Utah Supreme Court Rules Against Medical Cannabis Activists

The Utah Supreme Court has rejected a bid by cannabis activists to challenge the legislature’s decision to replace the voter-approved medical cannabis law with a more limited version, according to a Fox13 report. In the ruling, the court sided with the legislature and governor that they had the constitutional right to make the changes.

“We deny on the merits Petitioners’ arguments that the Governor effectively vetoed Proposition 2 and therefore exceeded his authority, and that the Two-Thirds Provisions of the Utah Constitution and Utah Code do not apply to legislation that amends an initiative.” — Justice Paige Petersen, in the opinion, via Fox13

The case was brought to the court by The People’s Right. Steve Maxwell, the head of the organization, said the ruling effectively makes all initiatives in the state “dead on arrival.”

Daniel Newby, one of the petitioners in the case, told Fox13 that the ruling proves the ballot initiative “charade” in the state “is over.”

“Utah’s supreme court has confirmed that the initiative process, the last resort citizens thought they could use to resist the network of corruption infesting every branch of government, was an illusory fraud all along,” he said following the ruling. “Utah Citizens have been denied their right ‘to alter or to abolish’ their own government (Declaration of Independence) through peaceful means. So-called initiatives are nothing more than non-binding resolutions conspiring politicians use for toilet paper.”

The state Attorney General Office simply told Fox13, “the ruling speaks for itself.”

This is not the only court case dealing with Prop. 2 and the legislative action that replaced it. The Epilepsy Association of Utah and Together for Responsible Use and Cannabis Education (TRUCE) are suing the state over not only how it was replaced – which seems to be settled with The People’s Right case – but what it was replaced with. That case argues that state-run medical cannabis dispensaries will stymie the program and could be unconstitutional.