Lawsuit filed over medical marijuana compromise
Dec 6, 2018, 8:38 AM
FILE - In this Oct. 2, 2018, photo, a clerk reaches for a container of marijuana buds for a customer at Utopia Gardens, a medical marijuana dispensary, in Detroit. (Carlos Osorio, Associated Press)
(Carlos Osorio, Associated Press)
SALT LAKE CITY — A lawsuit has now been filed, as promised, over the compromise medical marijuana law. It argues Utah ought to keep what the voters passed: Prop. 2.
Attorney Rocky Anderson, a former Salt Lake City mayor, says for many years the Utah legislature has demonstrated contempt for citizens’ initiatives, including this one.
“The people resent the legislature just throwing it aside and substituting their will, their view of how things ought to be,” he said. “You don’t do it by senate or house district by district. It’s a statewide initiative, it’s a constitutional right.”
And he claims The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had an unfair influence over the process to approve the compromise that replaces the original initiative.
But Libertas Institute President Conner Boyack tweeted that this lawsuit is weak, and is an airing of grievances in legal prose. He lobbied for Proposition 2 and then helped with the compromise.
“While in other states there are protections for ballot initiatives, there aren’t any in Utah,” he told KSL Newsradio last week.
State representative Todd Weiler tweeted: “The lawsuit is a sham. Rocky just wants to conduct discovery to try to find an embarrassing email or text.”
