By Maureen Meehan (AP)
The battle over legalizing medical marijuana in Utah is borrowing a page from the Colorado playbook that fought against same-sex marriage.
In a much-discussed case decided in June 2018, the US Supreme Court ruled that a Colorado baker could legally invoke his religious beliefs to refuse to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. Now Utah opponents such as Drug Safe Utah, along with Walter Plumb III and several other individuals, joined in filing a lawsuit using a similar argument to stop Utah Republican Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox from placing a medical cannabis initiative, Proposition 2, on the November 2018 ballot.
The lawsuit, filed on on Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2018, underscores the issue of forcing a Mormon property owner to rent to someone who uses medicinal cannabis by stating that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) adhere to a strict health code that precludes the consumption of mind-altering substances, including cannabis and its derivatives.
The lawsuit argues that LDS members have a constitutional right not to be compelled to be around “people engaging in activities which their religion finds repugnant, and to refuse to lease their property to people engaging in activities which they deeply oppose.”
Although the church is mentioned extensively in the lawsuit, Karli Gomun, a media relations associate with the Mormon church, told Marijuana.com that the LDS is not involved in the case and has no knowledge of who is funding it.
A report in The Salt Lake Tribune credits Walter J. Plumb III, a real estate developer, philanthropist and former law partner of Republican US Sen. Orrin Hatch, as having contributed more than $100,000 to the effort seeking to keep Proposition 2 off the ballot. This is the second lawsuit that included Plumb, Drug Safe Utah, and others. The first was withdrawn in July.
Supporters of Proposition 2, many of whom are members of the Mormon church, find language contained in the lawsuit disparaging.
“Repugnant? My son, now 11, was diagnosed with epilepsy at 3 years of age and was having from 40 to 100 seizures a day until we moved to Colorado,” said Dave Comar, a member of the Mormon church, along with his wife, Mandi, and their four children.
“We returned in March 2017 to help get Proposition 2 passed. I’m confident it will be approved, but we can’t wait any longer. We’re leaving again as soon as our house sells,” Comar told Marijuana.com. “Like many parents, we need full access to all strains of cannabis and the freedom to try all methods including inhalation, which is fast-acting in an emergency event.”
Utah’s Proposition 2, which covers eleven qualifying conditions, including epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, autism, Alzheimer’s disease and chronic pain, adds to the state’s existing cannabis law to provide a path for authorized cultivation, processing and testing facilities, dispensaries, and a plan to establish a process for patients and caregivers to receive approval from physicians to use medical cannabis.
The principal sponsors of Proposition 2, the Utah Patients Coalition, notes that the ballot includes authorization for a medical marijuana patient to set up a secured cannabis cultivation space, without a license, after Jan. 1, 2021, but only if a dispensary is not operating within 100 miles of the patient’s home.
While the Utah Medical Association (UMA) has stated that it supports the use of FDA‐approved cannabis‐based medicines, it insists that Proposition 2 is not about medicine.
“Supporters have used images and stories of suffering patients to disguise their true aim: opening another market for their products and paving the way for recreational use of marijuana in Utah,” according to a position statement from the Utah Medical Association Board of Directors.
Mark Fotheringham, vice president of communications for the UMA, further clarified for for Marijuana.com: “The UMA is against Proposition 2, but it’s not opposed to the idea or use of cannabis in medical settings where regulations are in place…where medical marijuana laws fall within the bounds set by the UMA House of Delegates.”
DJ Schanz, director of the Utah Patients Coalition, likened the recent lawsuit to “parlor tricks” and scoffed at the UMA’s refusal to “back the initiative unless they control it.”
“This is the second lawsuit and both have been inappropriate. This one is shameful,” Schantz told Marijuana.com. “It is also shameful that physicians and the UMA refuse to back medical cannabis. They know better.”
While Schanz recognizes that the Mormon church is very powerful in Utah, where 63 percent of the state’s 3.1 million people are members, he’s still confident the initiative will pass.
“Non-Mormons are in favor of it, and I calculate that at least 60 percent of the younger church members will vote for it … but they’ll do it in private,” Schanz said. “It’s no secret that families are having to leave the state with their sick children, and a lot of them are Mormons.”
Almost all voting in Utah is done by mail, Schanz pointed out, ensuring a high turnout. “Hence, the lawsuit to keep the initiative off the ballot,” he said.
