Medical Marijuana: Arizona Initiative Appears Headed for November Ballot

This is good news! I look forward to voting "YES" in November.

The AZ initiative is the first MPP sponsored Medical Marijuana Inititive to essentially prohibit self cultivation if you live more than 25 miles from a dispensary. We need to put MPP out of business. What a bunch of idiots:

http://www.newagecitizen.com/MERP/RelegalizeNowObama36.htm

If you end up on a jury where someone is being charged with cultivation, say not guilty. That is unless they were giving pot to children or driving around stoned and running into things.

Very few jurists realize that they can interpret the laws themselves and decide whether they are just or not.

Judges can tell a jurist to consider or not consider anything they want but jurists have the discretion to make the final decisions themselves.

that in our (my) happiness over recent (news & bills), however small, the desire to jump at any prospect of change is unwise. Take caution. For real change, take care and read everything written in the clause. No going from the fire to the frying pan. Free the world.

I can understand debunking a crank with the facts, I can't understand threats to censor him. If MERP is unrealistic or even a joke, fine. But banning him from the site for expressing his views? Please explain in more detail. Thanks.

Thanks for asking. First, we have a policy against use of the site to attack reform groups. Constructive discussion is fine, and I made an exception allowed Bruce's initial diatribes to stay online because there is a legitimate discussion to be had on issues relating to personal cultivation and other matters that come up when regulations or laws get written. But Bruce is a repeat violator of our rule against use of our forums to attack and tear down reform groups.

Second, because Bruce twists facts such a large percentage of the time that he posts, and because he does so very often, it's not practical for me to debunk him each time. I would have to do so over and over -- and over and over and over -- and I don't have the time. So I have no other practical means available to prevent Bruce from spreading negative misinformation about the efforts of our movement than to delete his posts, at least most of the time.

Third, at a certain point the kind of posts that Bruce makes just has the effect of lowering the overall quality of discussion, which ends up reducing participation by others.

Those are the reasons. In the new version of our site, hopefully going online before the summer, a set of guidelines will be published and made readily available to anyone who follows the comment boards. As for Bruce and MERP, if his approach were simply to mention and link to MERP every now and then, and make his case in a positive way as to why he thinks MERP is the way to go, there would be no issue with that at all. Better yet would be for him to get out and be a foot soldier in the important works going on in his state of Michigan, something I think he used to do. But this has all been pointed out to him repeatedly, to no avail, so I'm not holding my breath waiting.

David Borden, Executive Director
StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network
Washington, DC
http://stopthedrugwar.org

Does anyone know where the AZ dispensaries will get the product? For example, in CA an individual can get a permit from the state to grow a certain amount, which they provide to the dispensaries.

I'm an Arizona probation officer and a retired California police officer currently residing in California (border community). I am, of course, speaking on my own behalf and not for my employer or the State of Arizona and the court system.

I'm disappointed in the provision within this initiative that requires patients who live within 25 miles of a dispensary to acquire (purchase) their medicine from a dispensary rather than being afforded the opportunity to cultivate their own medicine. It unfairly discriminates against the poor and/or infirm and as such I find it to be incredibly lacking as it relates to the needs and welfare of those the creators of the initiative seek to assist.

Nonetheless, the initiative does represent a degree of progress particularly considering the extremely conservative nature of Arizona politics at this time.

My best wishes to the citizens of Arizona; whether you ingest cannabis or not. We in California haven’t exactly worked out the problems within our own medical cannabis initiative even after over ten years of having passed our own legislation. Good luck to all of you but I think it would be better for you if you were to get it closer to right the first time!

I feel like this language regarding the 25 mile "no grow" radius is an attempt to chase phantom conservative votes that will never be obtained anyway. Much like the culling of the Public Option from the health-care bill which resulted in 0 conservative votes.

Medical marijuana will finally be an option but now I might have to travel ~50 miles round trip and pay a ridiculous amount of money compared to just growing it on my own - /facepalm

Well, as someone who suffers from congenital Glauk Coma, I am glad to finally see this thingh go up for voting. I have been a "Stoner," for eight years, and do to the substince, I have seen first hand the changes. It has decreased my eye pressure to the point that what little vission I still have is maintained. Even both my physission and Glauk Coma specialest have erged me to keep smoking and injesting because of the positave affect it has had for me.
My only issue with this is the cost. Granted it would be legal, but would insurance companies pick up the cost. After all, would it not be considered a medical drug at that point, also, my screan ready was unable to work with the document that the bill was written in, so I'm going out on a limb here, but, what kind of restrictions are we going to see elsewhere as fare as drug management.
My biggest issue though, is why don't they just legalise it out right. People are going to go through great langthes to aquire it, so why not make Weed legal for everyone. Maybe if this bill is passed, it could be something else to consider five or ten years down the road.
I appologise for my messed up spelling, I haven't slepped for a few days do to a cold and don't feel like spell check right now. So until November, may we all quallify and vote.... Happy smoking everyone... lol

What is the question number we will answer to vote "YES"? I know the more popular issues (like this one) have been assigned a question number, I'd like to make signs and t-shirts asking ppl to vote "YES on question ___"

Is it too early to tell yet?

Last Friday, May 14th, I called the Sec'y. of State's office and spoke to a helpful lady there. She explained the Sec.of State has 20 working days to do what they do with the sigs, then they send the sigs to each county. Each county has 15 working days to finish whatever they do to the sigs. Soooo, the sigs have all been sent out to each county, starting earlier this month. Maricopa and Pima counties should be back by now. So someone who has access to these numbers would be able to project from the results from AZ's two biggest counties. Her best estimate of a final count of the sigs and the question of qualifying for the ballot is by mid-June. She said a spokesperson for the Sec'y.of State's office will communicate the results to media friends and they will announce to all of the media.
I'm concerned as to how the government will once again thwart the will of the people this time. That's the greatest danger, in my opinion.