The Arizona Supreme Court recently ruled that a medical marijuana patient whose medicine is taken by police is entitled to get it back if the patient was determined to have been in legal possession of it at the time of the interaction. That’s what happened to California medical marijuana patient Valerie Okun, whose medicine was taken nearly two years ago near Yuma, Arizona (Arizona recognizes out of state patients). She was never prosecuted, and wanted her medicine back. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled in her favor, saying that the police need to return her medicine.
Case closes right? Wrong. The police are still refusing to return the medicine. According to Yuma Sun, “Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot told Capitol Media Services on Tuesday he’s still not ready to hand over the marijuana. He hopes to get the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.”
I find it odd that someone who is supposed to be upholding and enforcing Arizona state law is refusing to do so. But then, almost on que, you hear the ‘but it conflicts with federal law’ argument. I’m sure that Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot probably aspires to be a federal agent, but for now, he should just do the job he is supposed to be doing, which is following Arizona laws.
Obviously the medicine is probably in poor shape due to how long ago it was taken, but it’s the principle of the thing. If law enforcement doesn’t have to follow Arizona state law and return the medicine, what other laws will they ignore when it involves medical marijuana? One can only wonder….
