A federal lawsuit accusing Arkansas’ Family Council Action Committee of defaming the distributors of medical-marijuana dispensaries by referring to the machines as common “vending machines” is on the verge of being tossed out of court.
In an order granting permission for a Little Rock law firm to withdraw from its representation of Arizona companies Medicine Dispensing Systems Inc. and Kind Clinics, U.S. District Judge James Moody said Thursday that the companies “may not appear in federal court without legal representation.”
Moody gave the companies 30 days to retain new attorneys or see the case thrown out.
Medicine Dispensing Systems Inc. didn’t immediately return a telephone call about whether it plans to pursue the lawsuit through different attorneys. However, in a motion filed Tuesday, Little Rock attorney John Holleman, whofiled the suit on the company’s behalf on Nov. 2, complained that despite repeated requests, the plaintiffs “have failed to cooperate regarding the conduct of this case.”
Holleman told the judge that his clients “have failed to timely and accurately provide discovery responses and relevant documents,” making it “impossible for the attorneys to reasonably prepare a case for presentation to the court.”
Holleman said in the motion that he gave “due notice” to the clients of his intention to withdraw, but after six business days, “No other attorney has contacted current counsel.”
The case is scheduled to be tried in late October.
The suit was filed a week before the general election in which voters narrowly failed to pass the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act. The suit sought compensatory and punitive damages from the committee and its director, Jerry Cox, on the grounds of defamation, negligence and federal trademark dilution.
At a news conference at the state Capitol a few days earlier, Cox stood next to a cardboard cutout of a vending machine labeled “Medbox,” as the machines are called, and described the machines as 24-hour “vending machines that dispense marijuana like potato chips.”The company also took exception to Cox’s description of the machines on the council’s website as “high-tech snack machines that sell marijuana and marijuana-infused food instead of potato chips.” The lawsuit said that implied that the machines would be located at convenience stores and accessible by all, when in fact the machines are sophisticated and have “highly controlled access” requiring a key card and a fingerprint.
The Medical Marijuana act, which was defeated after receiving 49 percent of the vote, sought to legalize some medical uses of marijuana. It would have required the state Department of Health to set up a system of nonprofit dispensaries.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 16 on 04/27/2013