A team of 27 journalism students from the Carnegie-Knight News21 program at Arizona State University released a major investigative series on marijuana legalization this week that focuses on the many problems related to the evolving culture and legality of the plant. The students, ranging from 19 universities across the country…
Arizona has reached a marijuana-legalization milestone, with more than 80,000 people now qualified to legally possess, grow, or sell it for medicinal purposes. State voters passed the 2010 Medical Marijuana Act by a slim margin, resulting in about 90 dispensaries statewide and an ever-increasing number of patients, caregivers, and registered…
Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the anti-legalization group MATFORCE with a nice shout-out to the Phoenix New Times. In a Sunday article in Prescott’s Daily Courier newspaper, Polk tells reporter Scott Orr that New Times has made her and MATFORCE a “target” for their prohibitionist…
The Verde Independent, a 67-year-old newspaper based in Cottonwood, isn’t living up to its motto as the “trusted news leader” for Verde Valley communities. On Saturday, the online-and-print paper published what looked like a news article about a group of Valley residents busted in connection with a suspected illegal marijuana-growing…
The state Court of Appeals has ruled that the scent of marijuana alone can no longer be used as probable cause for a search warrant in Arizona because of the 2010 Medical Marijuana Act. Tuesday’s ruling provides more legal protection for medical-marijuana users and industry workers, as well as for…
After five years of legal medical-marijuana in Arizona, health department officials say this week they have no evidence that marijuana has been the cause of any death in the state. Nor can the same officials present to the public any supporting evidence behind a 2013 study that claims the deaths…
A lot of high hopes are riding on the November 2016 general election in Arizona. Paperwork for no less than six marijuana-related ballot measures has been filed with the state Secretary of State’s Office in the last few months, each aiming to make fundamental changes to the state’s drug laws…
Sheila Polk, Yavapai County Attorney and the state’s chief marijuana opponent, found her so-called facts about marijuana falling flat in a legalization discussion hosted by Arizona State University on Thursday. The Republican politician’s been on a crusade against cannabis freedom for several years now, appearing frequently at town-hall presentations across…
A new Rocky Mountain Poll finds that 53 percent of Arizonans back legalizing marijuana for adults, with only 39 percent opposed to the idea. The poll also shows that 83 percent of Arizonans now support the type of university research on the potential medicinal effects of marijuana advocated by Dr…
In an opinion that impacts several criminal cases around the state, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday that authorized medical-marijuana patients cannot sell cannabis to other patients. The 3-0 ruling by the state’s Division Two appeals court overturns a decision made last July by Pima County Superior Court Judge Richard…
The U.S. Border Patrol caught 18 camo-wearing men trying to smuggle 659 pounds of marijuana in backpacks last week through the desert near Gila Bend. Fourteen of them landed in the Maricopa County Jail’s mugshot section, where they stood out for their makeshift uniforms. These guys, no doubt connected to…
Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles states in a recent news release that marijuana usage has increased statewide because of “looser” marijuana laws that help drug cartels, but can’t or won’t back up the claim. He’s the latest public official to use his and his staff’s time, on the public dime,…
Criminal charges have been dropped against Cary Cole, the 10-year-veteran of the Phoenix Fire Department allegedly caught with 20 pounds of marijuana last year. The motion to dismiss his case, filed by federal prosecutors last week and approved by a judge, means Cole currently faces no legal problems related the…
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has withdrawn his May 4 opinion regarding the use of public resources in elections following intense criticism. A link to the opinion now returns a message of the withdrawal, and Brnovich’s office issued a public statement about it on Thursday: “Attorney General Brnovich takes the…
A popular medical-marijuana club that hosted regular “Farmer’s Markets” was raided by a Glendale SWAT team on Wednesday, resulting in nine arrests at five different locations. Tactical units served search warrants at “locations spanning Glendale, Phoenix and Buckeye,” according to a Glendale police news release, and 20 other people could…
A law-enforcement task force in Yavapai County cut a $50,000 check from RICO funds to a substance-abuse group dedicated to fighting marijuana legalization in Arizona, New Times has learned. The deal between the Yavapai County-based Partners Against Narcotics Trafficking (PANT) task force and MATFORCE was made soon after the Marijuana…
If two unnamed Tempe police officers are to be believed, John Wheelihan pointed a scoped rifle at them just before they shot him three times at his home in 2013. No matter that Wheelihan’s weapon turned out to be a pellet gun: It might have looked deadly enough in the…
A Yavapai County-based anti-substance-abuse coalition fighting marijuana legalization has decided to be more honest about who supports it. Following our blog post last week that mentioned MATFORCE’s screwed-up billboard and outdated “About Us” page, the group removed the names of most of its alleged supporters. MATFORCE began years ago with…
A Yavapai County anti-legalization group that claims marijuana use lowers IQ seems to be in need of an IQ boost itself. MATFORCE, a coalition of cops and business leaders led by County Attorney Sheila Polk, put up at least one billboard in the Phoenix area recently that contains an incorrect…
A ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use in Arizona is going to be filed this afternoon. The campaign, backed by the Marijuana Policy Project, needs to gather about 150,000 signatures by June 2016 to get the issue on the ballot in November 2016…
The chances of a successful marijuana-legalization initiative in Arizona for 2016 appear to have diminished due to fighting among two competing political groups. As we reported on March 27, the Marijuana Policy Project of Arizona was surprised by the sudden launch of a competing 2016 campaign by their chairperson, Dr…
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled in two cases today that prosecutors can’t ban people on parole or probation from using medical marijuana. Because medical marijuana is a medicine when used under the state’s voter-authorized program, the court stated in its opinions, patients should be allowed to use it — even…
