GOODYEAR COUPLE CELEBRATES 70 YEARS TOGETHER, PAGE 3
westvalleyview.com — the newspaper of Avondale, Buckeye, Goodyear, Litchfield Park & Tolleson, AZ (623) 535-8439
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Officials challenge medical marijuana
by Brent Whiting staff writer
State and county officials have asked a judge
to strike down the medical-marijuana law that was adopted by Arizona voters in November 2010.
THE WEEK Desert Oasis educator featured — Page 18.
TEACHER OF Attorney General Tom Horne and Maricopa
County Attorney Bill Montgomery have filed separate motions arguing that the measure is illegal because it conflicts with federal law. The motions were filed in a case brought June 20 by White Mountain Health Center Inc., which wants to open a nonprofit marijuana dispensary and cultivation site in the Sun City area. However, the action may have an impact on nearly 500 applications for marijuana dispensaries throughout the state, including 16 in the area of Buckeye, Goodyear, Avondale and Tolleson.
Jailbird longs to be set free — Page 11.
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The applicants want to set up pot shops in 99 of 126 approved dispensary areas, most of them in Arizona urban areas. On Aug. 7, the Arizona Department of Health Services held a lottery to select 99 out of 486 applications. State law prohibited the agency from identifying the applicants by name or business name.
In the meantime, the White Mountain lawsuit is pending before Judge Michael D. Gordon of Maricopa County Superior Court. No hearing date has been set on the motions by Horne and Montgomery.
White Mountain sued after state and county
officials failed to provide a dispensary license and zoning clearance, as set forth in the 2010 law.
View photo by Ray Thomas
A FIREFIGHTER fights a house fire near 144th Avenue and Indian School Road Sunday. Crews from Goodyear, Avondale and Phoenix fought the blaze, which destroyed the two-story home.
Weekend fires destroy 2 West Valley houses
by Brent Whiting staff writer
weekend with unrelated fires that destroyed two homes.
Nobody was injured in either blaze and the cause of both fires remains under investigation, said Russ Braden, an interim deputy chief of operations for the Goodyear Fire Department. One of the fires broke out about 8:25 a.m. Sunday at a home in the 4300 block of West Cora Lane, just south of Indian School Road, Braden said Monday.
Goodyear firefighters were kept busy over the
The fire spread to the attic and firefighters were pulled out of the home after about 30 to 35 minutes because of fears of a collapsing roof, he added. Firefighters from Goodyear, Avondale, Luke
Air Force Base, Phoenix, Buckeye and the Buckeye Valley Fire District were called to battle the first-alarm fire. An earlier fire erupted about 3:50 p.m. Saturday at a home in the 11200 block of South Indian Wells Drive in the city’s Estrella community, Braden said.
The blaze resulted in the closure of Indian School while firefighters, some of them on aerial platforms, sprayed water onto the two-story home, Braden said.
The blaze started on the outside of the home, near an air conditioning unit, then spread to a bedroom and then to a roof of the home before firefighters managed to put it out, Braden said.
Brent Whiting can be reached by email at
bwhiting@westvalleyview.com.
Under the measure, there is no limit to the amount of marijuana that a dispensary can grow. Patients can obtain as much as 2.5 ounces every two weeks.
Nearly 30,000 people have sought permission from the Department of Health Services to use marijuana to ease and treat their medical ailments. Horne argues in his legal motion that the White Mountain lawsuit should be dismissed because operating a marijuana dispensary in Sun City “would be a federal crime.” “Possession, distribution and cultivation of marijuana are all forbidden by federal law,” according to an eight-page brief filed by Horne’s office.
Montgomery argues that county employees
would subject themselves to federal criminal charges if they were to issue permits for the opening of a marijuana dispensary. Federal law prohibits “growing, distributing and possessing marijuana in any capacity, other than as part of a federally authorized research program,” according to the 16-page county brief.
Both Horne and Montgomery argue that the White Mountain lawsuit should be thrown out of court.
Brent Whiting can be reached by email at
bwhiting@westvalleyview.com.
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