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Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a bill yesterday that bans the use or possession of medical marijuana on college campuses, other schools campuses and childcare facilities.
Opponents, including Joe Yuhas of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Association, predict the new law will end up being contested in court because it violates the 1998 Voter Protection Act. That constitutional amendment bans the State Legislature from tampering with a voter-approved law unless it furthers the spirit of the law.
For state-registered pot patients who may have “medicine” while university property, the new law means a return to the risk of being busted under the state’s felony pot law.
Students who live in Arizona State University dorm rooms are already banned from possessing alcohol, so a ban on marijuana just for them might have made sense. The new law would presumably be extended to a student’s car parked on the property of a school or childcare center.
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The Legislature didn’t even bother to include a provision to allow college campuses the option to store medical marijuana in a locker, as had been the plan with this year’s failed guns-on-campus bill.
Brewer has twice been unsuccessful in her court challenges to the voter-approved 2010 medical marijuana law. Looks like she’s headed for a third strike.
