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The tyrants on the Arizona Board of Regents have spoken and they said

"F*ck the voters of Arizona! You can't use medical marijuana at Arizona universities because it will cause the Feds to cut off our government welfare"

From that it is pretty clear the tyrants on the Arizona Board of Regents view themselves as our royal masters, rather then the public servants they pretend to be.

We voted to allow people in Arizona to use medical marijuana and now these tyrants on the Arizona Board of Regents have said we can't use medical marijuana on the universities they rule over because it will cut into the loot they receive from the Federal government.

Of course this is one of the reasons the Founders gave us the 2nd Amendment.

Source

Arizona universities won't permit medical pot on campus

by Erin Mahoney - May. 19, 2011 08:19 AM

Special for The Republic

Despite the reform of medical-marijuana laws in Arizona, state university campuses will remain drug-free.

The Arizona Board of Regents is following the example of other federally-funded schools in the states that now permit the use of medical marijuana.

Plain and simple, there will be no smoking of joints outside the Memorial Union.

Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University exist due to programs provided by the federal government and will continue to be "under the jurisdiction thereof," said Sarah Harper, director of public affairs for the Arizona Board of Regents.

For current ASU students and faculty, smoking pot has always been illegal, so not much is changing. For Nick Lessard, a transfer student from San Diego, the policy could be something of a shock.

"I smoke wherever I want," 25-year-old Lessard said simply. He has had his medical card for six months.

Although California schools also prohibit usage on campus, Lessard said people don't think twice about lighting up anymore. Police would be overwhelmed by the number of arrests in one day if they worried about citizens legally using medical marijuana, he said.

"Besides," Lessard said, "no one ever has a problem making it to their car in between classes."

"The notion of a 'drug-free' campus warps reality," said Allen St. Pierre, director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. From alcohol to tobacco, Ritalin to oxycodone, "there is no such thing as a drug-free campus," St. Pierre said.

"Medical patients are being discriminated against," he said. "Everyone else has a social pass for their respective drugs."

The difference, however, is that marijuana is still a controlled substance under federal law. Terri Shafer, in the office of public affairs at ASU, said that in order to continue receiving federal funding, including federal financial-aid funds, the university "must be in compliance."

Schools in California, Arizona and other states legalizing medical marijuana have received statements from the federal government informing them that the law will continue to be enforced, Shafer said.

"So, should we have all our students lose their scholarships?" she asked.

By allowing marijuana on campus, "we would value one group of students' set of needs over another's," she said. There is one group of students and faculty, the size of which is still unknown, that have medical issues that can be alleviated with medical marijuana.

"We cannot put that group of students above all others," Shafer said. State law will allow them to smoke at home, in their vehicle, anywhere not on campus. But once they're at school, the Drug Free Workplace Act and the Drug Free Schools and Communities Act are firmly in place.

"Administration works to 'serve' students," St. Pierre said. "But the natural bureaucratic reaction is to look at the problem, not at the students, to avoid liability and controversy."

Imposing the policy, to an extent, will be ASU Campus Police. Public information officer Jim Hardina, however, said that campus police "are not going to enforce federal law."

If a student is found on campus with the allowed amount of pot and a medical-marijuana card, Hardina said they are within their state rights and campus police can do nothing but report them to the university administration.

Hardina related pot on campus to the "more serious offense" of weapons on campus. University policy says having a gun at school is a violation, "but they're not committing a crime," Hardina said, "so police can't arrest them."

Campus police "don't enforce any university policies," Hardina said, "and we'll err on the side of state law."

"All we can do is hand them over to the university," Hardina said.

Once reported to ASU administration, "the disciplinary action that is taken depends on the circumstances of the case, and each decision is individually made," Shafer said.

Administrative discretion will be exercised when punishing violators of the policy. The penalties range from a warning to expulsion, though Hardina believes the pot "will probably just be taken away unless it's a repeat offense."

Whether students and faculty will be able to procure their medical prescriptions from Campus Health Services is unknown.

This law is still in its infancy. The Arizona Department of Health Services is attempting to finalize the list of dispensary locations in metro Phoenix. Zoning ordinances, laws and regulations are still being developed. Until everything is finalized,