Can Law Enforcement Sell Marijuana to Dispensaries or Patients?

This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on June 29, 2014.

Irv Rosenfeld, one of five living federal medical marijuana patients that receives 360 joints each month from the US government recalls in his book, “My Medicine” about his experience asking his local sheriff for seized cannabis, medicine to be used for his rare and painful bone disease. A reasonable request, the medical use of marijuana that was to be incinerated, for a patient suffering from the continuous growth of bone tumors. However 40 years ago times were much different and the request was denied.

Would law enforcement today give a young Irv Rosenfeld seized marijuana? It may depend on which state the Sheriff resides. While no known program exists, that we are aware, allowing law enforcement to give or sell cannabis to dispensaries or directly to patients, the concept is feasible.

Should a scheme be devised that allowed law enforcement to sell or give seized cannabis to dispensaries no state law would be violated, assuming the law agency resided in a medical marijuana state. Law enforcement agencies compete in and promote charity gambling events, when no law exists federally that allows for gambling. Local, county and state law enforcement are bound by state law.

Could you imagine getting your medicine supplied directly from your local police station? The only problem is that law enforcement are more likely to arrest recreational growers, farmers that typically produce less-than-medical varieties and manufacture for quantity and no-so-much quality.

If any Sheriff is crazy enough to start such a program, it may be Maricopa County (Phoenix) Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The question is, “is he compassionate enough to start such a program?”