Leaders of the campaigns for and against the statewide proposition to legalize recreational marijuana use in Arizona appeared at a Yuma forum Tuesday to make their cases to an audience of about 30.

The faceoff was sponsored by the Yuma County Chamber of Commerce, which has found itself split on the question of Proposition 205, Executive Director John Courtis said at the beginning of the two-hour session, though the statewide Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a major funder of the campaign against it.

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Advocates and opponents of this November's state ballot initiative to legalize non-medical marijuana use will present what they see as the pros and cons of Prop 205 at a forum today in Yuma.

The event will be from 3 to 5 p.m. in the auditorium at the Yuma Heritage Library, 350 S. 3rd Ave. Admission is free for the event, sponsored by the Yuma County Chamber of Commerce. Seating is restricted to the first 100 attendees. Chamber Executive Director John Courtis said he was contacted by representatives of Arizonans for a Responsible Drug Policy, which is against the legalization measure, a couple of weeks ago about the possibility of hosting a presentation of its platform. Chamber board members advised him to find someone to represent legalization proponents.

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PHOENIX - A judge has thrown out a bid to keep voters from deciding whether to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.

In a ruling Friday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jo Lynn Gentry said when state lawmakers altered the election code last year they eliminated - perhaps inadvertently - the ability of individual citizens to sue to keep initiative measures off the ballot. And she said lawmakers failed to restore that right anywhere else.

"Thus, whether wittingly or not, the legislatures eliminated a means by which initiative petitions can be challenged," Gentry wrote.

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You would be forgiven for not recognizing the nondescript brick warehouse in Phoenix's Grand Avenue industrial district as the site of a high-tech agricultural facility.

But as soon as you step inside, the smell of hundreds of marijuana plants is overwhelming. As you make your way through the small rooms that line the main hallway, you can hear the whoosh of ventilation fans and the gentle hum of huge artificial lights suspended above a lush green canopy of leaves. Reggae, old-school hip-hop, and pop-punk blare from a portable speaker as a crew of 30 or so workers trim, water, and inspect the all-female crop of cannabis plants casually known as "the ladies."

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If Trump wins, some of us will need it.

If Clinton wins, some of us will need it.

And since none of us knows for sure how the election in November will go, we ALL need to vote for ... legalizing marijuana.

Stop the presses! Finally, something we agree on.

The signatures are in and have been validated. Arizona voters will get to decide whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use at the same time we choose between Donald or Hillary. At least, we'll get to make that decision if the agents of fear, who want to steal your right to vote, don't prevail in court.

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Some locals are not okay with treating a joint like a bottle of gin

Prop 205, which would decriminalize the use of marijuana for adults over 21, is a complex proposal.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol officially met the signature requirement to be included on the November ballot. However, the initiative could be blocked by a pending court case, which had its first hearing last Friday.

The suit was filed by Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, which would more adequately be named Arizonan's for Anti-Drug Policy or, as their website says, "Arizonans Against Recreational Marijuana."

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Arizona voters are poised to decide whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

State officials notified the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol that it submitted enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. The secretary of state is expected to certify the petition Thursday, according to spokesman Matt Roberts. The initiative will appear as Proposition 205.

But the campaign faces another hurdle: Marijuana-legalization foes are asking a Maricopa County Superior Court judge to toss the initiative from the ballot. In a lawsuit, opponents argue marijuana-legalization backers are deceiving voters in how they are pitching the measure. The lawsuit, brought by 13 individuals and groups, is scheduled for hearings on Friday.

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Last summer, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol set out to place an initiative on the presidential election ballot that would end the failed policy of marijuana prohibition in Arizona. Now that it is poised to qualify, our campaign begins in earnest.

Over the next few months, we will inform voters about the many benefits of replacing the criminal market with a tightly controlled legal market.

We will detail the public-safety benefits of moving marijuana production and sales out of basements and back alleys and into secured facilities. We will describe the public-health benefits of replacing illegal dealers with licensed stores that test and label products, ask customers for ID, and only sell to adults.

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How did MJ get on same schedule as heroin?

For nearly a century officials have touted the dangers of marijuana. Many of us can dip into the memory banks to find attempts of officers visiting our classrooms to enlighten us on how drugs would ruin our lives.

The common narrative was that we'd get arrested and go to jail as they conveniently overlooked the fact that the only danger came from the legal system rather than the plant itself.

Predictably and perhaps ironically, the DARE program didn't deter as many young minds from experimenting with marijuana as it intended. According to a Pew Research poll, nearly half of Americans have tried marijuana at least once.

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The Legal Synthetic 'Weed' That Kills

As any republican with truly conservative beliefs will tell you, government intervention leads to negative consequences. In the case of prohibition, it leads to black markets that, without the option of regulation, create more harmful scenarios than their potentially legal analogues.

There is perhaps no greater example of this in our current events than that of marijuana prohibition and the consequent market for a dangerous synthetic called "spice."

It's the same argument the right often uses to keep their fingers tightly wrapped around the triggers of their beloved assault rifles: "If you make it illegal, then only criminals will have them leaving law-abiding Americans in a dangerous situation."

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At root, the debate about legalizing marijuana is a philosophical one dating to the Enlightenment. It pits the individual natural rights philosophy of John Locke (16321704) against the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). Locke believed that individuals had an innate right to liberty, which was the building block of civil society. Individuals entered into a social contract to form governments and give them power. But power to protect their liberty against the predations of others.

From the Lockean perspective in the modern era, getting high by ingesting weed isn't predatory behavior against anyone else. So, government has no right to deprive a person of liberty for using marijuana.

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From Marijuana Strains to Blows on Big Pharma

Best Trains for productivity

We often hear about marijuan being great for increasing appetite, sex drive, and helping us sleep better. These things are amazing, but sometimes what is really need is a kick to make us more active and get more done. Here are a few marijuana strains that help people become more active and get more done during the day.

Jack Herer

This sativa is unique, as it combines a strong body high with a cerebral high. This means you can feel great and comfortable sitting at your desk, or going for that morning jog you've been meaning to take, while also producing a ton of great ideas. Your mind will be moving a mile a minute as you work, all while you maintain a relaxed demeanor. It also does wonders for boosting creativity.

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It seems the grass-roots campaign to legalize weed in Arizona is more grass than roots.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol has raised $2.2 million - nearly four times the $638,000 raised by opponents.

The vast majority of that was put up by either the national pot lobby or medical-marijuana dispensaries, which stand to corner the lucrative market should voters legalize recreational marijuana.

Yet just last month, the campaign chairman talked of its "broad coalition of contributors."

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The Leibsohn/Polk Op-Ed column ("Recreational marijuana? The price is too high") states in part that under the initiative to legalize marijuana "showing up for work impaired by marijuana would be shielded from discipline until the commission of an act of negligence or malpractice" and "any driver with a blood alcohol content over 0.08 percent is legally drunk. The Arizona law would prohibit a THC limit from ever being set."

The petition text published on the initiative website states, "This chapter does not require an employer to allow or accommodate the possession or consumption of marijuana or marijuana products in the workplace and does not affect the ability of employers to ... enforce workplace policies restricting the consumption of marijuana ... by employees."

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After all the police shootings, only the Libertarian Party provided a viable solution:

"If we truly want to reduce situations in which police are pitted against the people they are sworn to protect, we would end the war on drugs. The constant escalation of prohibitionist policies have increasingly pitted police and citizens against each other for decades and are largely responsible for the militarization of police forces across America.

"Ending the violence means ending the policies that lead to black and gray markets, the highest incarceration rate in the world, and reduced economic opportunities in the formal labor market for huge swaths of Americans. Ending the violence means ending the war on drugs.

"Ending the drug war will do more to heal the divide between police and citizens than any other measure. It is the best way to save lives: both those of innocent police officers and innocent citizens."

- - Dr. Richard W. Morris, Phoenix

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Three things that are dead-solid-perfect guaranteed to be Dead On Arrival:

The book "The Wit and Wisdom of Melania Trump"

Arizona's marijuana legalization initiative that appears to have been written by a committee of stoners while binge-watching a Cheech and Chong Film Festival.

My personal choices involving drugs and alcohol have not changed, nor will they ever. I will go my entire life without ever having tasted alcohol or using any drugs. But please know that I sincerely believe that my choices don't make me better than anybody else; they just make me different. And maybe more boring.

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Opponents of a ballot initiative that seeks to ask voters to legalize recreational marijuana for adults filed a lawsuit on July 11 to keep the measure off the November ballot, citing that the would-be law misleads voters in its petition summaries concerning how many of Arizona's laws it would affect.

The lawsuit mainly takes issue with a number of Arizona laws that would be affected with its passage, stating "the Initiative's operative provisions embrace far too many subjects than allowed for a single ballot initiative."

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PHOENIX - A judge will hear arguments Aug. 12 over whether Arizonans will be allowed to vote on whether they want to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

At a hearing Tuesday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jo Lynn Gentry gave backers of the initiative two weeks to respond to charges by foes that the wording of the measure is legally flawed and cannot be placed on the November ballot. Attorney Brett Johnson, who represents challengers, contends the proposal is basically a fraud on voters.

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An attorney defending from a court challenge an Arizona citizen's initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana is calling the attempt to keep the proposal off the ballot a "Hail Mary" effort by opponents of legal pot.

Attorney Kory Langhofer said Tuesday that the lawsuit filed by 13 individuals and groups including Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery and Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk is likely to fail because opponents are on thin legal ground.

"I'm very bullish on this lawsuit," Langhofer said. "The bottom line here is the opponents of this initiative have to make a Hail Mary pass to keep it off the ballot because voters are pretty likely to support this initiative if they ever get a chance to express that."

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Why must it always come down to money? It is obvious from much that has been printed regarding the legalization of marijuana in Arizona that the negative effects of pot far outweigh any benefits.

People can clamor that it will decrease crimes related to drug trafficking, etc. and perhaps that is so to a degree, but what about the effects its use will have on our teenagers and others? You can bet they will be using it in greater amounts than they do now with many untoward side effects.

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