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Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and state Attorney General Tom Horne have both actively campaigned to keep the federal government out of Arizona — until it comes to voter-approved medical marijuana.
Brewer and Horne are about to ask a federal court to make a ruling on the legality of
Arizona’s medical-pot program, and plan to prevent the state Department
of Health Services from issuing permits for pot dispensaries as they
were set to do next month.
So much for “don’t tread on me.”
Both Brewer and Horne oppose the federal government’s intrusion on states’ rights on just about every other issue — including SB 1070, the state’s controversial immigration law — but when it comes to medical weed, a program both officials oppose, the feds, apparently, are the experts.
“You can’t have people subject to two competing sovereignties – the state sovereignty that says it’s OK [and] the federal sovereignty that says it’s not OK, we’ll prosecute it,” Horne told reporters earlier this week. “In that kind of a situation, you need to go to a federal judge and say, ‘OK, who prevails and what’s going to happen?'”
That’s a far cry from the we don’t need the feds to tell us how to run our state mentality on which Brewer and Horne both campaigned. Not to mention, each defends SB 1070 every chance they get — on the taxpayers’ dime.
We want to know what you think: who’s the bigger hypocrite, Horne or Brewer?
Cast your vote below.