The Marijuana Policy Project has mended ties with activists and dispensary representatives, so the group officially filed its weed ballot measure with the Secretary of State’s Office Friday to begin the signature gathering campaign. This comes less than one month after a plan B group—Arizonans for Responsible Legalization—headed by MPP of Arizona’s former campaign chairwoman Gina Berman came out with news that it’d be putting forward its own initiative, because they were not happy with the dispensaries’ end of the stick.
Over the last few days, members of ARL traveled to D.C. and met with MPP leaders to discuss a middle ground for regulatory issues and other disagreements with the industry’s proposed business structure and licensing. And, to make sure activists stayed on board, MPP put home cultivation rights back on the measure.
“Not everybody is happy with the language, I am not in love with all of the components, but we have the best compromise we are going to get,” says Mikel Weisser, political director of Safer Arizona, the group that fought hard for homegrown weed language to make the initiative.
Weisser was the only non-MPP member who participated in the announcement event in Phoenix Friday afternoon.
“They wanted me there to show that we weren’t going to face another split,” he says. “Safer Arizona is going to continue to work in the activist community to make sure that all of Arizona gets included in the legalization and in the movement. The central MPP committee is going to pretty much focus on the mainstream message, leaving Safer Arizona to look at the folks not being included in the Arizona political discussion.”
Weisser believed that if the two groups couldn’t work it out, legal weed in Arizona would have been boycotted again.
The ballot measure would allow adults 21 and up to buy no more than an ounce of pot through a state-licensed retailer or dispensary. An adult 21 or older would be able to grow six plants and there will be a limit of no more than 12 plants per household. There is a license, worth $7,500, for people who want to sell their pot, without jumping into a full-on dispensary.
MPP expects taxes, set at 15 percent, to bring revenue of between $60 million and $100 million. The funds would go toward sales regulation, education and public health efforts.
Safer Arizona plans to host a series of public forums to answer everyone’s weed questions. They’ll also be at the forefront of gathering signatures. The measure needs 150,642 by June 2016 to make it on the ballot.
Other states targeted by MPP to legalize ganja next year are California Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine.
Colorado and Washington legalized recreational pot in 2012. Oregon, Alaska and D.C. gave it the go last year.
PS: Happy 4/20!
This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2015.
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I do not smoke cannabis but I am all for legalization. I rather be around stoned people minding their own buisness than a blacked out drunk capable of anything. The only thing bad about marijuana is being arrested and getting a felony stamped on your record, which will prevent you from finding a decent job.
I have been smoking Pot since January 1969. Approximately 45 years. Every time I see a physcian they say things like, “You have taken very good care of your Health.” In the same span of time, the people I knew who used Alcohol and Tobacco have expired due to accidents, cancer and automobile accidents. They have returned to dust and the Pot users and still with us…………….. Also, Pot users are some of the most creative people I have ever met. Many are top computer coders and top engineers , etc…….
I smoke Marijuana and I am NOT ashamed of it. It is safer than table salt…………… It’s way past time the Government, notice I said, “the Government” not Our Government stop the witch hunt and the persecution of Marijuana users.
Progress!
I love seeing AZ evolve and progress…check out how this AZ native snuck into the Cannabis Cup and Industry… http://thoughtforyourpenny.com/2014/10/29/how-i-snuck-into-the-cannabis-cup-and-industry/
A study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests medical marijuana may be an antidote for the scourge of fatal overdoses caused by prescription pain medication. Medical marijuana patients have reported for many years that they use fewer prescribed pain medications when medical marijuana is available. Research, reported in the JAMA Internal Medicine (Aug 2014), finds that deaths associated with the use of opiate drugs fell in 13 states after they legalized medical marijuana. Compared to states with no formal access to marijuana, those that allowed patients legal access to cannabis saw a steady drop in opiate-related overdoses that reached 33%, on average, six years after the state’s medical marijuana laws took effect. Although many of our Right Wing Nut Jobs focus on what they perceive will be costs associated with marijuana few or none focus on the positive aspects or public health benefits of ending prohibition. Prescription drug overdoses have surpassed traffic accidents as a cause of death in Arizona. The legalization and regulation of cannabis will have long term benefits and improve the health of those who would otherwise die of opiate drugs. Legalize and regulate this effective natural herbal medicine like alcohol in 2016.
Compared to other recreational drugs — including alcohol — marijuana may be even safer than previously thought. And researchers may be systematically underestimating risks associated with alcohol use. Those are the findings of recent research published in the journal Scientific Reports, a subsidiary of Nature. Researchers sought to quantify the risk of death associated with the use of a variety of commonly-used substances. They found that at the level of individual use, alcohol was the deadliest substance, followed by heroin and cocaine.
At the bottom of the list? Marijuana — roughly 114 times less deadly than booze, according to the authors, who ran calculations that compared lethal doses of a given substance with the amount that a typical person uses.
Drug warriors report that the adverse effects of marijuana are associated with early adolescent use. This is the type of use that regulation of marijuana can reduce by asking for ID’s from our kids. We are all better off to have marijuana sold in a local and legal retail market that asks for ID’s, sells only marijuana, pays taxes, and settle their disputes in our courts. A visible legal company allows far more societal control than a hidden underground criminal enterprise with no government controls that settle their disputes with guns on our streets and in our neighborhoods.
The DEA’s own administrative law judge, Francis Young, concluded after an exhaustive review of the evidence:
“Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.”
Legalize and regulate like alcohol in Arizona in 2016. This is the right thing to do for our citizens and especially for our children who may seek marijuana but are offered black tar heroin by cartel dealers.
THEIR FEE PROPOSAL IN MAINE IS 20 GRAND A LICENSE !!! No thanks mpp, Mainers got Mainers back here with Legalize Maine initiative.