Saying marijuana dispenser ‘defamed,’ distributor sues

An Arizona company that distributes “state-of-the-art” machines that could be used to dispense medical marijuana in Arkansas, depending on election results next week, has sued over its products being described as common “vending machines” by a group opposing the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act.

In a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Little Rock, Medicine Dispensing Systems Inc. is seeking compensatory and punitivedamages against the Family Council Action Committee and its director, Jerry Cox, on the grounds of defamation, negligence and federal trademark dilution.

Cox held a news conference Tuesday at the stateCapitol next to a cardboard cutout of a vending machine that had been labeled “Medbox” and included an image of a marijuana leaf on the front.

Cox described the dispensaries to reporters as 24-hour “vending machines” that dispense marijuana like potato chips.

In an article he posted Wednesday on the council’s website, Cox also called the machines “high-tech snack machines that sell marijuana and marijuana-infused food instead of potato chips,” implying, the lawsuit says, that the machines will be located at convenience stores and accessible by all.

The lawsuit says that Cox’s article was displayed on the council’s website “in conjunction with a video portraying armed drug dealers.”

Cox’s “outrageous’ and “unbelievable” remarks equate the sophisticated, controlled-access machines with lowly snack machines “at 7-Elevens,” Little Rock attorney John Holleman, who filed the lawsuit on the machine distributor’s behalf, said Friday.

He added that a machine can “absolutely” be defamed, calling it “a dilution of a copyright.”

In reality, Hollemansaid, the machines dispense medicine “for hospitals and health-care systems. You need a key card to get into it and a fingerprint. [...] It’s basically a safe with highly controlled access.”

At the news conference, Cox warned that voters should be aware that the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act, which will be on Tuesday’s ballots, doesn’t specifically prohibit the dispensing of marijuana from a “vending machine.”

His remarks prompted a cry of “simply not true” from supporters of the act.

Chris Kell, Arkansans for Compassionate Care campaign strategist, said that the Health Department would write the rules and regulations concerning how marijuana is dispensed and has the ability to ban the use of machines.

In California and other states, medical marijuana patients are allowed to obtain the drug through a machine, which takes a photograph of the user and requires a personal identification number, membership card and fingerprint scan.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, citing his practice of not commenting on issues before voters, declined to issue an opinion after two state senators asked him Tuesday whether the act, if passed, would allow marijuana-dispensing machines and whether the state couldtax the sale of marijuana.

If approved by voters, the act would legalize some medical use of marijuana and require the Department of Health to set up a system of nonprofit dispensaries that would distribute up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana at a time to Arkansans with certain diseases or symptoms. The act does not specifically mention machines.

Under the Arkansas proposal, a patient would qualify for medicinal marijuana if a doctor certifies that the patient has cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis-C, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Tourette’s syndrome, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, post-traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia or Alzheimer’s disease.

It also would be available for people suffering from certain chronic or debilitating diseases or conditions, or undergoing treatment that produces symptoms such as severe nausea, seizures and persistent muscle spasms.

Cox declined to comment on the lawsuit Friday, saying it is in the hands of “our lawyers.”

He said, however, that the Family Council Action Committee, the political arm of the Family Council, “has been in the public arena for years in Arkansas. Most people, I believe, like what we do and agree with us, but when you operate in thepublic arena, you get sued.”

The lawsuit, he said, “doesn’t change the issue that’s on the ballot. It doesn’t change what’s wrong with it. ... It’s still a back-door effort to legalize marijuana.”

If the proposal passes, Cox said, the drug will become available to anyone “with muscle spasms.”

He said the lawsuit was filed by an out-of-state entity and that out-of-state groups have spent more than $700,000 promoting the legalization of marijuana in Arkansas.

“Why all this interest from these individuals and groups outside Arkansas?” Cox said.

The lawsuit contends that Cox’s statements, including those in an interview aired on KARK-TV, Channel 4, that the marijuana machines distribute marijuana without a prescription to the general public, were “spread over the World Wide Web and news.”

The statements “damage the reputation of the plaintiffs, and are falsely derogatory,” the suit says. “They prevent others from dealing with [the company] and interfere with [the company’s] business relationships.”

The lawsuit, assigned to U.S. District Judge James Moody, seeks an injunction to stop the council from continuing to harm the distributor and its “famous Medbox trademark.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/03/2012

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