Arizona Medical Marijuana
Ben Corich
By now everyone knows by now that during last year’s elections in November, Arizona voters passed Proposition 203 or the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act which allowed qualifying patients to obtain a medical marijuana card which allows patients to pose and use medical marijuana.
Since the propositions inception, the regulation of medical marijuana use and possession in public places and private places is an issue that is being dealt with for the first time.
Mesa Community College is not an exception.
Steve Corich, the director of public safety, sat down with the Mesa Legend in an attempt to get the message out to the students of MCC regarding the rules of medical marijuana.
“The possession and use of medical marijuana on campus is not allowed even if someone has an AZDHS (Arizona Department of Health Services) medical marijuana card,” he said.
Corich basically means that regardless of what Proposition 203 says, marijuana, whether it is for medical use or not, is illegal to have on campus.
The reason for this, Corich explained, is because MCC receives “title four funding,” or, in laymen terms, money from the federal government, and in order to receive this money, amongst other laws, MCC must enforce the federal laws pertaining to marijuana.
According to Americans for Safe Access, a website dedicated to advancing legal medical marijuana therapeutics and research, marijuana is treated by the federal government like every other controlled substance.
In the eyes of the federal government, marijuana is classified the same as heroin and cocaine thus making it 100 percent illegal.
The federal government’s Controlled Substances Act does not recognize a difference between medical and recreational use of marijuana.
