ACLU Lens: Arizona Governor Challenges Her Own State's Medical Marijuana Law

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer can't decide if she likes federal laws, or doesn't.

When it comes to immigration, she doesn't. Finding federal immigration enforcement lacking, she signed into law last year S.B. 1070, legislation that requires police officers in Arizona to ask people for their papers based only on some undefined "reasonable suspicion" that they are in the country unlawfully.

But today, she does like federal laws. Specifically, federal drug laws. Today, she filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to invalidate Prop. 203, a law Arizona voters passed in 2010 that allows terminally and seriously ill patients to use medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation. The ACLU is representing one of the defendants in Gov. Brewer's lawsuit, the Arizona Medical Marijuana Association (AzMMA).

ACLU of Arizona executive director Alessandra Soler-Meetze said in a statement today:

“By taking the highly unusual step of challenging her own state’s law, Gov. Brewer is undermining the will of Arizona voters and unconscionably seeking to prevent thousands of sick Arizonans from being able to access important medicine. People should have the freedom to choose the medicine their doctors believe is most effective for them.”

In the News:

• AZCentral.com: Arizona to sue over medical-marijuana law
• Marijuana Policy Project blog: Arizona U.S. Attorney indicates dispensaries, state employees would not be at risk

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