Yvonne Wingett Sanchez

The Republic | azcentral.com

The initiative could reduce civil asset forfeiture collections for law enforcement

Schools would receive revenue from marijuana taxes

Opponents say legalization could harm children, public safety and public health

After about a year gathering signatures, the campaign to legalize marijuana for recreational use will turn in more than 200,000 signatures Thursday to get its initiative on Arizona's Nov. 8 statewide ballot.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol needs at least 150,000 signatures to get on the ballot. Campaign officials will hold a news conference Thursday, where they will submit their signatures to secretary of state officials. Those signatures must then be verified by election officials to ensure enough signatures are valid.

The initiative would ask Arizona voters to legalize marijuana for recreational use and establish a network of licensed cannabis shops that would tax sales of the drug.

The campaign is pitting top elected officials, many law-enforcement officials and the business community against supporters of marijuana — including dispensaries and businesses that have flourished since voters in 2010 approved marijuana for medicinal use.

Under the proposed Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act, adults 21 and older could possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and grow up to six plants in their homes without obtaining licenses, as long as the plants are in a secure area.

It would also create a distribution system similar to Colorado's, where licensed businesses produce and sell marijuana.

Marijuana campaign tactic: Buy American, not Mexican

The initiative also would create a Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control to regulate the "cultivation, manufacturing, testing, transportation, and sale of marijuana" and would give local governments the authority to regulate and ban marijuana stores. It also would establish a 15 percent tax on retail sales, with proceeds going to fund education, including full-day kindergarten and public health.

A new Joint Legislative Budget Committee analysis concluded taxes and licensing fees would raise an additional $53.4 million in fiscal year 2019 and $82 million in fiscal 2020 from a 15 percent sales tax on the drug. That money would help fund the new marijuana department, local governments that have marijuana-related businesses in their communities and public education campaigns about marijuana, alcohol and other substances. The analysis projects an additional $42 million would be raised from normal sales taxes collected from the sales.

By 2020, according to the analysis, $27.8 million would go to K-12 public schools for operating costs and another $27.8 million would go to schools to help pay for full-day kindergarten.

Study: Legalizing marijuana would add $113 million in tax revenue

The committee warns the full impact of legalization is not known, a familiar refrain from those who oppose legalization.

"The initiative could result in other fiscal impacts that are difficult to quantify, including increased public expenditures for substance abuse treatment and adjudication of individuals charged with driving under the influence of marijuana," the fiscal analysis said, adding: "There could also be savings from reduced expenditures on arrests, prosecution, and punishment of marijuana possession and trafficking."

The analysis estimated Arizona would have $265.7 million in marijuana sales in fiscal year 2019, after accounting for users, population growth and inflation and other factors. The sales would result in about $40 million in tax revenue in 2019 and $74.4 million in 2020.

The analysis concluded marijuana-related arrests would go down, as would law enforcement's civil asset forfeiture collections related to marijuana charges.