By Mary K. Reinhart
The Arizona Republic
The Arizona Court of Appeals today denied Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery’s effort to temporarily block the state’s medical marijuana law.
Just an hour or so after hearing oral arguments, a three-judge panel rejected the motion to delay a Maricopa County Superior Court judge’s ruling that the law is constitutional.
Attorney Tom Liddy, representing the county, said public employees risk prosecution for violating federal drug laws if they process zoning paperwork to allow a Sun City dispensary to open. That puts them at risk of irreparable harm, one of the legal conditions necessary for granting a temporary stay of the law, he argued.
But the judges pointed out that no one has been prosecuted for implementing state medical marijuana laws, despite the “saber rattling” from federal prosecutors who warned they could be facilitating federal crimes if they issue licenses to dispensaries.
