Ballot measure will ask Arizona voters to legalize marijuana

A planned 2016 ballot initiative would ask Arizona voters to legalize marijuana for recreational use and establish a network of licensed cannabis shops where sales of the drug would be taxed, in part, to fund education.

Supporters filed language of the Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act with the secretary of State on Friday afternoon. The Arizona Republic obtained a copy of the proposed initiative.

Under the initiative, 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.

The initiative also creates a Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control to regulate the "cultivation, manufacturing, testing, transportation, and sale of marijuana" and gives local governments the authority to regulate and ban marijuana stores. It also establishes a 15 percent tax on retail sales to be allocated to education, including full-day kindergarten and public health.

"In the interest of the public health and public safety, to protect and maintain individual rights and the people's freedom and to better focus state and local law enforcement resources on crimes involving violence and personal property, the people of the State of Arizona find and declare that the use of marijuana should be legal for persons who are at least twenty-one years of age," the initiative says.

Local supporters, backed by the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, for years have planned to expand the state's medical-marijuana program, which voters approved in 2010. They have eyed the 2016 election cycle, when a presidential race is expected to draw to the polls young voters who may be more likely to support marijuana legalization.

"People are coming to realize that marijuana is not as harmful as they've been led to believe ... and it makes little sense to punish adults who choose to use it responsibly," Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, told The Republic on Thursday.

"Right now, there are millions upon millions (of dollars) in marijuana sales that are taking place in Arizona in the underground market, and this is an opportunity to start controlling those sales and taxing them and raising revenue that will benefit communities in Arizona," Tvert said.

Marijuana remains illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act, but in 2013 the U.S. Department of Justice said it would not interfere with laws regulating recreational use of marijuana.

The initiative almost certainly will face stiff opposition from law-enforcement officials, faith-based organizations and education groups that could highlight the harmful effects of marijuana on children and society. Those opponents have noted the state's medical-marijuana program only narrowly passed, and point to problems Colorado has encountered with its recreational-marijuana program.

For example, some hospital officials there have said they are treating an increased number of people who got sick from eating marijuana-laced foods. Law-enforcement officials in neighboring states have complained that motorists coming from Colorado are driving through their towns while high.

Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk, a critic of marijuana legalization, has joined forces with anti-drug advocates to oppose pro-marijuana initiatives and to "inform the public about the science of today's marijuana." Polk has pointed to studies that suggest marijuana can lead to lower intelligence among users and that regular use is bad for teen brains.

On its website, Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy says it hopes to attract financial support to stand up against "those who wish to legalize another dangerous substance without regard to the lifelong effects on our children."

Under the 2016 Arizona initiative language, driving while impaired by marijuana would remain illegal, as would consuming marijuana in public and selling or giving the drug to anyone under 21.

Taxation of the program would fund the state's cost of implementing and enforcing the initiative. Forty percent of the taxes on marijuana would be directed to the Department of Education for construction, maintenance and operation costs, including compensation of K-12 teachers. Another 40 percent would be set aside for full-day kindergarten programs. And 20 percent would go to the Department of Health Services for unspecified uses.

Revenue from the taxes could not flow into the state's general fund, which would allow it to be spent for other purposes.

The state health department, which oversees the medical-marijuana program, would relinquish that role to the new Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control. The governor would appoint the director of that department. And a seven-member marijuana commission would set program rules and approve and deny licenses.

The initiative limits the number of marijuana shops to about 150 until 2021 and then the number could increase if the department determines there's a need. Existing medical marijuana dispensaries in good standing would be granted licenses to sell, manufacture and distribute marijuana for retail use.

Initiative supporters must collect 150,642 to qualify for the 2016 ballot.

Legalization efforts were in jeopardy of splintering weeks ago, when a group broke ranks with MPP's proposal and created a competing legalization effort. The move highlighted factions within Arizona's marijuana industry and the infighting threatened to derail the 2016 effort.

In recent days, the groups came together to "conceptually" agree on language, said Gina Berman, a medical director at a local medical-marijuana dispensary who recently left MPP's legalization effort to start another. She said Thursday that she is now "conceptually on the same page" with MPP.

Ryan Hurley, a marijuana-industry attorney and chairman of the group's campaign committee, described the effort as "collaborative" among MPP, local dispensaries and local activists.

Summary of the proposed initiative

The Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act: (1) allows adults twenty-one years of age and older to possess and to privately consume and grow limited amounts of marijuana; (2) creates a system in which licensed businesses can produce and sell marijuana; (3) establishes a Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control to regulate the cultivation, manufacturing, testing, transportation, and sale of marijuana; (4) provides local governments with the authority to regulate and prohibit marijuana businesses; and (5) establishes a 15% tax on retail marijuana sales, from which the revenue will be allocated to public health and education.

SOURCE: Marijuana Policy Project