Let them eat cake, she said, and while you’re at it, let them dab wax and chug sodas and drip tinctures under their tongues.
She is Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper, and those weren’t her exact words, but last week Cooper issued yet another court slap-down to Maricopa County Attorney William Montgomery in a lawsuit over marijuana extracts. These were Cooper’s exact, joyous words about the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act:
It makes no sense to interpret the AMMA as allowing people with these conditions to use medical marijuana but only if they take it in one particular form. Such an interpretation reduces, if not eliminates, medical marijuana as a treatment option for those who cannot take it in plant form, or who could receive a greater benefit from an alternative form … IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the AMMA authorizes qualifying patients to use extracts, including CBD oil, prepared from the marijuana plant.
The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the parents of a Phoenix boy, Zander Wellton, who said they have a right to treat his epilepsy with extracted cannabidiol oil, but it goes far beyond CBD oil. I’ve been smoking cannabis for years, and I hate it in almost every way. Having legal, easy access to things like oil for a vape pen or tinctures to take with my morning coffee is a big deal for me, and there are thousands of patients who are in worse shoes than me.
Just a few days after Cooper ruled in the Arizona case, the journal Neurology published an analysis by neurologists concluding that there is “strong evidence” that marijuana extracts can help with pain and spasticity in MS patients, but little evidence that smoking marijuana does. That’s a real medical journal publishing real research from real doctors saying we need extracts, not just smoked flowers.
When you dig into the legal nuances of the ruling, you see the clear misunderstanding (or willful disregard) Montgomery has for this law. Every word of every statute has meaning, including the word “preparations” in this law, so you can’t really pick and choose which words to pay attention to, Cooper wrote:
… the drafters included the phrase ‘and any mixture or preparation thereof.’ These words expand the allowable manipulation of the plant. To conclude that patients can only use unmanipulated plant material would render the phrase meaningless. Basic statutory interpretation prohibits such a result. Each word and phrase is given meaning.
Perhaps the most pointed rebuke in the ruling is Cooper’s answer to Montgomery’s claim that the AMMA prohibits coaxing chemicals out of marijuana. Cooper practically said “Um, no it doesn’t.”
… (Montgomery) contends that there is a “prohibition on concentrating the chemicals in the marijuana flower” in the AMMA. (Response, p. 10.) Where? The Court finds no such “prohibition” in the statute.
And the ruling makes moot a discussion about the differences between the AMMA and the criminal code. The criminal code clearly states extracts are illegal … but the AMMA protects qualified patients from prosecution under that code. So, now it’s off to the races. I suspect oils, tinctures, drinks and all sorts of other goodies will be on dispensary shelves before the end of the week, as it should be.
I think most folks in the cannabis realm expected this ruling, eventually. I think Bill Montgomery, Tom Horne and Gov. Jan have lost every court case they’ve brought or defended concerning the AMMA. There are several still pending, so I suspect we will see more defeats for the state.
We can only hope.
This article appears in Mar 27 – Apr 2, 2014.
Not one thing has changed because of this ruling. All the dispensaries in Tucson carry oils, medical edibles, kief, balms, suckers, popcorn. This is just Kabuki theatre for the amusement of the moronic masses out there that are uneducated about the hemp plant. As anyone that has read one book on the subject knows there is no such thing as medical marijuana as a botanical plant. It is Cannabis Sativa L. or basically the hemp plant domesticated to produce higher THC. Mr. Humble and the other idiot you talk about in this article (Bill Montgomery) are prohibitionists and if this was 1921 it would be alcohol they would be all hysterical about but of course it’s the modern times and with our penchant for private prisons in this state, got to keep up the machine to throw people into the maw. Why don’t you report the positive side of marijuana legalization (which is unknown to you for some reason in your columns) and talk about how Colorado is going to retroactively release 10,000 drug war prisoners very soon. You have not said one word about Tucson’s most famous MMJ prisoner and that’s Paula Huff. Surely you know the story but for some reason all I read is silence from the Tucson Weekly on this topic.
It would be worth it to lie my way through the “consultation” to get an MMJ card just to meet one of those pretty lil nugs pictured in the advertisement for the Downtown Dispensary.
Animal style.
Montgomery said there has been no decision whether to appeal, but he said Cooper may have to clarify whether the 2 1/2-ounce limit applies to the original plant material or what’s left after the extraction process.
CHAPTER 28.1
ARIZONA MEDICAL MARIJUANA ACT
36-2801. Definitions
15. “USABLE MARIJUANA” MEANS THE DRIED FLOWERS OF THE MARIJUANA PLANT, AND ANY MIXTURE OR PREPARATION THEREOF, BUT DOES NOT INCLUDE THE SEEDS, STALKS AND ROOTS OF THE PLANT AND DOES NOT INCLUDE THE WEIGHT OF ANY NON-MARIJUANA INGREDIENTS COMBINED WITH MARIJUANA AND PREPARED FOR CONSUMPTION AS FOOD OR DRINK.
Montgomery’s reading problem is not improving. He must have gone to school in Arizona where republicans don’t fund education rather they fund private prisons. Perhaps Montgomery is just delusional in that he reads alright but sees only what he wants to see and not what is written. Let’s take a wild guess that an extract is a preparation thereof and is defined as “usable marijuana” under the statute… It is time for the republicans to stop messing with what was a clearly written voter initiative. They show only disdain and disgust for the voters of this state. Perhaps the only way to get medical marijuana to those who can benefit is to legalize it and to regulate it like alcohol.
It sure is nice that we live in a state with a booming economy and little to no problem with unemployment, so we as taxpayers can continue to support worthless interpretations of clearly worded laws. Mr. Montgomery, Mr. Horne and Ms. Brewer are goldarn champions of what’s right and good about Arizona. Imagine how stupid they’d look if the economy was in the toilet and we had hour-long lines just to apply for food stamps. I’m glad that’s not the case.
Yay Republicans!
it is time to erase the years of lie”s against cannabis fabricated by the government and the pharmacutical companys,, cannabis has medical benefits and is safer than alcohol, tylenol, sugar and peanuts !!!!!,,,, stop the lie’s,,, legalize !!!!! i am 58 years old and a registered republican, but i will not vote for anyone that stands in the way of cannabis legalization !!!! i also agree with the first comment about political prisioner paula huff, a mmj card holder that had her rights violated and was railroaded off to prision,,,take note polotitions the winds of change are blowing and if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem and will be voted out !!!!!
March of Cannabis Progress has a ring of “Immigration Reform” Load of bullsh** How many sick children will it take for the dopeheads to get what they want
I am all for sick kids and people with chronic pain to get help but this has a ring of …pass out the marijuana.
And what if it does, Fraser? It beats passing out Marinol and Sativex and other Big Pharma compounds that just don’t work for people as well as compounds, tinctures, extracts and the dreaded marijuana itself.