arizona Medical Marijuana Law

Las Vegas Sun:  “While Nevada lawmakers debate the merits of legalizing marijuana, one company is looking at opening the state’s first medical marijuana school this month.  The Budtender School is expected to have its grand opening on April 13. Created by the Cannabis Career Institute”

Boston Magazine:  “With reggae music playing through the speakers inside a meeting room at the Sheraton, nearly 100 people interested in the emerging medical marijuana market in Massachusetts gathered on Wednesday to find out more about the state laws—and how to use a pot vending machine.  Hosted by Dr. Bruce Bedrick, CEO of MedBox, a national medical marijuana dispensary support company that produces biometrically controlled machines, potential business owners sat in on a three-hour seminar . . . . Bedrick says 150 of the company’s machines are in use around the U.S. and Canada and that the machines offer ‘an extra layer of security’”

Time:  “With Republicans in a chaotic retreat on social issues like gay marriage and immigration, some conservatives are looking for places to set up a skirmish line. Pete Wehner proposes marijuana as the bright line today in the Washington Post.  I’ve been for legalization for years. But I think Wehner’s argument deserves a respectful read because he raises at least one crucial question for our society.”

Politico: “Now that voters in Colorado and Washington have legalized recreational marijuana use, dope smokers there can light up without the usual paranoid fear that the cops are at the door.  The taxman is another matter.  Cash-starved legislators are seeing dollar signs in dime bags — with talk that a tax on marijuana could pump hundreds of millions or even billions into budgets still reeling from the recession.”

Seattle Pi:  “‘No. No more than they could stop the end of slavery, no more than you could stop women getting the vote, no more than you can stop the end of Jim Crow segregation,’ said Harry Levine, a university professor with decades of research into the war on drugs and specifically the enforcement of marijuana prohibition. ‘This is a thing that runs counter to the fundamental functioning of a modern society. It’s immensely wasteful, it’s punitive, it’s excessive and it doesn’t make any sense,’ added Levine, a sociologist at City University of New York.  While we were waiting for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to announce what the federal stance toward legal marijuana in Washington and Colorado will be, we’ve been checking in with various experts in marijuana and the enforcement of laws against pot.”

Phoenix New Times:  “The state-regulated medical-marijuana dispensary industry that Arizona voters approved in late 2010 is becoming a reality, with three new retail shops opening this week. . . . Those four shops add to the seven already open across the state, records show.  Meanwhile, 11 others are in various stages of final approval for operating certificates by the Arizona Department of Health Services, which oversees the program.

Azcentral.com:  “The half-empty shopping strip at 24 W. Camelback Road looks like so many others in the city . . . . But . . . one of the spaces in this shopping center could soon house Urban Greenhouse Dispensary, central Phoenix’s first and only medical-marijuana dispensary. Unlike many other prospective Valley dispensary owners, who seemingly have tried to stay under the radar, the principals behind Urban Greenhouse have taken a pre-emptively open approach.”

Associated Press:  “A United Nations-based drug agency urged the United States government on Tuesday to challenge the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in Colorado and Washington, saying the state laws violate international drug treaties.”

Associated Press:  “Eight former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs say the federal government needs to act now or it might lose the chance to nullify Colorado and Washington’s laws legalizing recreational marijuana use.  The onetime DEA heads are issuing joint statements Tuesday saying the Obama administration has reacted too slowly and should immediately sue to force the states to rescind the legislation.”