Arizona pot opponents ask high court to block measure
PHOENIX Opponents of an initiative that would legalize Arizona marijuana for recreational use urged the Arizona Supreme Court to overturn a judges decision throwing out their legal challenge and instead block the measure from the November ballot.
The group called Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy includes two prominent county attorneys and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce. They said in a court filing if Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jo Lynn Gentrys ruling is allowed to stand, courts no longer have the power to prevent fraud on the electorate by reviewing an initiative petition on a substantive legal challenge filed by an initiative opponent.
The opponents said initiative backers used illegal and unconstitutional bait-and-switch tactics and that the initiative violates Arizonas statutes in three ways. They include a misleading 100 word summary that leaves out important provisions, an incoherent text and title that obscures the extent of its impact on other laws and a failure to provide a legal funding mechanism.
Gentry ruled that opponents of Proposition 205 cant challenge the initiative because of changes to the law in 2015 limiting such lawsuits. She said the Legislature, wittingly or not, eliminated a part of the law allowing any citizen to challenge the legality of initiative petitions.
In case that interpretation is overturned by the Supreme Court, Gentry went on to reject the three major reasons opponents laid out for keeping the initiative off the ballot.
Legalization backers told the high court that Gentry got it right and said the opponents case was politicized and filled with incorrect arguments.
The appellants do not want for public platforms on which to pronounce their jeremiads against the decriminalization and regulation of marijuana, but this ...
