By Ray Stern | Phoenix New Times
“I’m a grower,” admits Zaccard, a 46-year-old nutrition adviser who works for a local hospital.
As one of the state’s 38,000 qualified patients, he’s growing cannabis legally under Arizona’s 2010 medical-marijuana law. He gets high on his own supply.
But Zaccard insists that he wasn’t impaired by pot in any way when he was pulled over on the night of December 29 by a Gilbert cop working a DUI task-force patrol.
The living room of Zaccard’s home is tiny, but neat. A connecting room contains thousands of vinyl records, which Zaccard spins for the classic-rock Internet radio station he operates just for fun, www.waxtraxradio.com.
On this Sunday afternoon in mid-April, Zaccard — a young grandpa who’s half-Italian, half-Native American — is dressed in shorts and a black T-shirt accented with a heavy gold chain.
There’s no smell of burned marijuana in the place. Zaccard seems as sober as a preacher. In his soft-spoken way, he’s as full of righteousness as one, too. He’s well-versed on the subject of Arizona’s zero-tolerance law on driving with marijuana in the bloodstream, and he’s aware that the state Supreme Court has been asked to review the law.
If you’d like to discuss medical marijuana, contact Ryan Hurley, director of the Rose Law Group Medical Marijuana Dept., rhurley@roselawgroup.com
