In Arizona, a Battle Over Medical Marijuana

When entrepreneur Ian Christensen looks around the white-walled office he hopes to lease in Paradise Valley, Ariz., he sees opportunity. Now all he needs is some pot. Like hundreds of others here, Christensen has sunk tens of thousands of dollars into his plans to sell medical marijuana legally, which voters approved by referendum in November.

He’s starting to wonder if he’ll ever open up shop. Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican who opposed the initiative, has found a new way to try to keep it from going into effect: She brought a suit in federal court in Phoenix asking a judge to decide whether the Arizona statute should be struck down because it violates federal antidrug laws. Brewer has said she is concerned that people who operate marijuana dispensaries and state workers who oversee the pot trade may be subject to federal prosecution. The ruling could also affect California and 14 other states that allow marijuana for medicinal use. “They put the dispensaries out of business before we ever started,” says Christensen. Brewer maintains the lawsuit has nothing to do with her own feelings about legalizing medical pot. She has taken no position in the case, says her spokesman, Matthew Benson—she’s just looking out for Arizonans. Whatever her motivation, Brewer has delved into a murky area in the relationship between the states and the federal government. Selling and possessing pot is illegal under federal law, even for medical use. State medical marijuana laws have existed on questionable legal ground since California became the first to authorize it in 1996.