In This Issue

Can localities ban retail marijuana?

Will the initiative re-duce government?

How much would be permitted?

Will the revenue be worth the costs to so-ciety?

How will treating ma-rijuana like alcohol affect our teens?

Can landlords ban use of marijuana on their property?

The proposed proposition to legalize marijuana in Arizona is titled The Cam-paign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMLA). Sponsored by the Wash-ington, DC-based Marijuana Policy Project, the CRMLA is 20 pages long and replete with a number of provisions that create a new state-sponsored com-mission (“The Marijuana Commission”), a new state department of govern-ment (“The Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control”), a new tax, and a series of other new laws.

The CRMLA can be viewed in its entirety at: http://apps.azsos.gov/election/2016/general/ballotmeasuretext/I-08-2016.pdf

The people of Arizona should fully read and understand these provisions so that there are no surprises should this law come to pass. Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy opposes the CRMLA and believes it is bad public policy to first pass a law — and only then find out what’s in it.

Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy ardp.org

Analysis of the “CRMLA” Initiative to Legalize Marijuana

Newsletter

October 2015 ardp.org

If a locality has a “medical marijuana” dispensary, that locality cannot ban a retail dispensary from opening there. Proposed A.R.S. §36-2856(B)(2)

Today’s marijuana is far more potent than the marijuana of the 1970’s.

Source: http://www.politifact.com/rhode-island/statements/2014/mar/30/heidi-heilman/marijuana-legalization-opponent-heidi-heilman-says/

THC Potency Increase 1972 to 2012

Can Localities Ban Retail Stores? Not really. If a locality has a “medical marijuana” dispensary, that locality cannot ban a retail dispensary from opening there.

A popular talking point by the sponsors of the CRMLA is that if a community does not want a marijuana store or retail dis-pensary, they can vote it down. This is patently untrue. The very law they wrote, proposed A.R.S. §36-2856(B)(2), states that if a “medical marijuana” dispensary already exists in a locality, that locality cannot ban a retail dispensary once the law is passed: “Localities may enact reasonable ordinances or rules that are not in conflict with this act or with the rules enact-ed pursuant to this chapter that limit the number of marijuana establishments within the locality, except that the locality may not limit the number of marijuana retailers, marijuana product manufacturers, or marijuana cultivators to a num-ber that is less than the number of locations where the nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries are engaged in the same type of conduct in the locality on the effective date of this chapter.” (emphasis added).

The number of retail marijuana stores will not be limited to the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in a given locali-ty—the proposed law states that until 2021 the number of dispensaries allowed in a locality can equal 10% of the number of Series 9 liquor licenses (liquor stores) allowed in said locality. This could mean as many as five new marijuana retail stores in Tempe alone and, of course, many more in other cities from Phoenix to Tucson to Flagstaff. Furthermore, after 2021, the law allows for that 10% cap to be lifted.

More Government Many supporters of the CRMLA claim it will reduce government spending and resources, from civil to criminal administration. This is simply untrue: the CRMLA will lead to bigger government, and the 20- page law already establishes that.

The State of Arizona has seemingly innumerable boards and commissions—we read about problems, disputes, and scandals with them every day in the Arizona Republic, the Arizona Capitol Times, and the Yellow Sheet. The CRMLA establish-es two more: A seven member “Marijuana Commission” and the “Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control.” The Marijuana Commission is mandated to reserve three of the seven seats for those already in the marijuana dispensary business. This law creates one more commission for the state and a new govern-mental department complete with a “Director” and office staff, including an “Investigations Unit.”

More Government Not Less

Legalizing marijuana will not mean no enforcement and no law; it means the opposite. An entirely new set of enforcements and laws will be required to ensure compli-ance based on under-age posses-sion, trafficking, adult possession violations, on-site under-age pres-ence, on-site use, and an entire regime of investigations based on fake IDs, solicitations for illegal purchase, home growth, and trans-portation. All of this means one thing: more, not less government..

The law also allows for marijuana delivery —l ike pizza —

after the year 2020.

See proposed A.R.S. §36-2854(A)(2).

FEW PROTECTIONS FOR LANDLORDS With few exceptions, landlords cannot prohibit possession and consumption of non-smoked forms of marijuana on their premises. See proposed A.R.S. §36-2852(C) and (D).

Marketing to Children

How much is permitted? The CRMLA states their law will allow for “limited” possession of marijuana. But the law allows possession of one ounce of marijuana, in-cluding five grams of concentrated marijuana oil, and 12 plants per household of two adults.

One ounce of marijuana equals roughly 60 joints.

Five grams of concen-trated marijuana oil can yield approximately 500 servings of gummy bears.

Twelve marijuana plants can yield well over 2,000 joints.

SOURCES:

http://www.denverpost.com/marijuana/ci_24823785/colorado-marijuana-guide-64-answers-commonly-asked-questions

http://gazette.com/thc-extracts-concentrate-problems/article/1554097

See Johnson, Lloyd: The Begin-ner's Guide to Growing Mariju-ana: Everything You Need to Start Growing Weed at Home, F+W Media, p. 23, 2014.

Revenue pales in comparison to costs to society Anticipated revenue from the taxation of marijuana will not come anywhere close to legal marijuana’s costs to society. While the legalization movement talks only about potential income, it never mentions the costs to society such as treatment, rehabilitation, counseling, accidents, enforcement, criminal violations, school sus-pensions, drop-outs, and other education deficits. Consider the economic reality of alcohol where the tax revenue collected from alcohol pales in comparison to the costs associated with it. It is clear that the social costs of legalizing marijuana would outweigh any possible tax that could be levied. A radical public policy change affecting everything from our budgets to our families to our health care, criminal justice, and education systems should—at a very minimum— come with serious estimations of income as well as costs. Guesswork in radical reform of public policy is bad public policy.

One ounce of marijuana (28 grams) 5 grams of THC oil = 500

servings of THC-laced candy

Total marijuana tax revenue (medical and recreational) for FY2015 comprises 0.7% of Colorado's total general fund revenue. SOURCE: Colorado Office of State Plan-

ning and Budgeting, June 2015 Forecast (11 months of data).

SOURCE: The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado: The Impact.

Vol. 3/Sept. 2015. *Preliminary numbers based on

June 2015 forecast.

More Teens Will Use Today, 77% more youth use alcohol than marijuana in Arizona. The CRMLA seeks to make marijuana like alcohol. Arizona has several criminal statutes on alcohol-related violations. In almost every compa-rable proposed statute as it relates to ma-rijuana (using a fake ID for example), the punishments are reduced, made less stringent than similar violations for alco-hol. The proposed marijuana law sends the signal to children, adolescents and young adults that it is less dangerous and less problematic to violate marijuana laws than alcohol laws. The 2014 Monitoring the Future Survey firmly establishes the link between legalization of marijuana and increased use.

The Law Will Give a Monopoly on Profits to Those Who Own Medi-cal Marijuana Dispensaries This proposed change in law is not a libertarian decriminaliza-tion law; it is a protectionist law serving existing medical mari-juana dispensaries. The industry wrote the law to give prefer-ence for marijuana sales licenses to those already in the indus-try; they also reserve several seats on the Marijuana Commis-sion for themselves. See ARS §36-2854(B) and §36-2853(C). This makes it likely that only those already in the medical mari-juana business will be able to appropriate retail licenses, bar-ring entry in the market to others.

PAID FOR BY ARIZONANS FOR RESPONSIBLE DRUG POLICY

Why Would We Want To Make Marijuana More Like Alcohol? Given all the damage alcohol does in our state, from adult abuse, violence and traffic accidents—to teen and ado-lescent use to liquor law violations, all of which are higher for alcohol than marijuana, why would we want to make marijuana more like alcohol?

Far More Arrests For Alcohol Offenses Than For Marijuana Possession

Prisoners For Marijuana Possession Are Less Than 1/2 of 1% of Total

Medicine is Never For Recreational Use

For more information:

Visit us on the web at ardp.org