The Responsible Use and Cannabis Education (TRUCE) and the Epilepsy Association of Utah (EAU) have together dropped a lawsuit in Salt Lake City’s 3rd District Court that challenged the state’s legislature’s replacement of Proposition 2.
Proposition 2 is the medical cannabis ballot initiative that was successfully passed by voters in 2018.
While the case will not make it to trial, the plaintiffs are still celebrating as the legislature backtracked on the idea of having the state dispense medical marijuana to qualifying patients.
“This lawsuit was so much bigger than cannabis,” TRUCE founder Christine Stenquist said to FOX 13 on Monday. She called the decision to drop the litigation “bittersweet.”
Asked why they dropped the lawsuit, Stenquist said, “Financially? It’s gotten to be too much.”
The Utah State Legislature overrode Prop. 2 with its own version of a medical cannabis law, crafted as a result of a “compromise” between Prop. 2 sponsors and backers including the Utah Patients Coalition and Libertas Institute, as well as opponents like the Utah Medical Association and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Stenquist, Epilepsy Association of Utah President Doug Rice, Nate Kizerian, and Dr. Andrew Talbott, a pain physician who recommends medical cannabis.
