By Ray Stern | Phoenix New Times
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 Fields, who ruled that such sales were legal under the voter-approved, 2010 Medical Marijuana Act.
The ruling resulted in the dismissal of a marijuana-for-sale case involving Jeremy Allen Matlock of Tucson and caught the attention of prosecutors around the state. Marijuana activists and criminal defendants were buoyed by Fields’ ruling, hoping their own cases would be tossed out.
The 2010 law calls for state-regulated dispensaries that are now in place across Arizona. But Matlock, with his public defender, attorney David Euchner, argued that the law grants patients the right to sell to other patients in two separate sections.
