By David Abott | Phoenix New Times
Arizona courts are dealing with legal challenges to possession protection.
A criminal case making its way through state appellate courts could give law enforcement legal tools to circumvent protections enjoyed by pot users that were enshrined in Proposition 207.
The Mohave County case, like two similar cases before it, determines how to balance the rights of adults in the state to possess legal amounts of cannabis against police claims that they can enforce federal laws on state highways.
The cases renew focus on the conflict between state and federal pot policy. Almost every state has legalized medical or recreational use, but cannabis is still federally illegal and listed as a Schedule I narcotic on the same level as drugs such as heroin, LSD, or peyote.
Jonathan Udell, cannabis attorney at Rose Law Group and political director for Arizona NORML, believes the state does not have the power to enact such fundamental changes to Prop 207 through the courts.
As a voter initiative, amending the law would require legislation to be proposed and passed by both houses of the Arizona Legislature. Any changes would have to be with the intent to “further the intent of the initiative” or it would be unlawful.
“With these commercial vehicle cases, the state is really grasping at straws in a bid to continue its unjust persecution of cannabis consumers,” Udell wrote in an email to New Times. “Although law enforcement may not like it, Proposition 207 allows adults ages 21 and older to possess marijuana in Arizona ‘notwithstanding any other law. … neither the legislature nor government bureaucracies have the power to override voter initiatives.”
