Pubdate: Thu, 12 Mar 2015
Source: Tucson Weekly (AZ)
Contact:  2015 Tucson Weekly
Website: http://www.tucsonweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/462
Author: Mar=EDa Ines Taracena

TROUBLE IN POT PARADISE

The big issue now in the new marijuana
legalization initiative draft language is cultivation

Language allowing people to grow recreational
marijuana at their homes was completely scratched
from a new draft of the citizens' initiative we
might see on the 2016 ballot, making the
months-long collaboration between Safer Arizona
and the Marijuana Policy Project a bit rusty in recent days.

Up until this draft, dated Feb. 25, cultivation
rights were considered. Ten days prior, the
initiative said a person could grow up to six
plants and a household a total of 12. Some
dispensaries were concerned this might affect
their business, and, according to members of
Safer Arizona and other like-minded pot
advocates, this might have been a reason for removing that section.

"What happened is, the people who supposedly are
putting up the biggest amount of the funding for
this initiative, which are the dispensaries, have
decided they want complete control of the
industry," says Robert Clark, co-chairman of
Safer Arizona. "We have tried to work with them
to keep the cannabis community all working as
one, we have communicated them the issues that
are important and the main issue is called cultivation."

Clark said he was told by a Marijuana Policy
Project representative that they "are bound by
the highest bidder and that right now is the
Arizona Dispensary Association and law
enforcement 'types' as those critical financial
backers who threaten to pull funding if grow
rights are included in the initiative."

To Clark, this draft of the initiative resembles
more of a business model with strict taxation and
regulation. The licensing is limited. The fees,
up in the tens of thousands, will keep a lot of
people who planned to grow at bay.

Similarly to Prop 203, the 2010 Arizona Medical
Marijuana Act, this draft would establish
dispensaries as the sole option to purchase pot.

"The poorest among us have been disenfranchised,
we cannot afford our medicine and we can't grow
it," Clark says. "This initiative legalizes the
growing, production and sale for just a very few rich people."

As it's been the case with medical pot where
patients who can't afford, for instance, $350 an
ounce, continue to flood the black market, Clark
argues this current draft wouldn't address that
issue with recreational pot either. "We are going
to buy it the same way we have been since
prohibition started, from the black market," he says.

But all of this is still a work in progress. The
draft being discussed isn't what the Marijuana
Policy Project will file with election officials in coming months.

However, the group says the final initiative must
reflect what the citizens of a particular state
want. If most voters do not agree with
cultivation rights yet, then the initiative will
not include them so that the measure actually has a shot at passing.

"The question is not whether our organization
supports home cultivation .. we believe people
should be allowed to grow marijuana in their
homes," says Mason Tvert, communications director
for the Marijuana Policy Project. "If we decide
that including that will result in marijuana
prohibition remaining the law of the land for
several more years, we might choose to leave it
out and then pursue that once public opinion has shifted."

All Clark hears is, "bullshit."

He says this is the same excuse that was used
when the medical pot initiative was drafted.
Supporters were told that the only way the
measure could get out of the election cycle alive
was to prohibit users from growing the plant if
they lived within 25 miles of a dispensary.

This rule has helped dispensaries sell a lot of
pot, since most people live close to one. From
2013 to last year, dispensary sales nearly
tripled, according to the state's Department of Health Services.

"(The Marijuana Policy Project) says it is for
the people, but then they hire individuals out of
the dispensary industry to craft the language and
support other dispensaries, so that they can
continue to control the cannabis industry like
they have with the medical program," Clark says.

Tvert says this is a valid conversation to have.
But, ultimately, the primary goal right now is to
legalize pot once and for all so that responsible
adults can stop getting arrested and prosecuted
for marijuana possession. Other amenities can be added later.

"No measure has been filed for signatures yet, it
is premature to start talking about the subject,
there is certainly a reason to talk about it, we
know where some folks stand, we stand there too,
we think it should be included," he says. "But
the laws reflect what the voters want in Arizona."

Meanwhile, Safer Arizona is searching for plans
B, C and D in case the final initiative, which
Tvert says MPP still doesn't have a timeframe of
completion, does not reflect their and other stakeholders' needs.

On their website, Safer is calling on Arizona
voters to reach out to dispensary owners who
support home cultivation (last week Desert
Bloom's owner, Aari Ruben voiced her support) to
ensure some sort of growing rights make it in.

The talks with MPP will continue and both hope to find a middle ground.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom