Ariz. woman sues over police pot oil raid

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PHOENIX, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- An Arizona woman is suing police, saying they unlawfully seized a marijuana-infused oil she has medical clearance to use.

Charise Voss Arfa, a medical marijuana patient, saw her home searched last spring after police obtained a warrant seeking "a usable amount of cannabis, a narcotic drug, to include the extracted resin and cannabis which is now in solution," The (Phoenix) Arizona Republic reported Monday.

The state passed a medicinal marijuana law in 2010 that allows patients with certain ailments to legally buy pot or substances containing it at state-run dispensaries. The state, though, has failed to open any of the dispensaries, meaning the only way patients can legally procure marijuana right now is to grow it themselves.

Voss Arfa said she was targeted because she wanted to ingest the drug differently.

"This is really about not smoking and having the ability to use marijuana in non-smoking forms without fear of being prosecuted for a Class 4 felony, which is, under the law, the same thing as heroin -- the same severity, believe it or not," Voss Arfa's lawyer, W. Michael Walz, said.

The suit seeks to have charges dropped, the pot oil returned and her legal fees paid. It also asks a judge to rewrite the cannabis section of the state's drug law to clarify how marijuana inserted into oils or food is classified.