Language allowing people to grow recreational marijuana at their homes was completely scratched from a new draft of the citizens’ initiative we might see on the 2016 ballot, making the months-long collaboration between Safer Arizona and the Marijuana Policy Project a bit rusty in recent days.
Up until this draft, dated Feb. 25, cultivation rights were considered. Ten days prior, the initiative said a person could grow up to six plants and a household a total of 12. Some dispensaries were concerned this might affect their business, and, according to members of Safer Arizona and other like-minded pot advocates, this might have been a reason for removing that section.
“What happened is, the people who supposedly are putting up the biggest amount of the funding for this initiative, which are the dispensaries, have decided they want complete control of the industry,” says Robert Clark, co-chairman of Safer Arizona. “We have tried to work with them to keep the cannabis community all working as one, we have communicated them the issues that are important and the main issue is called cultivation.”
Clark said he was told by a Marijuana Policy Project representative that they “are bound by the highest bidder and that right now is the Arizona Dispensary Association and law enforcement ‘types’ as those critical financial backers who threaten to pull funding if grow rights are included in the initiative.”
To Clark, this draft of the initiative resembles more of a business model with strict taxation and regulation. The licensing is limited. The fees, up in the tens of thousands, will keep a lot of people who planned to grow at bay.
Similarly to Prop 203, the 2010 Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, this draft would establish dispensaries as the sole option to purchase pot.
“The poorest among us have been disenfranchised, we cannot afford our medicine and we can’t grow it,” Clark says. “This initiative legalizes the growing, production and sale for just a very few rich people.”
As it’s been the case with medical pot where patients who can’t afford, for instance, $350 an ounce, continue to flood the black market, Clark argues this current draft wouldn’t address that issue with recreational pot either. “We are going to buy it the same way we have been since prohibition started, from the black market,” he says.
But all of this is still a work in progress. The draft being discussed isn’t what the Marijuana Policy Project will file with election officials in coming months.
However, the group says the final initiative must reflect what the citizens of a particular state want. If most voters do not agree with cultivation rights yet, then the initiative will not include them so that the measure actually has a shot at passing.
“The question is not whether our organization supports home cultivation … we believe people should be allowed to grow marijuana in their homes,” says Mason Tvert, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project. “If we decide that including that will result in marijuana prohibition remaining the law of the land for several more years, we might choose to leave it out and then pursue that once public opinion has shifted.”
All Clark hears is, “bullshit.”
He says this is the same excuse that was used when the medical pot initiative was drafted. Supporters were told that the only way the measure could get out of the election cycle alive was to prohibit users from growing the plant if they lived within 25 miles of a dispensary.
This rule has helped dispensaries sell a lot of pot, since most people live close to one. From 2013 to last year, dispensary sales nearly tripled, according to the state’s Department of Health Services.
“(The Marijuana Policy Project) says it is for the people, but then they hire individuals out of the dispensary industry to craft the language and support other dispensaries, so that they can continue to control the cannabis industry like they have with the medical program,” Clark says.
Tvert says this is a valid conversation to have. But, ultimately, the primary goal right now is to legalize pot once and for all so that responsible adults can stop getting arrested and prosecuted for marijuana possession. Other amenities can be added later.
“No measure has been filed for signatures yet, it is premature to start talking about the subject, there is certainly a reason to talk about it, we know where some folks stand, we stand there too, we think it should be included,” he says. “But the laws reflect what the voters want in Arizona.”
Meanwhile, Safer Arizona is searching for plans B, C and D in case the final initiative, which Tvert says MPP still doesn’t have a timeframe of completion, does not reflect their and other stakeholders’ needs.
On their website, Safer is calling on Arizona voters to reach out to dispensary owners who support home cultivation (last week Desert Bloom’s owner, Aari Ruben voiced her support) to ensure some sort of growing rights make it in.
The talks with MPP will continue and both hope to find a middle ground.
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2015.
Fear of Marijuana Legalization Nationwide is unfounded. Not based on any science or fact whatsoever. So please prohibitionists, we beg you to give your scare tactics, “Conspiracy Theories” and “Doomsday Scenarios” over the inevitable Legalization of Marijuana Nationwide a rest. Nobody is buying them anymore these days. Okay?
Furthermore, if all prohibitionists get when they look into that nice, big and shiny, crystal ball of theirs, while wondering about the future of marijuana legalization, is horror, doom, and despair, well then I suggest they return that thing as quickly as possible and reclaim the money they shelled out for it, since it’s obviously defective.
The prohibition of marijuana has not decreased the supply nor the demand for marijuana at all. Not one single iota, and it never will. Just a huge and complete waste of our tax dollars to continue criminalizing citizens for choosing a natural, non-toxic, relatively benign plant proven to be much safer than alcohol.
If prohibitionists are going to take it upon themselves to worry about “saving us all” from ourselves, then they need to start with the drug that causes more death and destruction than every other drug in the world COMBINED, which is alcohol!
Why do prohibitionists feel the continued need to vilify and demonize marijuana when they could more wisely focus their efforts on a real, proven killer, alcohol, which again causes more destruction, violence, and death than all other drugs, COMBINED?
Prohibitionists really should get their priorities straight and/or practice a little live and let live. They’ll live longer, happier, and healthier, with a lot less stress if they refrain from being bent on trying to control others through Draconian Marijuana Laws.
No grow rights = A NO vote.
We need to start an overgrow society.
No Grow ,No Vote, Ps Aari is a Guy. Lol
Mr. Aari Ruben , not Ms./Mrs.
No grow = no vote
The story focused on grow taken out of the new proposed legislation. That is like 1 of 10 points that changes and just went over all those.
1- possession will now be only one ounce
2-there is absolutely no considerations as to what happens to medical.
4- limiting the amount of people allowed to grow and a hefty license fee to do so.
5-allocating the monies collected to a new agency that the police take 40% off the top taxes
6- MPP in the first daft tried to make the Gaming commission oversight if the MMJ program.
can you believe that? the Indian don’t have to account to the state who their investors are
or what they do with the receipts they collect just the tallies off the machines a perfect slush
7- the intellectual properties should go to the UofA . It the people university and their property
8-not to mention giving up personal rights in employment and leisure.
BOTTOM LINE DISPENSARIES DIDN NOT BRING CANNIBS TO ARIZONA. I THINK IT WILL BE UGLY
look on leafy just about all but 3 are ADA members. if you frequent these establishments you are paying graft and to put your neighbor in jail and decimate the family. So really with this nothing has changed they sill want to beat up on citizens as long as the Dispensaries get their cut. These non-profit I just want to help people that are in pain BS they lay. Boycott is the is the game now.
To be fair Aries Rubin has denounce publicly the actions taken by MPP and supports small home medical growing. Desert Bloom. Green Halo is not a Member of the ADA
I agree that big business interests should not be allowed to outlaw home cultivation. One cannot patent a plant, only strains which one has created. If home cultivation is forbidden, the number of strains available to patients and public alike will be limited to those which enrich a few wealthy, greedy, morally unscrupulous people who favor ‘limited prohibition’ in order to line their own pockets.
Prohibition of marijuana is a premise built on a tissue of lies: Concern For Public Safety. Our new laws save hundreds of lives every year, on our highways alone. In November of 2011 a study at the University of Colorado found that, in the thirteen states that decriminalized marijuana between 1990 and 2009, traffic fatalities have dropped by nearly nine percent—now nearly ten percent in Michigan–while sales of beer went flat by five percent. No wonder Big Alcohol opposes it. Ambitious, unprincipled, profit-driven undertakers might be tempted too.
In 2012 a study released by 4AutoinsuranceQuote revealed that marijuana users are safer drivers than non-marijuana users, as “the only significant effect that marijuana has on operating a motor vehicle is slower driving”, which “is arguably a positive thing”. Despite occasional accidents, eagerly reported by police-blotter ‘journalists’ as ‘marijuana-related’, a mix of substances was often involved. Alcohol, most likely, and/or prescription drugs, nicotine, caffeine, meth, cocaine, heroin, and a trace of the marijuana passed at a party last week. However, on the whole, as revealed in big-time, insurance-industry stats, within the broad swath of mature, experienced consumers, slower and more cautious driving shows up in significant numbers. A recent Federal study has reached the same conclusion. And legalization should improve those numbers further.
No one has ever died from an overdose of marijuana. It’s the most benign ‘substance’ in history. And most people–and particularly patients who medicate with marijuana–use it in place of prescription drugs or alcohol.
Marijuana has many benefits, most of which are under-reported or never mentioned in American newspapers. Research at the University of Saskatchewan indicates that, unlike alcohol, cocaine, heroin, or Nancy (“Just say, ‘No!’”) Reagan’s beloved nicotine, marijuana is a neuro-protectant which actually encourages brain-cell growth. Research in Spain (the Guzman study) and other countries has discovered that it also has tumor-shrinking, anti-carcinogenic properties. These were confirmed by the 30-year Tashkin population study at UCLA.
Drugs are man-made, cooked up in labs, for the sake of patents and the profits gained by them. Often useful, but typically burdened with cautionary notes and lists of side effects as long as one’s arm. ‘The works of Man are flawed.’
Marijuana is a medicinal herb, the most benign and versatile in history. “Cannabis” in Latin, and “kaneh bosm” in the old Hebrew scrolls, quite literally the Biblical Tree of Life, used by early Christians to treat everything from skin diseases to deep pain and despair. The very name, “Christ” translates as “the anointed one”. Well then, anointed with what? It’s a fair question. And it wasn’t holy water, friends. Holy water came into wide use in the Middle Ages. In Biblical times it was used by a few tribes of Greek pagans. But Christ was neither Greek nor pagan.
Medicinal oil, for the Prince of Peace. A formula from the Biblical era has been rediscovered. It specifies a strong dose of oil from kaneh bosom, ‘the fragrant cane’ of a dozen uses: ink, paper, rope, nutrition. . . . It was clothing on their backs and incense in their temples. And a ‘skinful’ of medicinal oil could certainly calm one’s nerves, imparting a sense of benevolence and connection with all living things. No wonder that the ‘anointed one’ could gain a spark, an insight, a sense of the divine, and the confidence to convey those feelings to friends and neighbors.
I am appalled at the number of ‘Christian’ politicians, prosecutors, and police who pose on church steps or kneeling in prayer on their campaign trails, but cannot or will not face the scientific or the historical truths about cannabis, Medicinal Herb Number One, safe and effective for thousands of years, and celebrated by most of the world’s major religions.
I worked in the MMJ trade in Washington state for several years. I can grow any strain for $20-30 an oz using Advanced Nutrients (top of the line) and paying for electricity. This is full flush hydroponic . Good medicine.
This is just more discrimination against the poor. A base evil against those who really need the medicine. Who can justify a 1000% or more mark up in the name of compassion?? JAH hear our cries for justice!
Here is an excerpt from a comment which I made on 11/15/2012 that reminded me of what Brian Kelly B Bizzle typed above:
“The simple fact is when you have a drug as dangerous as alcohol has proven to be, not legalizing cannabis is nothing but hypocrisy. Anyone who knows the history of as to why cannabis was made illegal in the first place already knows that it’s rife with hypocrisy. Anheuser-Busch had a had a huge impact in making cannabis illegal because they saw it as a threat to their product. That is one of two reasons they don’t get any patronage from me, the other of course being that most of the product they manufacture is swill.
…people who suffer from a myriad of ailments should have legal access to something that makes their lives more comfortable.”
It is good to know that there are others who can see through the bullshit and understand what really benefits the public.
Bryan Wright – Or discrimination in favor of the rich, which amounts to the same thing.
What are the dispensaries scared of? Growing Marijuana is lots of work and most people are too lazy or sick to do it or do not have the skills required. All this quibbling and back and forth are a “tempest in a teacup.”
If home growing is approved by the Voters of Arizona the medical marijuana dispensaries would lose less than 1% of their sales I estimate. If you receive 99% of the money why would your go to the mat over the 1% left?
Dispensary owners have some mercy as many ill and sick people can’t afford the prices you charge for your product. If you try to corner the whole market the Black Market will reappear and your sales will collapse anyway.
Personally I feel the state should be out of the medical marijuana business and leave it to the doctors to prescribe and let the pharmacies distribute it to the patients not legal drug dealers known as dispensaries. The dispensaries charge sky high prices for bud that sometimes has seeds in it and you can still get arrested only this time the cops have your address on a database that you use medical marijuana. Everything the anti marijuana campaign says about cannabis is a complete lie as we know and they get people to actually believe their rubbish. Cannabis should completely legal as for one it is one of Gods plants and here for a reason but politicians use it for a campaign issue and they put otherwise would be law biding citizens in jail for nothing more than using for themselves or growing just for their own use. Its another law that makes absolutely no sense. How many good law enforcement people have been killed because of this law and how many will continue to be killed because of an illegal law?
And now the state has it where if you have marijuana in your blood for no matter if it was one day a few hours or a month and your driving you can get a DUI does that make sense?
MMP = No Vote
MMP has several terrible issues in their initiative.
Safer AZ is for the people not big business. They need 50k more signatures. Support them!!!!!!!!
Valuable commentary ! For my two cents , if anyone wants a Canada PPTC 155 , I edited a sample document here http://goo.gl/31SgkY