Ariz. Sheriff Refuses to Give Back Pot To Cali. Patient
(Updated from: Arizona Supreme Court Sets Example for Michigan, Other Medical Marihuana States)
July 17, 2013
By Michael Komorn
The Yuma County Sheriff ordered by the Arizona Supreme Court to return a California patient’s Medical Marijuana is standing his ground and refusing to return the medicine his department stole from the visiting patient. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that registered patients visiting from other states are still protected under their medical marijuana law. The Arizona Sheriff, using rhetoric that sounds starkly familiar to the advice Bill Schuette gave law enforcement in Michigan, believes that if he returns the Marijuana, he will have committed the Federal Crime of delivery of a schedule 1 controlled substance, and says he is waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling. The Sheriff, who has sworn an oath to uphold state law, needs to think about the brevity of his, and law enforcement across many medical marijuana states, assumptions about returning the medical marijuana his department stole from a registered MM patient. Under his logic, if it is a federal crime to return the marijuana, then certainly it is a crime to handle or transport it. When a police officer seizes the marijuana, they are breaking federal law because they are now in possession of a schedule 1 controlled substance. When a police officer transports that marijuana in his or her vehicle, they are trafficking a schedule 1 controlled substance, a federal offense! So to think that returning a qualified medical marijuana patient’s medicine will be in violation of federal law is simply ridiculous. The only offense I can think of that the Yuma County Sheriff is committing is civil contempt of court, which carries the threat of imprisonment, a fine, but most often a simple apology. I think medical marijuana patients and caregivers across the country would be compassionate enough to accept a simple apology from the police who stole their medicine, because it just seems inhuman for someone to go to jail or prison for a marijuana related offense.
To get more background on this story, please click the following link: https://komornlaw.com/komornlawblog/arizona-supreme-court-sets-example-for-michigan-other-medical-marihuana-states/
