Unable to qualify for the ballot this year, organizers of one of the initiatives to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Arizona are now trying to kill the remaining measure.
There was originally only one plan— legalize and tax the ability of individuals to buy up to an ounce of marijuana. But Jason Medar of Arizonans for Mindful Regulation said his supporters wanted to reduce the penalties for those who found with up to eight ounces down to a misdemeanor.
That didn't fly with the other group, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which is backed by the national Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). Their measure keeps the felony penalties for anything over 2.5 ounces.
But for Medar, the real deal breaker was that the other measure caps the number of marijuana retail outlets allowed in the state at 160. "What it means in the long run is that in the MPP initiative, only the existing medical marijuana dispensaries are guaranteed to receive any of the recreational marijuana business licenses. Everybody else is S.O.L."
Medar's measure would have allowed for about 1,600 dispensaries. Short of signatures this year, Medar said Arizonans for Mindful Regulation plans to regroup for 2018. Meanwhile, he's forming a political committee to raise money to try to convince voters to defeat the other marijuana initiative which, with more than $1 million in donations, already has enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol declined to answer questions.