Page 37 - the NOISE March 2014

In the ongoing battle surrounding Ari- Medical Marijuana Act (AMMA) tooth and The problem, Mr. Montgomery says, is that heroin, as a Schedule 1 drug in the Con-
zona’s medical marijuana program, a Phoenix couple has filed a lawsuit on behalf of their five-year-old son that will have far- reaching consequences for the 46,000 medi- cal marijuana patients in the state. The law- suit is aimed at Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, who insists the only legal form of marijuana for the child to use is the kind that gets him high.
Zander Welton was born with an epileptic condition called cortical dysplasia, a neural disorder which has caused autism, frequent seizures, difficulty walking and an inability to speak properly. His hands shake so consis- tently that it is difficult for him to use them at all, and his communication problems have led to developmental delays. He underwent two brain surgeries, shock therapy, a nerve stimulator implant in his chest and a pleth- ora of synthetic drug treatments that came with a host of unpleasant side effects. There was no improvement. Doctors concluded that the only solution left was the removal of large areas of his brain, which would likely leave Zander in a vegetative state.
That’s when his parents, Jennifer and Ja- cob, acquired a prescription for marijuana extract. The liquid was ideal, consisting pri- marily of a single active component of the plant — CBD — and almost no THC, the ac- tive chemical in marijuana that produces a euphoric “high”.
The Weltons say that Zander was almost immediately able to stand straighter, stack blocks and walk backward for the first time. There were significantly fewer seizures and he seemed to be seeking emotional stimula- tion in a way he had not before. But as Zan- der began showing signs of improvement, one Arizona county official declared Zan- der’s extracts — and other forms of medici- nal marijuana — as illegal narcotics.
MONTGOMERY’S WAR
The face of Arizona’s last stand against medical marijuana is Maricopa County Attor- ney Bill Montgomery, a law-and-order West Point graduate and decorated Gulf War Vet- eran. Maricopa County is a massive jurisdic- tion that contains over half of the state’s resi- dents and the entire city of Phoenix. Though Phoenix itself tends to vote the Democratic ticket, Maricopa County as a whole has long been a Republican Party stronghold.
With an issue as politically polarizing as marijuana (Gallup found only 22% of self- identified conservatives favoring legaliza- tion), it might not be surprising that Mr. Montgomery has been fighting the Arizona
nail. Though his career has been as a pros- ecutor, medical marijuana has put him on the defense.
Mr. Montgomery declared from the start that neither he nor the county would com- ply with AMMA because marijuana was still illegal under federal law. Allowing medical marijuana, he claimed, prevented the federal government from enforcing the Controlled Substances Act in the state. An Arizona court felt differently, ruling that legalizing marijua- na through AMMA in no way restricted the ability of the federal government to “combat drug abuse” or “control the legitimate and il- legitimate traffic in controlled substances.” It went even further, noting that the informa- tion obtained during the dispensary applica- tion process practically “provides a roadmap for federal enforcement of the CSA. [Dispen- saries] are, in fact, ready targets for federal prosecution under the CSA, should federal authorities deem it appropriate to do so.”
Then came Zander. In November of last year, his case garnered national attention. The New York Times, Huffington Post and oth- er major news services picked up the story, and under media spotlight, Mr. Montgomery grudgingly stated that although the law al- lowed him to prosecute the Weltons for an extract, he would probably prefer to pros- ecute someone else.
Indeed, Mr. Montgomery was even then engaged in a felony prosecution of Nicholas Marckstadt, a licensed medical marijuana user who had been arrested for possession of a single piece of edible marijuana that was bought from a dispensary. The charg- es against Mr. Marckstadt were eventually dropped after the ACLU caught wind of it, but his ordeal remains emblematic of just how important the outcome of Zander’s case is.
IT’S ALL ABOUT DEFINITIONS
Almost all of the active chemicals in mari- juana are found on the flower’s surface in the form of trichomes, sticky little growths that look like tiny, translucent mushrooms under a magnifying glass. At the heart of Zander’s lawsuit is whether AMMA legalizes just the marijuana flower itself, or if those trichomes can be removed — scraped, crushed or ex- tracted chemically — from the flower and made into other products.
Marijuana products like extracts and edibles are clearly covered under AM- MA’s definition of usable marijuana: the dried flowers of the marijuana plant, and any mixture or preparation thereof.
a much older state law defines extracted tri- chomes as a separate drug called “cannabis”: The resin extracted from any part of a plant of the genus cannabis.
To clarify, while marijuana bud and its ac- tive trichmones may be legal under AMMA, Mr. Montgomery is claiming that trichomes not attached to a flower are considered “can- nabis,” which he claims is still illegal under state law.
The most common and efficient way of making edible marijuana is through just such an extract of trichomes known as “cannibut- ter.” The leaf material is typically cooked in butter, which dissolves the trichomes and binds the active compounds to the butter’s fats. The butter is then strained of plant ma- terial and used to bake in the usual way. But by claiming that AMMA intentionally didn’t legalize “cannabis,” Maricopa County is also claiming that patients can’t even make their own cannibutter with marijuana they legally purchased.
Mr. Montgomery’s efforts to fight every aspect of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act have resulted in a maze of senseless le- gal complications. Though he has decried AMMA as a cover for “card carrying stoner and pothead” types, he has made it impos- sible for patients like the Weltons, who need marijuana without THC, to obtain it. Mean- while, a patient like Mr. Marckstadt, who needs THC for pain management but isn’t supposed to smoke after surgery for a col- lapsed lung, is legally forced to eat chunks of dense, fibrous plant material. As the kicker, the state can now theoretically stage raids on edible-selling medical dispensaries that it gave permits to operate in the first place.
ARIZONA & THE NATIONAL SCENE
Zander’s parents were first inspired to give him marijuana extract after watching the CNN documentary Weed, which showed how marijuana extract was helping other children with similar conditions. Sanjay Gupta, host of the documentary and CNN’s resident doc- tor and medical expert, came out in support of medical marijuana last year, asserting that
“we’ve been terribly and systematically mis- led in this country,” even apologizing for his own role in that process. President Obama, who wanted to name Mr. Gupta as Surgeon General during his first term in office, has not yet commented on the change in Mr. Gupta’s position, but has since given an interview to The New Yorker in which he agreed that mari- juana was less dangerous than alcohol.
Marijuana is currently listed, along with
trolled Substances Act, which by defini- tion means that the federal government believes it to have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical applica- tion. The lower category of Schedule 2 substances includes drugs like metham- phetamine and cocaine, both widely ac- cepted as considerably more harmful than marijuana. At least one Arizona lawmaker is looking to shake this ranking system up.
Raul Grijalva is the congressman for the state’s third congressional district, which happens to share considerable territory with Maricopa County. This past month, he signed onto a letter with 17 other members of Congress urging Obama — if he truly be- lieved that marijuana was less harmful than alcohol — to downgrade marijuana from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 or lower in the Controlled Substances Act. With 20 states now offering marijuana as medicine, and a growing number of nations on the path to decriminalization altogether, the federal government is under increasing pressure to change its position on weed. Unfortunately, for some federal officials, that is actually il- legal.
The nation’s drug czar — currently R. Gil Kerlikowske — is legally required by oath of office to “take such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use of a substance (in any form) that is listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act.” None of the thousands of studies carried out around the world annu- ally on the use of marijuana are admissible for his consideration on the topic. He is in the curious position of being legally bound to fight legalization, regardless of what is true. Mr. Montgomery has adopted this ap- proach and encouraged the state of Arizona to do likewise.
Oral arguments in the Zander Welton case have been completed, and an evidentiary hearing is scheduled for April 21. Until then, medical marijuana patients and dispensaries wait to see whether they will be able to re- ceive and provide the medicine they were promised under AMMA.
| Kendall Perkinson is a writer, pho- tographer and musician who recently moved to Flagstaff from the east coast. kromaticphoto@gmail.com
NEWSFEATURE
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