In a few months, we will find out whether any of the initiatives to legalize recreational marijuana proposed by several different groups—including the Marijuana Policy Project and Arizonans for Mindful Regulation—will be up for vote this November.
If MPP’s measure is the one to make it through, marijuana sales could raise at least $40 million in revenue annually to go toward funding education.
Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas completely opposes legalizing weed, and she doesn’t give a shit about the possible economic benefits on both education and healthcare that would come from taxing marijuana sales at 15 percent (per MPP’s initiative).
Douglas issued this statement:
By using drug money to educate our children, regardless of the drug we choose, we’re creating a world where we’re funding our schools by betting against the people graduating from them, and I cannot morally support that stance. How can we tell our kids, in one breath, not to do drugs, and in the next, tell them that drugs bought their health textbooks? How do we maintain the authority to tell them not to deal drugs when the state of Arizona is running a cartel?
There is also the potential for government abuse when we create a revenue incentive for the state to increase drug consumption in our communities. I agree with legislative leadership, including House Education Chairman Paul Boyer, that maintaining a drug-free school system is a cornerstone to creating a bright future for our students.
All Arizona children deserve a great education. I believe we need a system that is based on what is best for all of our children. When we look for ways to fund that system, we must not be tempted by potential profits from evil drugs like marijuana. We owe it to our children to find a more responsible way to ensure our schools have the resources they need to succeed.
Initiatives have until July 1 to gather more than 150,000 signatures to land on the ballot.
This article appears in Jan 7-13, 2016.
But she’s fine with doing the exact same thing with alcohol and tobacco.
She is clueless… The students already know that cannabis is safer than alcohol and tobacco. That’s why cannabis use is up and alcohol and tobacco use are down among students. Just remind them that they should wait until they’re adults before they imbibe socially…
Marijuana isn’t any worse than the drugs that our doctors are prescribing for illness. I don’t think marijuana is any better than tobacco though. I used marijuana a little bit growing up in the 1970’s. First off it is a weed that is burning that you are putting into your lungs. This smoke you inhale in from marijuana you hold it in before blowing it out of your mouth to get the affects of the drug. Tobacco you breath the smoke lightly in and breathe out. I remember using marijuana the coating the drug would leave on my teeth and the urge to overeat, now that should be considered, tobacco doesn’t cause this. I am not saying that tobacco is good for you, but marijuana will have some affect on the lungs as well, being that it is a sticky substance and you are holding this smoke in the lungs way longer than an average cigarette smoker. Just something I observed. In my life time, I have seen more people die of alcohol abuses than a cigarette smoker, this I also observed. The prescription drugs they are giving out to people, which I was also given my doctors was like poison to me, this is also observed. These are personal observations.
” I don’t think marijuana is any better than tobacco though.”
1) Tobacco is cancer causing largely because it delivers specific carcinogens such as NNK and NNAL that are not present in cannabis. Not all “tar” is created equal, and tobacco has some of the most carcinogenic types of tar known to science, whereas cannabis does not.
2) Cannabis (marijuana) use is associated with a DECREASE in several types of cancer… potentially even providing a protective effect against tobacco and alcohol related cancer development.
Donald Tashkin, a UCLA researcher whose work is funded by NIDA, did a case-control study comparing 1,200 patients with lung, head and neck cancers to a matched group with no cancer. Even the heaviest marijuana smokers had no increased risk of cancer, and had somewhat lower cancer risk than non-smokers (tobacco smokers had a 20-fold increased lung cancer risk). Tashkin D. Marijuana Use and Lung Cancer: Results of a Case-Control Study. American Thoracic Society International Conference. May 23, 2006.
Researchers at the Kaiser-Permanente HMO, funded by NIDA, followed 65,000 patients for nearly a decade, comparing cancer rates among non-smokers, tobacco smokers, and marijuana smokers. Tobacco smokers had massively higher rates of lung cancer and other cancers. Marijuana smokers who didn’t also use tobacco had no increase in risk of tobacco-related cancers or of cancer risk overall. In fact their rates of lung and most other cancers were slightly lower than non-smokers. Sidney, S. et al. Marijuana Use and Cancer Incidence (California, United States). Cancer Causes and Control. Vol. 8. Sept. 1997, p. 722-728.
Through Artificial Selection Experiments, strains of Marijuana have been developed by the Marijuana Drug Industry that substantially increase the potency of the Drug. As such, its’ use poses serious potential consequences.The “Medical Marijuana” of today is NOT like the Marijuana used in the 70’s and 80’s.
While this Drug is effective in treating some medical conditions; Muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis, Nausea from cancer chemotherapy, Poor appetite and weight loss caused by chronic illness, such as HIV, or nerve pain, Seizure disorders, and
Crohn’s disease, its’ use for Medical purpose should be supported by Scientific evidence, including Clinical Trials, and regulated by the FDA; closely monitored by the tending Physician and State Department of Health..
The major consumers of this Drug, if legalized for so-called recreational purposes, will be the younger generation; destroying the very fabric/future of our Democracy.
This Drug should NOT be legalized for recreational purposes!!!
“…Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas completely opposes legalizing weed, and she doesn’t give a shit about the possible economic benefits on both education and healthcare that would come from taxing marijuana sales at 15 percent (per MPP’s initiative)….”
Superintendent Douglas is correct in her opposition to the legalization of marijuana for “recreational” purposes. And you, María Inés Taracena, do not “give a shit” for the real dangers, particularly to the younger generation, and others, posed via the “recreational” use of this now Very Potent Drug!!!
While I don’t agree with Douglas on her view towards the understanding the plant. I do agree with her view on funding education off of marijuana. I believe it will only happen when a person takes a big toke and thinks where the money spent on this blunt went really up in smoke. The money that is” EARMARKED” for education if legalization passes come after all the cost of a new department are paid for. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is promoting “Legalize like Alcohol” passing. So he can start a new regulatory agency in kind to a state run DEA. This agency has control of some of agriculture, medical testing, retail sale way beyond marijuana sales. So if I understand this right Joe Arpaio is promoting Citizen gun militias and setting up a new police agency to educate by selling weed and folding the Medical into a new police agency. Brilliant yea Douglas doesn’t it all wrong.
Regarding Francis Saitta’s comment on marijuana use destroying the very fabric/future of our democracy:
1.) Marijuana doesn’t kill its users – alcohol and tobacco do. Hundreds of thousand of Americans die from using those two legal, controlled and taxed substances annually.
2.) The state of Colorado legalized, controlled and taxed the recreational use of marijuana and the sky has certainly not fallen in that state. In fact, things have gone along pretty much as they always have – no noticeable changes in behavior. I visit Denver frequently and have NEVER seen anyone publicly smoking marijuana. There IS, however, more tax money generated for educational purposes. And democracy seems to be flourishing in Colorado.
3.) There is NO empirical evidence to show that legalization of a drug already in common use will cause a notable increase in use of that drug.
4.) Keeping substances like marijuana illegal promotes criminal behavior (including smuggling) and public corruption. The harm caused by prohibition extends to other coubntries, as we well know here on the border.
Ms. Saitta, please present your empirical evidence to show how legalization of marijuana will destroy the very fabric and future of democracy.
Francis Saitta…………… I Have read your post several times on the potency claims. I don’t agree the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer that is now used with computer enhancement and light gathering was not used on marijuana till the 80’s. there is really no verifiable truth to the test that were done prior to 1985 inside the US, Israel and Turkey have different results.
However if you see the concentrated form just blow plant matter out of the water. This can be also manipulated so much we see controlled forms in medical just passed and opened in New York. In New York’s medical program only concentrated are given in edible or liquid based forms. It is dispensed by a licensed Pharmacy agent whom take your your ailment into account then go into and compound a strain and terpenes you need for your ailment.
This is why the police and dispensaries want this ” Legalize like Alcohol ” If the Department of Health services follow this line of administration of the medical use of marijuana. Then what happens to all of these hmmm….. non-profit…. dispensaries? By going this line makes possible medical deductions, business overhead deductions, insurance coverage possible, banking open up, it clarifies the DUI, culls the abuse stops this ridiculous tax grab that won’t benefit nothing but itself.
” Legalize like Alcohol ” does none of these and infact preclude any of these coming into place here in Arizona. MPP’s whole administrative staff have had a shake up with the president and several members quitting say they were being overrun by police and vested interested in promoting some initiatives. I recall 4.8 million going into AZ proposal 480,000 paid by the industry the other 4 million paid by interests they state wont clarify.
If the want to legalize fine……… DON’T ROB THE MEDICAL….If you are gullible enough to believe this proposed Department of Marijuana will benefit arizona or it’s citizens then ask that paid signature gather if they think they are helping? I just give them ten dollars and ask them to look at my phone see Joe Arpaio promoting this with “Mom Force Arizona” I would give them more since they need it but that many ten spots is hard to come by.
FYI: The Public Health Consequences of Marijuana Legalization
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/f…
Mike Anderson…………. “Legalize Like Alcohol “is still prohibition the rules have not been written and wont be till 2022 by it own initiative statement. This is like the emperor’s new clothes story IT”S STILL PROHIBITION DUH with a more defined and financed straight from the cash resister. Anyone would have to say stoned completely to believe this line if BS.
Arizona Legislature proposed bill posted january 7th.
Representative Mark A CARDENAS dist 19 introduced two bills. These bills keep Marijuana in the AZDHS good for Arizona.
HB…2006http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/52leg/2r/bills/hb2006p.pdf
HB…2007 http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/52leg/2r/bills/hb2007p.pdf
“If MPP’s measure is the one to make it through, marijuana sales could raise at least $40 million in revenue annually to go toward funding education.” Potty Mouth
I support the legalization of marijuana. I will vote in favor of any initiatives that make it to the ballot if and whenever that occurs. But specious claims concerning the revenues to be realized from taxation before a law is passed do nothing to advance the cause of legalization.
Potty Mouth’s figure of $40M going to the schools assumes $50M in taxes with the other $10M going to administrative costs and regulation. This is Arizona, it is a pipe dream to believe 80% of tax revenues will make it to the schools. If, as Potty Mouth believes, the 80% figure is real you only need to look at Ohio where the MPP initiative failed on the fear that monopolies would crowd out smaller players seeking licenses. Here in Arizona the MMP initiative would likewise favor big money interests not the individuals purchasing marijuana.
The topic here is the use of tax revenues from the legalized sale of marijuana for school funding not the legalization of marijuana. The state needs to decide if it wants to be a player in attracting new business to Arizona with a competent work force able to meet the requirements of the 21st
century. Pumping an unknown amount of tax revenues into the black hole of state funding may be great as propaganda, but get real. A state that routinely starves the public school system of monies owed by law will not, mirable dictu, hand over this revenue without a decade of legal maneuvering.
Dragging Diane Douglas into the debate – do you really think a conservative Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction would support the sale of marijuana under any circumstances – is a red herring. Ask HT Sanchez and Adelita Grijalva if they support legalizing marijuana to fund TUSD.
Let the initiative pass or fail on its merits, if alcohol and tobacco are readily and legally available so should marijuana be legalized, controlled and taxed.
There’s a lot of muddleheaded nonsense on this thread. Francis, outdated reefer madness government propaganda notwithstanding, marijuana is simply not a dangerous drug. Period. The science is clear on that.
In fact, marijuana is just the opposite of dangerous–it has many health benefits that are helping millions of people all over the country, and the science trend is clear here as well–the more studies that are done on its potential benefits, the more beneficial medical applications are revealed and eventually approved. More potent strains simply means you need to smoke less of it to get the same effect. And of course, you really needn’t smoke it at all–one of the biggest advantages of retail dispensary distribution is making high quality edibles with predictable dosages widely available, thus eliminating the need to smoke it.
Another huge potential benefit of legalization is the commercial production of hemp, which has historically been prevented by prohibition, but might now blossom. Hemp–cannabis with no psychoactive properties, grown for fiber and oil rather than drug use–is an incredibly useful product that could replace many petroleum-derived products.
All that said, this debate most likely will be moot in ten years. The dam has broken. Just like gay marriage, people are waking up to the utter folly of prohibiting fundamentally harmless social behavior. Our governments and police departments have more important things to do. Full legalization is only a matter of time now….
To all the marijuana recreational Legalization Supporters, i.e., “Pot Heads”: Do you drive or bike after smoking pot? Do you go to work after smoking Pot where your work involves decision making or other responsibilities that directly/indirectly effect others?
Francis,
Is that also your argument for re-criminalizing alcohol? We waste a ridiculous amount of our tax dollars and we destroy lives through the criminalization of Marijuana. Is that what you want to continue doing?
We can decriminalize/legalize the drug and still encourage people not to use or abuse it, just like we do with alcohol and tobacco. It’s either that, or we will continue to imprison, jail and waste our public resources on punitive punishments that do not change peoples behavior!
You can be opposed to marijuana usage and also be opposed to it being criminal, unless you are full of hate, but I don’t think you are…. Expand your mind 🙂
Prohibition has been a massive disaster at every level. It funds drug cartels, it provides teens with 24/7 access, it results in millions if invalid arrests, it costs hundreds of billions of dollars, and it doesn’t stop or slow drug use. Like fighting fire ants with bombs, it is idiocy. And you’d have to be an idiot to support such lunacy.
You know what’s evil? Supporting cannabis prohibition…along with the illicit activity that goes along with prohibition. Regulation brings harmony when you allow adults access to cannabis tested for impurities from a safe secure outlet while keeping money stateside. NO-ONE is advocating cannabis to minors and statistics show a decline in minor use in countries/states that regulate cannabis.
There’s a reason 99.9% of comments related to cannabis support ending CANNABIS PROHIBITION world-wide. SPEAK OUT and VOTE GREEN!
Rick Spanner………. the topic is not taxes don’t convolute the proposal it has more than taxes that is a purely myopic view and don’t understand the proposal, perhaps read it again.
report
Actually, Carpet Bagger, the topic of this thread is taxes:
Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas completely opposes legalizing weed, and she doesn’t give a shit about the possible economic benefits on both education and healthcare that would come from taxing marijuana sales at 15 percent (per MPP’s initiative). Potty Mouth
Like I said I support legalizing marijuana along the same lines as we have legal alcohol and tobacco both with decades of research attesting to their health and public safety risks. Perhaps you need to reread the short article and understand the topic is Douglas’s position on using taxes derived from the sale of mj to support public education.
First of all, cannabis is not a drug; it is a medicinal herb. We will continue to struggle with how to treat cannabis until such time as we understand this basic point.
Cannabis is not evil; to say so is to fall victim to the Reefer Madness propaganda of the 50’s. This is 2016 and there is no excuse for continued ignorance on this point. People who use it for recreational, medical, or religious purposes are not “bad” and the taxes earned through its sale are not tainted any more than, say, taxes on alcohol or cigarettes.
The current initiatives being considered in AZ do not legalize cannabis for kids. To suggest otherwise is to spread blatant lies, especially now with the latest Monitoring the Future report confirming that substances like alcohol and tobacco — which are legal for adults but regulated to keep them away from kids — are being used less and less by kids. On the other hand, cannabis, whose non-medical use remains illegal in all but a handful of states, is being used at the same rate. This is proof that policies of regulation combined with education are successful.
Meanwhile, the percentage of high schoolers who say cannabis is “fairly easy” or “relatively easy” to obtain has plummeted to historic lows. That’s right: only 79% of high-schoolers report that cannabis is easy to obtain, the lowest percentage since the question first started being asked in 1975.
Thus we see that prohibition has failed miserable while regulation and education work. How sad for Arizona that the Superintendent of Public Instruction doesn’t understand this, since once would think that it’s her job to know!
Francis wrote:
To all the marijuana recreational Legalization Supporters, i.e., “Pot Heads”: Do you drive or bike after smoking pot? Do you go to work after smoking Pot where your work involves decision making or other responsibilities that directly/indirectly effect others?
Of course not; people do that in roughly the same percentage as drinkers (albeit with far less drastic consequences).
Francis, why is it that you think that it’s OK to incarcerate people who have not and may never do the objects of your hysterical rhetoric? Do you believe that it’s preferable that 10 innocent people get convicted to prevent 1 guilty person to go free?
It’s patently absurd to believe that there is a significant cohort of people with such a deep seated respect for the law no matter how ill advised who are waiting for permission from the Legislature before transmogrify into scofflaws who go out and break the law.
This is brilliant. While we’re here maybe we should capitalize on the national hot topic of the week and propose higher taxes on gun sales.
Francis Saitta is a tool. There is no denying that.
Her insane cannabis hysteria aside, Diane Douglas makes an excellent case to keep marijuana taxes low. An overburdensome tax provides the government with a perverse incentive (just as asset seizure laws do).
@Francis Siatta:
Hot off the press only minutes ago:
Study shows bicycling while high on marijuana poses no greater danger than sober biking.
http://extract.suntimes.com/information-resources/10/153/11888/study-finds-biking-high-marijuana-not-more-dangerous-than-sober-biking
I have been a marijuana smoker since 1967. It is very strange that comments against the use of marijuana are still taken seriously. These comments are from people who have no clue about marijuana at all and are using fear to motivate their campaign against marijuana. I am among a majority of citizens who know these fears are unfounded. Marijuana is a better recreational experience than alcohol by far. Marijuana is also useful for treating pain, PTSD, and other medical problems. Those who rally against the use of marijuana should be brave and try marijuana before advancing no-nothing comments.
While there are those here that believe this piece of proposed legislation with MPP ” Legalize Like Alcohol” is good for Education are being misleaded to the Idea that 40 million which is 1.6% of the Arizona education budget will make a difference in education. All the legislature has to do is figure it into a budget no change.
If we look at Colorado’s Department of revenue study of tax collected and distributed from the sales of Marijuana is the link.
..https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/Market%20Size%20and%20Demand%20Study,%20July%209,%202014%5B1%5D.pdf
In this study it estimates after 4 years that 13% of the population consume use marijuana and infused products. and that 28% of those that use marijuana consume 87% of the available product. The study concludes that 10% of the sales are attributed to tourist and flash market sales that are not sustainable. If we look at the population of Arizona and estimate 13% it rounds off 97,000 people which is about the amount of Medical card holders now.
If this study has any validity at all what are we going for here with Legalize Like Alcohol? Is it that we are trying to compete with Alcohol? Are we trying to promote Marijuana over Alcohol or in conjunctive use with Alcohol? We see here the sole purpose is to not criminalize use of minor amounts but to set up a for profit drug use to think we are educating our youth? While criminalizing and prosecuting someone for growing for their use with the idea that all plants are the same size. Lots more felony laws attached to this legislation. Laws that really don’t need to be here. laws that say if you have 20 plants locked up in a house in a micro cabinet under lock and key with no children in the home. 20 plants in 12 ounce solo cups growing CFL lighting is guilty of a felony and forced into a plea bargain. When really all they were doing is controlling the diabetes type2. I have reduced my medication in half my neuropathy is in control I can walk again. It is really hard to take to think the simple minded people here that will let Medical going into this proposed police market drug promoting department of marijuana. I cant afford the astronomical cost it would be with my need to go to a dispensary. They want to rob me of the better time in the last years of my life for the idea that tax on a drug controlled by police and profiteers will educate BS.