Medical marijuana: OK, it's legal. Now, how do we live with it?

Some 20 states have legalized the use of medical marijuana. But the struggle is just beginning over how to make it work where people live, such as this housing association in Phoenix.

Cancer survivor Tom LaBonte had vowed to collect enough signatures in his Phoenix-area subdivision over the weekend to overturn his homeowners association's ban on marijuana use, but it won't be necessary. Amid an outcry from residents, the HOA rescinded the ban.

Mr. LaBonte maintains that the HOA was out of line in trying to keep people from smoking pot for medical reasons in their own homes and says he is glad common sense prevailed.

"They're there to dictate things about house callers and make sure that nobody does car repairs in their front lawn and have cars up on jacks, things of that nature," he says of association leaders.

This HOA in Chandler, Ariz., and others like it, more accustomed to dealing with gaudy decorations than pot smoking, are having to tread into uncharted waters as states increasingly liberalize marijuana laws. Arizona voters narrowly passed a medical marijuana law in 2010.

Read More: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2014/0212/Medical-marijuana-OK-it-s-legal.-Now-how-do-we-live-with-it