Yvonne Wingett Sanchez

The Republic | azcentral.com

The marijuana legalization campaign is poised to appear on the November ballot

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol needs 150,642 valid signatures from registered voters to qualify

The campaign to legalize marijuana for recreational use submitted 258,582 signatures to secretary of state officials Thursday in an effort to qualify for Arizona's statewide November ballot.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol needs 150,642 valid signatures from registered voters to qualify, and they have likely submitted enough signatures to account for any that may be thrown out. The measure almost certainly will make the ballot, and the proposal is pitting powerful business and social interests against legalization supporters including medical marijuana dispensaries and marijuana users.

The pro-campaign staged a news conference Thursday, with about 100 boxes of the petitions serving as a backdrop. Supporters said regulation of marijuana sales by the state would be safer than the "underground" market supplied by drug cartels. It wouldn't lead to increased drug use by children and adults, they argued, or increased impaired driving. Legalization opponents disagree with both points.

"For me the issue is really safety," said Kathy Inman, executive director of MomForce AZ, which advocates for marijuana legalization. "Regulating marijuana is going to make Arizona a safer place for my daughters and my grandchildren. ... Regulating marijuana takes marijuana off the streets, puts it in a regulated market where it should be."

The Secretary of State's Office has 20 business days to process the petitions and transmit a 5 percent random sample of the signatures to county election officials for review. County recorders then have 15 days to verify the validity of signatures and send their findings to state election officials. The secretary of state will then have 72 hours to determine the number of valid signatures and determine whether the initiative will appear on the ballot.

The proposition 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, similar to the model established in Colorado.

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 were in a secure area. It would also create a distribution system where licensed businesses produce and sell marijuana.

Marijuana campaign tactic: Buy American, not Mexican

The initiative would prohibit driving while impaired by marijuana, but state law provides no standards for what constitutes impairment by marijuana.

In a written statement ripping the measure, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery warned that legalization could lead to increased impaired driving.

"The Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act represents the very worst of special interests funding initiatives to promote their own goals," Montgomery said. "The people who will pay for their greed are the families who will lose loved ones to marijuana impaired drivers, teens who will suffer from the effects of high potency marijuana, and businesses who won’t be able to maintain a quality workforce or discipline those who show up high on the job."

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.

By 2020, according to a new analysis by the Joint Budget Legislative Committee, $27.8 million in tax revenues 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.

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

In a statement, Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy, a non-profit conservative lobbying group, wrote that legalization could lead to more traffic and workplace accidents, crime, substance-abuse rehabilitation and increased accidental overdoses.

"The best way to keep Arizona’s youth safe is to keep marijuana illegal," Herrod's statement said.

Follow the reporter on Twitter @yvonnewingett and Facebook. Reach her at yvonne.wingett@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4712.