A group made up of medical marijuana dispensary stakeholders surprised the Marijuana Policy Project when they came out of the closet with a different ballot measure proposal to legalize recreational pot next year.
Up until about two weeks ago, the official plan A was an initiative by the Washington-based group that’s been in the works for months. But MPP can’t seem to make all of its Arizona allies happy, and ended up pushing its former campaign chairwoman Gina Berman to abandon the group and start her own.
This plan B group, Arizonans for Responsible Legalization, alleges MPP haven’t ompromised to the requests of dispensaries. Some of the disagreements include the number of dispensaries allowed to operate and the licensing structure.
Berman, who is also the medical director of the Phoenix-area Giving Tree Wellness Center dispensary, said in a very short statement, after filing paperwork with the Secretary of State’s Office, that the newly established group would unveil the measure’s language in the next few weeks, and that they were committed to ensure “the greatest benefit to taxpayers and boosting education funding.”
Safer Arizona, which provided input in MPP’s initiative draft process, knew about the group’s plan for some time, according to Mikel Weisser, Safer’s political director. “If they didn’t get what they wanted, something was going to blow up,” he says. “Because MPP wasn’t dealing with their own investors properly, they are currently facing losing them.”
Rob Kampia, MPP co-founder and executive director, sent out an email on April 1 (after another arose where he threatened Berman to boycott her dispensary), saying Berman’s allegations came out of left field. He summarized parts of the MPP measure, which all seem to benefit dispensaries. He said MPP and Berman had agreed on these right before plan B emerged.
One: Only medical marijuana dispensary registration certificate holders would be granted unlimited pot cultivation licenses. And two: Industry newcomers not only would be at the bottom of the list for licensing, but they’d also only qualify for “the smallest license available.”
Also, “The number of licenses for these businesses would not be limited by the initiative, but would be subject to limitations imposed by rules and ordinances established by cities, towns, and counties. There would be no limit on who can apply for any of these licenses, but medical marijuana dispensary registration certificate holders would be preferred over other applicants,” he said.
He wraps it up saying MPP is sticking to that agreement, but that if the Responsible Legalization folks move forward with this surprise initiative, MPP will scratch that and file a measure that has a “free-market approach.”
MPP’s initiative is currently in the hands of the Legislative Counsel’s office. Once the counsel gives them feedback, they’ll submit the final initiative to the Secretary of State and commence the signature gathering process.
Kampia mentioned cultivation rights in the email, as well. Allegedly, a person would have the right to grow six plants at his or her home. This is similar to the language in a previous draft, but it was scratched, creating chaos with Safer Arizona and other advocates.
“Respect the will of the actual consumers you claim to be serving, involve the community waiting to be your army, be our champion,” Weisser said in a statement after plan B initiative was announced. Weisser says Safer has its own initiative, and that they’ve also consider their own plans A through G in case things with MPP and others fall through. “MPP has consistently refused to pay enough attention to our concern (home cultivation), and our group started scrambling when MPP cut the grow rights,” he says.
MPP Arizona Political Director Carlos Alfaro was calm when he said MPP, the dispensaries and activists are discussing a middle ground.
“Be sure that none of this really has disrupted any of our plans or any operations,” he says. “There are so many drafts of this initiative, trying to get all of these people and their interests involved. Once we have that all cleared up, we hope to have an initiative that compromises those interests.”
Weisser says that someone’s got to give in this heated pot battle. There cannot be two initiatives gathering signatures and landing on the ballot. It might, once again, cheat Arizona out of legal pot.
“I believe that MPP and the plan B are fighting for the same donor stream, only one is going to survive,” he says. “The person who’s supposed to be raising money for you just jumped on the other team. They are going to have to come up with a resolution.”
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2015.
It’s about money. The dispensaries would like to keep a monopoly on the sources.
All of the other hype, accusations and such, are smoke screens, designed to redirect the argument.
united we stand,,, divided we fall !!!!
I have read the plan “B” it is still decimalization not legalization. These legalization proposals are a pretentious bunch.
There is no mention of the Medical Patient and the medical card holders. There is this convoluted of a office of Marijuana to be formed selected by the Governor board of 5 no majority political party majority allowed (lol). The term Education is really a name for a open endless bucket there is no such thing as education it is a ambiguous term. Education funding will be left up to the legislature as it has done with Gaming Pact the Lottery monies the Liquor & Tobacco taxes collected. It is one of the carrots in front of the horse.
The MPP also still supported by a large group of Dispensaries is trying for a monopoly with a big stick. Safer AZ endorsed proposal is more inline with some business practices. It is still unsavory to my taste. In Safer Az proposal a $300.00 license to home cultivate and the parameters to that is not clear.
I can just imagine all of these proposals being gutted when the Federal Government changes it’s classification. Interstate commerce laws free trade agreements tax permits to transport Hemp being limited as a processed product in some states. This is all contrite at this point trying to muddy the waters to give them some sort of an market assurance. Fuck Them don’t sign a proposal till after the Feds change the big rule.
look ate Jack Daniels distilled in a dry county you cant buy it in that county, but the tour bus take you to the next county where they have the Corporate sponsored store for souvenirs. However you can buy Jack Daniels at every part of the nation that sells alcohol. Does anyone think for one moment that huge big National Marijuana conglomerates what to come into Arizona’s market when this
” Marijuana Legislation proposal ” passed. Do you want the tax monies collected by your patronage to go an pay for their defense to a convoluted BS proposal in the first place ? Keep it the way it is for now.
I am also curious if the dispensaries are taking look at patients purchases through the AZDHS Data base. To determine when where and how a patient obtained their cannabis and compiling a algorithm of possible market expansion. As well as if they didn’t pay taxes on home grow. If this is the case I never consented to have my medical case history used or studied market viability I did not give up that right.
The accountant side of my brain says, “let’s turn this into a business model, tax it and everyone makes money off it.”
The libertarian side of my brain screams “NO”. I see the regulatory authorities getting involved, and once Congress gets off its butt and removes it from Schedules 1 and 2, I see BATF and the FDA getting involved, and big Pharma and big Tobacco coming in and putting the little guys that wanted this, out of business.
Home brewing didn’t hurt breweries profits.
Everyone better be keeping a mental list of which side of the divide their particular dispensary lands on. Should like to put a few of the more greedy ones under meself. There should be a penalty for being a jerk.
This is bloody USA. If you aren’t hurting anyone else (and I don’t include loss of fake profits in ‘harm’), it’s your backyard. Not the cops backyard, not the dispensiary CEO’s backyard. Yours & mine.
We need to stop wasting taxes on locking people up for something they are going to do anyway wether or not it’s legal. Bottom line.
ic69hunter;
I agree, I am sorry you wont get your free gram by writing a favorable review on the dispensary web site or one of the web dispensary finder sites. Safer AZ has posted the proposal.
My thought is most of the Medical Card holders acquire for family and friends so the expansion of the market is not what the Dispensaries owners think. Even by Medical card holders buying for others this limits ongoing and viability of the illegal market and the state is making money. This is the grass roots majority in AZ the Medical card holder don’t give it up yet.
John Brown; Methadone is legal simply because it is listed as a medical administered with case history and pharmaceutical manufactured and covered by Insurance so the Insurance carrier picks up the tab. If the Methadone dependent patient had to pay a humongous tax and look for specials, Yea that analogy is all wet. So what this legalization is saying you can only get methadone manufactured here by local people and if you are caught with California methadone you could be prosecuted. BULL on your idea of what a medical covers I will take my chance with someone with knowledge.
Clueless on that the Medical Card only protects the dispensary if I am pulled over and have 2 ounces in my car I am legal to possess it does not need to state where obtained the Marijuana. Very Very Bad information there
Alcohol is the product of putrefaction and filth while Marijuana is the product of a garden and Nature.
If you can brew beer and wine in your home why can’t you grow a few plants for your own use?
I would estimate the cost of Medical Marijuana at around 10 to 20 dollars a gram at a Medical Marijuana dispensary. Now if you are ill with cancer/pain/PTSD, etc. the cost of your medication will run around anywhere from $300 to $600 dollars a month at the current rates. Plus you have all the other standard medications to pay for; plus medical care and copayments.
My question is why would Not the State of Arizona allow home cultivation for the seriously ill? It’s no threat to anyone and It 99.98% of the time used by the home grower themselves. What is happening is the State of Arizona is receiving a massive amount of money into the Arizona Department of Revenue and once they get their hand on it they will not let go…………….
What need to be done is the Voters of Arizona need to pry the money out of their hands by a public vote by the Citizens of Arizona. Register to Vote and then Vote! Vote for legalization of Marijuana and Freedom.