Lawsuit Filed Over Prop 2 Replacement
Dec 6, 2018, 7:33 AM | Updated: 12:19 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – A lawsuit has been filed over the state’s new cannabis act that replaces Proposition 2.
Former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson is the attorney on the case, and he said the new law goes against the voters’ wishes and should be found unconstitutional.
“The people resent the legislature just throwing it aside and substituting their will, their view of how things ought to be for the view of the people,” Anderson said.
The lawsuit names Gov. Gary Herbert, who signed the bill into law Monday; and Dr. Joseph Miner, the executive director of Utah’s Department of Health.
Also named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the Epilepsy Association of Utah, a Utah non-profit corporation; Douglas Arthur Rice; Truce, a Utah non-profit corporation; and Christine Stenquist.
It focuses on the legislature’s decision to upend the proposition voters approved in November and the governor’s decision to sign it into law.
Opponents said the changes just create major obstacles to patients who want to get the drug, and it cuts the number of locations where it would be available.
Utah law gives the legislature the ability to modify or replace a voter-approved initiative.
Anderson argued the involvement of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints goes against the separation of church and state.
