PHOENIX – The Arizona Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act “extends to manufactured marijuana products using extracted resin.” In other words, marijuana extracts are legal.
The Court determined that under Arizona Medical Marijuana Act (AMMA), “qualifying patients are allowed two-and-one-half ounces of dried flowers, or mixtures or preparations made from two-and-one-half ounces of dried flowers.”
Since AMMA passed in 2010, Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, have appear to have made it their mission to bring criminal charges against Arizona medical marijuana cardholders who obtained marijuana extracts at licensed dispensaries.
The ACLU of Arizona filed an amicus brief in the case, State v. Jones. Rodney Jones was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison after being prosecuted by Polk for possessing hashish he received from a licensed medical marijuana dispensary.
ACLU of Arizona Criminal Justice Staff Attorney Jared Keenan stated, “The court got it right. This ruling means that qualifying patients will no longer have to fear being prosecuted for using their medicine in the most helpful form. This is what voters intended when they overwhelmingly passed the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act.”
“It is a shame anti-marijuana prosecutors, including Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk, were able to undermine the will of the voters for so long and throw qualifying patients in prison just because of their own aversion to and misunderstanding of a legal medicine,” continued Keenan.
According to some estimates, extracts account for nearly half of the sales at Arizona dispensaries. Because they can be highly concentrated, they are particularly popular with the most ill patients.