Last week, opposing factions in the state’s medical marijuana debate stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the Utah Capitol, many of them brimming with gratitude over their newfound collaboration.
They’d gathered to reveal they’d coalesced around a Proposition 2 alternative — draft legislation that state lawmakers will take up next month in a special session. The once-warring interest groups declared that, although their underlying positions remained unchanged, they would lower their swords in a gesture of good faith.
Watching from the front row, real estate tycoon Walter J. Plumb III was in no mood to call a truce with medical marijuana advocates.