??Medical marijuana patients got an early Christmas gift from Arizona’s Court of Appeals.
On Dec. 20, the three-judge panel declined an expedited appeal filed by Maricopa County Attorney William Montgomery aimed at preventing medical marijuana dispensaries from opening their doors. The court’s action lets stand a lower court’s ruling on Dec. 3 that effectively allowed the first dispensaries to open around Arizona.
Court of Appeals Presiding Judge Samuel A. Thumma and Judges Michael J. Brown and Diane M. Johnsen heard oral arguments from Maricopa County Deputy Attorney Thomas P. Liddy and plaintiff’s attorney Kelly J. Flood on Dec. 20 and declined to overturn Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael D. Gordon’s ruling against Montgomery and in favor of a planned dispensary in Sun City.
For the full story, see the Wednesday, Jan. 9, edition of The Camp Verde Journal or the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
Christopher Fox Graham is the managing editor of the Sedona Rock Rocks News, The Camp Verde Journal and the Cottonwood Journal Extra. Hired by Larson Newspapers as a copy editor in 2004, he became assistant manager editor in October 2009 and managing editor in August 2013. Graham has won awards for editorials, investigative news reporting, headline writing, page design and community service from the Arizona Newspapers Association. Graham has also been featured in Editor & Publisher magazine. He lectures on journalism and First Amendment law and is a nationally recognized performance aka slam poet. Retired U.S. Army Col. John Mills, former director of Cybersecurity Policy, Strategy, and International Affairs referred to him as "Mr. Slam Poet." In January 2025, the International Astronomical Union formally named asteroid 29722 Chrisgraham (1999 AQ23) in his honor at the behest of Lowell Observatory, citing him as "an American journalist and longtime managing editor of Sedona Red Rock News. He is a nationally-recognized slam poet who has written and performed multiple poems about Pluto and other space themes."
