Family Council committee sued over marijuana vending-machine image
This article was originally published November 2, 2012 at 11:02 a.m. Updated November 2, 2012 at 12:35 p.m.
PHOTO BY AP/ DANNY JOHNSTON
Jerry Cox, president of Family Council, speaks in Little Rock, Ark. on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, as he motions to a a cardboard cutout of a Medbox machine. Medbox, Inc. said Friday that it sued Cox for using the company's "trademarked imagery in a derogatory fashion" during the news conference.
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LITTLE ROCK — A company that makes vending machines for dispensing medication says it has sued the Family Council Action Committee and director over the organization's use of its image in a recent news conference against the medical-marijuana proposal on the November ballot.
Medbox, Inc. said Friday that it sued the group and its director, Jerry Cox, for using the company's "trademarked imagery in a derogatory fashion" during the news conference.
Cox stood next to a cardboard cutout of a Medbox machine during the event at the state Capitol on Tuesday in which he criticized the medical-marijuana ballot measure for not mentioning such machines.
Cox said Friday he had not reviewed the lawsuit and that his attorney had advised him not to comment on the case. But he said he was surprised by the filing.
"We a few days ago did do a press conference and we talked about the broad issue of marijuana here in Arkansas and vending machines," he said. "Now we find ourselves in a lawsuit. I was quite frankly very surprised about that."
Medbox said in a statement that the action had "tarnished the image and the technology of the company."
"The medical marijuana industry cannot justify the need for 24-hour access to the product, and that is why the company does not allow ANY of our machines to be used in that capacity in this industry," Medbox Chief Executive Officer Dr. Bruce Bedrick said. "Medbox stands for transparency, legal compliance, and responsible behavior."
Company officials say when the machines are used for medical marijuana dispensing, they are placed behind a counter where only clinic staff members can access them.
Asked if that information changed any of his group's criticisms, Cox said he couldn't comment.
"That's something that our attorney has advised us not to delve into right now," he said. "Because we don't know what the nature of the complaint is ... As much as I'd like to comment on that right now, we're not able to."
Cox said the suit "doesn't change anything" about the ballot measure, which Family Council calls a "backdoor effort" to legalize marijuana for more than just medical purposes.
Comments on: Family Council committee sued over marijuana vending-machine image
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LevyRat says... November 2, 2012 at 11:37 a.m.
I'm sure these people at the "Family Council" mean well, but there are solid points for and against this issue without telling a "Clinton" about what will happen if this passes. Shame on these people!!!! I'm going to vote today, and I am now voting FOR this issue.
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1soni says... November 2, 2012 at 11:53 a.m.
Won't matter. Vote for or against. The case will be in the court system for 5-10 years and if the bill was passed and survives a court challange, the legislature will pass a bill to allow pharmacists to use a “conscience” measure to not sell. And if they do, the feds will raid and close the pharmacy.
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Michelle12345 says... November 2, 2012 at 11:59 a.m.
This is being blown out of proportion. What happened to the saying if you don't have something nice to say. This could help so many people and the ones that are uneducated about it or worried they can't fill their pocket book somehow with it don't want it. Medical marijuana should be a choice. I have never seen someone smoke marijuana and kill, rape or do any other violent crime to someone. Unlike other things that are legal and I am not a pot head or do I smoke it now because its not legal for me to. If it was I would its better for my body than the opioid I get from my doctor now to be able to get out of bed.
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southwhitehouse says... November 2, 2012 at 12:07 p.m.
The Family Council may mean well but showed incredible ignorance of trademarked images to accompany their equally incredibly backwards position on the ballot issue. @LevyRat, good for you. Smart choice to vote for the issue.
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RBBrittain says... November 2, 2012 at 12:43 p.m.
I thought there was something fishy about Jerry Cox's visual aid; as I said yesterday, he should have waited for the list of "doctors" supporting it and attacked that instead. Attacking lottery vending machines didn't work; misrepresenting an in-clinic marijuana dispenser as a vending machine certainly won't work. I early-voted "no" because I think Congress should decide first, but if I had known Cox would pull this I might have voted differently...
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ArmyMedic says... November 2, 2012 at 12:53 p.m.
I hope the company wins their lawsuit against the Family Council & Cox. I hope they bankrupt them so Cox will shut his mouth & stay out of other people's business. Adults know whats the best for themselves not some spotlight looking Cox.
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ToTheLeft says... November 2, 2012 at 1:26 p.m.
Jerry Cox needs to mind his own business and STFU.
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NoUserName says... November 2, 2012 at 1:30 p.m.
My understanding is that some of the nursing stations @ UAMS have similar 'vending machines.' I'll expect Jerry's press conference shortly.
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elwoody says... November 2, 2012 at 2:37 p.m.
This article is despicable. You can go to the Arkansas Times/blog and read the entire lawsuit. It spells out the extent of Cox's lying about the machines and how they work. There's several layers of security required by the company before a person can use the machines. They must be pre-approved, provide a card, use a thumbprint. Cox knew all this and still lied. Now he's lying about the lies he previously told.
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Isoni, the pharmacists are not involved with this bill's provision. That's why they're opposed. They won't get their usual 200-300% markup. Ballot Issue #5 specifies "state licensed", non-profit vendors will dispense the medicine.
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picexpert says... November 2, 2012 at 2:45 p.m.
Ha ha JC!We gonna run you outta town with a lawsuit in your pocket!Pretzel THAT!
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Profyle says... November 2, 2012 at 2:50 p.m.
I’m sick of these lefty-liberal, Big-Government types like Cox trying to get between us and our doctors. You’d think Jerry Cox and his socialist policy enforcers would listen to the people and quit trying to shove their big-brother protections down our throats. Government doesn’t need to be our nanny, Jerry. We can make decisions for ourselves!!
What’s that? He’s not a liberal? He’s a conservative!?! He doesn’t like big government unless it supports his agenda? I don’t believe it. Next you’ll be telling me Jerry Cox wants the federal government to tell me what I can or can’t do in my bedroom, too.
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Pscyclepath says... November 2, 2012 at 2:51 p.m.
Isn't Jerry Cox some sort of preacher or something? Id so, how does he reconcile himself with that rule about not bearing false witness against someone?
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Lar_Dog says... November 2, 2012 at 2:53 p.m.
This guy makes his LIVING exploiting intentionally ignorant TEAvangelicals. What he knows about Med Mj wouldn't cover the head of a pin! AND his group is for anything but FAMILY. It IS a hate group, and as such the ONLY way to shut them up is to BREAK them, since Job 1 is line the pocketbook. WAKE UP Arkansas!!!
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icom319 says... November 2, 2012 at 4:35 p.m.
if law is pass i will ask the federal goverment to enforce the law of land the state law does not over ride the federal law. marijuana is a out law drug the vending machine company should be closed for their stock of marijuana. they are violate the law of land not state but federal law. owners needed to be in jaiil.
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ELKHUNTER says... November 2, 2012 at 5:50 p.m.
Icom319, please refrain from commenting on such an important topic until:
1) Your powerful synthetic pharmacueticals wear off.
OR..
2) You finish 8th grade.
Thank You.
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BillSmith says... November 2, 2012 at 5:58 p.m.
Jerry Cox is a religious right wing nut, that just wants to keep telling people how he expects them to live. All of these nut cases operate under the same MO.
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a_1_buckeye says... November 3, 2012 at 1:49 a.m.
The legalization of marijuana being able to remove many harmful and highly addictive CHEMICALS should be the only reason you need to vote YES on the marijuana issue. This Natural substance surpasses many "man-Made" drugs. Keep it NATURAL in the NATURAL STATE Arkansas. VOTE YES to legalize MEDICINAL Marijuana. It should not be up to the Federal OR State Governments what we choose to use for medications. JUST VOTE!
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LSS says... November 3, 2012 at 6:41 a.m.
The commercial being played against medical marijuana if not so laughable, is a bit sad - shows how many uneducated ignorants there are running around loose - Will somebody fire that Jerry Cox guy already????
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BillSmith says... November 3, 2012 at noon
Why doesn't Jerry Cox try to make the whole state dry instead of just more than half the counties being dry. Didn't someone try that years ago and how did that work out for them?
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BillSmith says... November 3, 2012 at 4:46 p.m.
A topic about less regulations to small business by Romney, he says regulations are killing small business, this article show's less or no regulation is killing people.
*
Framingham, Massachusetts (CNN) -- If Sarah Sellers' warnings had been taken seriously 10 years ago, 12 people might be alive today.
Sellers, a pharmacist and expert on the sterile compounding of drugs, testified to Congress in 2003 about non-sterile conditions she'd witnessed.
"Professional standards for sterile compounding have not been consistently applied," she told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. "The absence of federal compounding regulations has created vulnerability in our gold standard system for pharmaceutical regulation."
Nearly 10 years later, there are still no federal sterility guidelines for compounding pharmacies that make and distribute drugs all over the country.
Now, 137 cases and 14 fatalities nationwide are blamed on a rare, noncontagious form of meningitis linked to contaminated steroid injections made by the Massachusetts-based New England Compounding Center.
The latest death to be connected to the outbreak was that of a 70-year-old man who died in Florida in July, prior to the discovery of the contamination
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GAITOR says... November 3, 2012 at 7:32 p.m.
Anybody can file a law suit. Making it stick is usually another matter.
Most companies would see this as free advertisement.
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NoCrossNoCrown says... November 3, 2012 at 10:51 p.m.
Jerry Cox only speaks for his family if his wife allows him to speak at home. I think countirs that don't collect tax on alchol should not recieve revenue in those counties. The money that is collected should only go to those counties that collect those tax revenues. That same with the tax that will come from the marijuana that could be sold if this issue passes.. If you want the revenue that you should also be collecting the tax......
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NotaLiberal says... November 5, 2012 at 1:27 p.m.
It does not have to be legalized to obtain Mary j. You cannot drive while using it. If I am in enough pain, I can find it.
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Packman says... November 5, 2012 at 2:09 p.m.
Until this morning I was voting for the issue. Now, no way. It is a sham being played by pot smokers. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against potheads. What I detest is deceptive politics and BS. The law allows someone to grow dope if they live more than 5 miles from a "dispensary" (whatever that may be). The 5 mile rule is absurd and designed for no other reason than to let potheads grown their own. All this emotional rhetoric about dope smoking helping people in pain may be true, but this issue is merely a sham for potheads. Good luck to Mr. Cox. Hey Michelle, NEWS FLASH - People impaired by dope have been known to drive cars, have wrecks and kill people. You may have never seen it, but unless you live under a rock, you've heard of it.
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NoUserName says... November 5, 2012 at 2:51 p.m.
You detest the deceptive politics and BS and are going to vote AGAINST it? That's all the 'against' side spewed. Besides, stuff should be legal anyway. There is no rational reason it is not.
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inquire says... November 5, 2012 at 2:53 p.m.
I don't know of any other issue that would have me on the same side as Packman and the odious Mr. Cox. I have been turned off by this issue from the beginning because so many people shouting the loudest in favor of it are users, people who have always been willing to live outside the law. That is a poor advertisement for anything to respectable people.
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NoUserName says... November 5, 2012 at 3:07 p.m.
I've never touched the stuff. Wonder if that qualifies me as 'respectable.' Which itself is a ridiculous comment to have made considering, ya know, that a lot of things we have in this country were born of breaking the law. Hope you don't go above the speed limit either.
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Pobucker says... November 5, 2012 at 3:51 p.m.
Jerry Cox = Arkansas Taliban
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inquire says... November 5, 2012 at 5:08 p.m.
Nousername, I never go above the speed limit on purpose. If I notice I am above the limit, I immediately slow down. Since you make light of the speed limit, you must be one of the people who think the traffic laws only apply to other people. I'm not one bit ashamed to have been raised to obey the law.
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NoUserName says... November 5, 2012 at 5:36 p.m.
'one of those people.' Your attitude is simply stunning. Judge much? And my point is I simply don't believe the holier-than-thou attitude.
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inquire says... November 5, 2012 at 6:21 p.m.
I am stunned that you think there is something unusual about being a law abiding citizen. If your world is so different that you don't believe it, I couldn't care less.
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