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Arizona:
Restoring
the
Will
of
the
Voters
11/6/98
In Arizona, voters reinstated a proposition that was gutted by the legislature after it was first approved at the ballot box in 1996. Originally Proposition 200, the initiative gave physicians the right to prescribe any drug, as long as they could show a second opinion and some medical evidence that it would benefit patients. Prop. 200 also eliminated jail sentences for persons convicted of first-time non-violent drug offenses. After the legislature gutted
the new law, The People Have Spoken, a group dedicated to preserving the
reforms that Arizonans had voted for, gathered over 200,000 signatures
to put the legislature's changes on the ballot in '98. These changes
to Prop. 200 were rejected this week, thus restoring the broadest reform
measure in the nation to its original terms. A companion initiative,
105, was also passed this week. Prop. 105 mandates that the legislature
now needs a 3/4 majority in order to make changes to voter-approved initiatives.
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