From hearing Andrew Myers talk at the July 2014 Phoenix or Arizona NORML meeting only medical marijuana dispensaries will be given the right to grow and sell marijuana.
Normal people on the street will still be thrown in prison if they grow or sell marijuana. Normal People on the street will also still be thrown in prison if they have more then some small amount of marijuana say an ounce or perhaps 2.5 ounces.
As the article says Andrew Myers wrote Prop 203, which is Arizona's Medical Marijuana Act. And sadly when you read thru Prop 203 it looks like Andrew Myers wrote it as a government welfare program for medical marijuana dispensaries.
Now isn't it odd, that Andrew Myers is now the head of the Arizona Association of Dispensaries who's members stand to make millions if they are given a government monopoly on growing and selling recreational marijuana in Arizona????
Needless to say many people involved with marijuana in Arizona hate Andrew Myers, his Arizona Association of Dispensaries, and MPP or the Marijuana Policy Project.
The only reason they seem to want to legalize marijuana in Arizona is so they can get a government monopoly on growing and selling marijuana at $300+ an ounce rip off prices.
Personally I think marijuana should be legalized because 1) it is a victimless crime that harms no one, 2) it is a waste of tax dollars to put people in prison for the victimless crime of using or selling marijuana, 3) at the Federal level all the laws making drugs illegal are almost certainly unconstitutional based on the 10th Amendment.
Arizona Marijuana-Legalization Campaign for 2016 Ballot Measure Becomes Official
Andrew Myers wants a government monopoly on grown and selling marijuana????
Arizona Association of Dispensaries wants a government monopoly on grown and selling marijuana????
MPP wants a government monopoly on grown and selling marijuana????
Marijuana Policy Project wants a government monopoly on grown and selling marijuana????
SourceArizona Marijuana-Legalization Campaign for 2016 Ballot Measure Becomes Official
By Ray SternFri., Sep. 19 2014 at 4:07 PM
Proponents of a 2016 citizens' initiative in Arizona that aims to legalize marijuana for adults 21 and older filed paperwork with the state on Thursday, the first step in their campaign.
The Marijuana Policy Project of Arizona initiative still has a long way to go before becoming a law. But if it's successful, it would reverse about 80 years of marijuana prohibition in Arizona, raise millions in tax revenue and potentially end black-market sales of the plant.
The downsides: We'll let you know if we think of any.
Actually, it's hard to have a strong opinion about the measure yet -- the language of the proposed law still needs to be written.
"The goal is obviously the legalization of adult use of marijuana in Arizona," says Andrew Myers, a spokesperson for the Marijuana Policy Project who helped lead the state's successful 2010 initiative legalizing medical marijuana. "Specifics are still up in the air."
Myers, also the executive director of the Arizona Association of Dispensaries, says organizers of the new campaign "want a large, diverse coalition of people involved in the drafting" of the initiative.
He envisions the potential law as similar to the legalization measures Colorado and Washington voters approved in 2012, which resulted in retails shops where any adult can purchase marijuana products. Writers of the Arizona ballot question will learn from the experience in those states how to best roll out the regulations that will guide growers and retailers.
The statement of organization filed by the campaign on Thursday with the state Secretary of State's office will be amended when the text of the ballot initiative is created, Myers says.
A February poll of Arizona voters found that slightly more than half support adult-use legalization.
Much can change in two years that could impact the campaign and the voting public's level of support for it. For one thing, the measure will apparently come even as a federal ban on marijuana continues.
A campaign by a different group to put a legalization measure on the ballot this year was called off in June. The Safer Arizona campaign got a late start and hadn't gathered anywhere near the required number of signatures. Mikel Weisser, the head of that campaign and now the Democratic candidate in the race for Arizona's Congressional District 4, says his group is now focused on helping the 2016 initiative.
The MPP's campaign is starting so early, it can't gather signatures yet: State law requires the initiative campaign to wait until after this year's general election, which is November 4.
The number of signatures to gather can't be decided, either, until after the November election, since it's determined by computing either 10 or 15 percent of the votes cast in the governor's race. The percentage needed depends on whether the initiative will aim to make statutory or constitutional changes. (The medical-marijuana law, and the proposed legalization law, are statutory.)
Roughly, a 2016 initiative would need to collect about 200,000 signatures. It'll take money to pay the signature gatherers needed for such a huge effort, and the major sponsor has already been identified. The Washington D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project is identified in the statement of organization as the sponsoring organization, meaning the campaign expects to receive more than 50 percent of its funding from the group.
Gina Berman, an emergency-room doctor, is chair of the 2016 cannabis-legalization campaign.
The chairperson of the campaign is Gina Berman, an emergency-room doctor who's affiliated with a local dispensary, and the treasurer is Ryan Hurley, a Scottsdale lawyer for several dispensaries.
The campaign is likely to face some opposition. We asked Bill Montgomery, Maricopa County Attorney, what he thought about Thursday's filing by the initiative campaign:
"The possibility of the Marijuana Policy Project pushing an initiative involving marijuana in 2016 has been expected," Montgomery says, (and maybe he read about that possibility in this blog.) "Pending litigation before Division I of the Arizona Court of Appeals may obviate any such effort. Similarly, a change in federal administrations in 2016 with a commitment to fairly enforcing federal law consistent with any respective oath of office could render any initiative effort equally moot."
The litigation to which he's referring is the White Mountain Health Center vs. Maricopa County case. Montgomery believes if he prevails in this case, which poses the question of whether the voter-approved state law can exist due to an alleged conflict in federal law, the state's medical-marijuana law and everything that goes with it would be canceled. If the state judicial system won't let cancer patients use marijuana in Arizona, they sure aren't going to see a "recreational" law as constitutional.
So far, though, the court system has been much kinder to the will of voters than prohibitionists would like. In late 2012, a judge in the White Mountain case ruled that the state's medicinal-use law didn't conflict with federal law, paving the way for the system of dispensaries now in place in Arizona. Montgomery's appealing that ruling. Briefs in the case are to be filed by each side over the next few weeks.
Despite the hurdles, the overall momentum for legalization in the United States doesn't seem to be waning. A new poll shows that Washington D.C. voters, for instance, strongly support a local measure on the November 4 ballot to legalize marijuana use and cultivation -- but not sales -- for adults 21 and older.
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