We got sued again this week regarding our Medical Marijuana Program. This time we’re getting sued because the Plaintiffs think that our 1-year deadline for getting a dispensary up and running is too restrictive. Basically, the Plaintiffs allege that the legal issues that have arisen in response to the White Mountain Health Center, Inc. (a prospective dispensary) case have made it unreasonably difficult for the Plaintiffs to be able to get their dispensaries up and running in the 1-year timeframe allowed under our regulations.
We have a court hearing on Friday morning (May 31, 2013) in which the Plaintiffs are asking for a Temporary Restraining Order delaying at least the June 7 deadline for submitting their application for an Approval to Operate. Ultimately, they’re looking to extend our final deadline for actually getting their Approval to Operate past our August 7 deadline (after which their Registration Certificate expires).
BTW… We have about 20 or so dispensaries already up and running across the state and another dozen or so have already filed their request for an Approval to Operate. Also, you can see links to the other 12 lawsuits that have been filed on our website.
Awwww.
All the rich people aren’t getting their way, time to sue.
As a patient, if they win, I will sue to keep my grow rights longer.
You guys should have a lawsuit for the 25
Mile rule! This is crap, we the people have to pay those insane
Prices that the clubs will be charging? This isn’t fare too the people that can’t afford it! Who cares about dispensary anyways! All they do is make a bunch of money and don’t care about the people just there pockets!
The 25 mile provision was in the voter approved language… not from the ADHS regulations.
but you guys could make a legislative request to remove it as a regulatory agency in the State? Somehow you guys could help !
The 25 mile rule is absolutely discriminating against patients who want to grow their own medicine and not rely on someone else.
With all due respect, numerous Dispensaries DID get their ducks in a row and DID get their Dispensaries open within the allotted period of time. To extend it for the few who did not seems incredibly unfair and like utter nonsense.
Don’t do it Will. That suit will never stand.
The Judge
This whole program is a stepping stone, Judege M. Sounds to me like you have a bias against making nature legal again…you wouldn’t happen to have stocks in synthetic conglomerates, would you? Been paid off by any banking cartels or their crooked politicians and bureaucrats to keep this war against nature or are you just that lazy and brainwashed to do your own research??? This is a non-toxic plant that can’t kill anyone. WHY IS THERE A 70+ YEAR PROHIBITION ON IT???The people are sick of this war against nature and humanity, this war to use racial profiling and propagating racism to this day by still calling it Ansliner’s, “Marijuania” instead of Cannabis or Hemp. We are sick of the lies & deceit, cover ups and wasting of tax payers money to make illegal potentially one of our GREATEST and most profitable, annually renewable resource that nature has blessed us with and throwing away good money on needless law enforcement to protect us from ourselves from a NON-TOXIC PLANT, that has not killed a single person in the history of humanity as a primary cause of death.
Remember, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2″For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you…”We must judge ourselves, and judge of our own acts, but not make our word a law to everybody.
Educate yourself, because the racist propaganda doesn’t hold weight anymore and a person sounds like an idiot these days when they use old propaganda…
Here is a good link to start: http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et0199/et0199s11.html
I suppose all the lawsuits are the response from reasonable US Citizens when their Arizona government officials continually deny them their Constitutional Rights.
Maybe you and your bosses should reflect on your resistance to the Peaceful Plant.
The PTSD condition you denied last year seems to be a valid symptom for Medical Marijuana based on recent reports. This would be an example of resistance by the government towards the will of their people, for whom they work.
The Peaceful Plant is coming home and nobody can stop it. Isn’t it beautiful?
Peace.
These are the types of lawsuits that give the industry a bad name. These guys have waited for months, doing nothing, and now want to blame it on Sun City. They had to submit a location to even get in the lottery, so what happened to that site??? They showed they had money. What happened to that money? If they were having problems getting open, they should have dealt with them MONTHS ago! If that wasn’t working, they should have sued the city, not try to get an extension from DHS.
They’ve had a year and they don’t think that was enough time?? If this goes through, there will be another lawsuit. This time from the qualified people who had their ducks in a row and should be able to apply in the next round of applications.
Plus the dispensaries that are open, are selling CA and CO outdoor crap bud.
I knew this would happen. The open dispensaries are buying out of state crap and even trying to resell to other dispensaries!
I refuse to pay 50 dollars for something I can get for half that through the black market and it would be twice the quality.
The TRO issued by the court yesterday temporarily suspends the deadline for Registration Certificate Holders to turn in their Approval to Operate Application pending the court hearing on the merits in mid July. This applies only to the Plaintiffs. The deadline to actually get an Approval to Operate stands and remains at August 7… unless the court orders an alternative date after the Hearing.
So the TRO only applies to the application for Approval To Operate which is not overly burdensome to prepare or submit, and it only applies to the Plaintiffs, what if they are granted more time for the Approval to Operate past the August 7th date, will the additional time be allowed to other dispensaries are nearing that deadline? Or do those dispensaries have to enjoin the suit or contact your office?
Right… the TRO only applies to the Approval to Operate Application- not the deadline to actually earn the Approval to Operate- and it only applies to the Plaintiffs not all Registration Certificate holders.
The court set a full day hearing on the application for preliminary injunction (on the ATO date) on Tuesday, July 16 starting at 9:30 a.m. All parties are required to disclose witnesses and exhibits for the hearing no later than July 1. Pre-hearing briefs are due by July 9. There will be no post-hearing briefs.
We won’t know the answers to your other questions until after the Hearing on the 16th and after the judge makes a determination on the PI.
Just goes to show that this latest lawsuit resulted from a unsuccessful process in picking certificate recipients. It should have been a merit based system like inmost states. This is what you get… Now because they did not make enough money for whatever reason the patients have to suffer! Full legalization and let the market dictate who stays and who goes. Govt had its chance with this and it does not work in the red tape folk hands.
I object to any extension. I have watched these dispensary groups in action for the last 10 months. Those who have organizations that plan well, opened, those that do not did not. There were 400 other applicants that followed the rules and did not get awarded who are waiting to reapply and further enrich the State coffers with more app fees.
Is the July 16 hearing open to the public?
As far as I know it’s open to the public. It’s on July 16, 2013 at 9:30 a.m. at Maricopa County Superior Court, East Court Building
101 W. Jefferson, 5th Floor, Courtroom 512
Zoning rules the day, and cities create other obstacles. Land owners & landlords change their minds when state officials file lawsuits (this creates paralyzing fear and uncertainty… people are afraid of having their properties seized).
Also, it can take months to negotiate a contract with a potential business partner for dispensary operations and cultivation… if the process falls apart and and they abandon the dispensary after 3-4 months, this leaves a lot of time, money and energy wasted… they move on and you have to pick up and keep going too.
There are a multitude of reasons for the problems the dispensaries are facing, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their doors open (don’t think they are not trying hard, it takes time to get through all of the approval processes). Each property is different and has different challenges.
You want fair: Give me 1 year of no lawsuits from anyone, and that is fair.
Bill Montgomery stole more than 4 1/2 months from everyone (8/7/12 – 12/21/12) – the 3 judge panel on the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled against his appeal on 12/21/12… that is really when the clock started.
Thank you for the reply! There was a link on this website which was updated to 5/28 of the status of each CHAA. I am trying to find that report with an update to current to see which CHAA’s submitted app ATOs. Can you provide that link because I cannot seem to come across it again? Thanks!
The majority of your comments all over this website are about people in the program COMPLAINING ABOUT THE 25 MILE RULE! We thought we were voting in compassion laws, not corporate monopolies trying to “legally” (through small print clauses nobody noticed) and unethically as well as immorally trying to corner the market on a medicine that is natural, non-toxic, has never been linked to ANY deaths in the history of hunanity and comes from Mother Earth, that helps with over 250 known ailments. We didn’t realize that the lobbyists who put these laws together were selling out patients, who are state citizens, to out of state corporate interests & then watch our state legislators try & protect the corporate interst over state citizens!
From what I understand there are several court cases targeting to get rid of the 25 mile rule…why do I not see any of them posted here. You can find at least one prominent law suit by just googling 25 mile rule, court cases. So why do they not show up here?
I am also curious as to why nobody has talked about how the 25 mile rule is setting up dispensaries to violate federal law by going over 99 plants. There is NO way that a dispensary can provide for all their patients within 25 miles & stay under the federal limit of prosecution of their 99 plant limit. The 25 mile rule is the biggest complaint of your system by card holders. Send out e-mails or mail your card holders and take a survey. These are the people that voted in compassion laws…NOT CORPORATE TAKE OVER LAWS. Quit hiding behind the fine print…this is about people, patients & their choice for their health. Let the people choose now that most are aware about this 25 mile rule, because they didn’t when they voted for compassion laws in Az. There has to be a way to correct this, Will…and the least you guys can do is take a survey to see who wants this in place out of your card holders.
excellent point and completely true!
End the 25 mile rule. It is outrageous to expect us to pay dispensary prices. This is only going to serve to make us go back to the streets for our medication.
[…] Another Medical Marijuana Lawsuit Leave a reply […]
A brilliant lawsuit filed on 8/15/13 and I agree with every word. Your “rule” is against the supreme law of the land, the Arizona state constitution. We want compassion laws and free choice of our health care providers! If we want to use homeopathy, the state should be congratulating us for taking care of ourselves and saving tax payers money. More than I can say for the bureaucrats. End the “25 Mile Rule”, support the Az. State Constitution, liberty and choice for the citizens health care and get Will Humble and the state out of it! It’s time to look at other successful states, like California’s model for the caregiver, dispensary, doctors and most importantly, the patients! Their model would not violate our state constitution or set dispensaries up for violating federal law of 99 plants. In California, a patient chooses their own doctor, after building a history from other doctors just like here, however the doctor that recommends the Medical Cannabis provides the card that activates the LAWS THAT PROTECT YOU AS A PATIENT. In Arizona, I have to go through all those steps above…PLUS pay the state for the card to activate…WHAT FOR, I don’t know??? It says on the back of the Arizona card that their state issued card doesn’t even protect you legally. To me this is a gross violation of the whole spirit and will of the compassion laws for medical cannabis users and the majority of the will of the voters that voted for COMPASSION LAWS, that had bad rules in the fine print. Do you think we will just lie back now??? We have been fighting for decades and we are closer now to full legalization of nature again than we have ever been. This program was a stepping stone and will soon be a foot note in history on the path to full legalization of one of natures greatest natural resources, that we let banking cartels and corporate interests make NATURE ILLEGAL!?! It still blows my mind on how arrogant and asinine the human race can be sometimes. I guess it’s all part of the ride…FREE THE TREES & HUMANITY!!!
[…] weeks ago a Superior Court judge decided that a portion of our medical marijuana regulations are unreasonable because they lack a formal appeal process for dispensary registration certificate holders who […]
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