The bingo balls in Arizona have barely stopped moving and already a prosecutor in Arizona is warning dispensaries that growing and selling marijuana is illegal under federal law, a fact I’m sure all the potential operators are well aware of.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery says operators of medical marijuana dispensaries that begin operating in the state’s most populous county could face criminal prosecution and says he cannot ignore that possession, cultivation and sale of marijuana remain illegal under federal law.

Furthermore, he says a recent legal opinion by Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne makes it clear that key portions of Arizona’s medical marijuana law are pre-empted by federal law and that anyone growing marijuana in Arizona should stop.

Of course, under Bill Montgomery’s logic, every medical marijuana dispensary and caregiver in the country should cease their activities. The feds will certainly come with their threats, and advocates and patients in Arizona will fight back like those in other states.

But the threats are likely to stop without a change in federal law.

- Joe Klare