A vote for recreational marijuana will not happen. At least not in 2018.
Not for Arizonans.
Supporters of the Safer Arizona Cannabis Legalization Act could only muster roughly 70,000 signatures of the required 150,642 to get on the ballot.
Some Arizonans are disappointed. Some are surprised.
Recreational marijuana has been winning in places like Colorado, Washington State and California. But in Arizona it has stopped dead the last two election cycles. Does this signal some shift in attitudes here? Have Arizonans given up?
Probably not.
Most still support legalization
Roughly 61 percent of Americans support marijuana legalization, according to a 2018 Pew Research survey.
The issue doesn’t cut cleanly left or right. Even in 1996 when Arizona was more conservative than today, it legalized medical marijuana, only to repeal it a few months later.
Then in 2010, Arizona decisively passed Proposition 203 to legalize medical cannabis and locked it into law with the Voter Protection Act of 1998.
However, the movement to legalize non-medical use has met hurdles from the very beginning. Most recently, in 2017, Proposition 205 was rejected by Arizona voters, but only by 2.6 percent of the vote.
Prop. 205, which proposed legal possession and use for adults 21 and older, would have set up a system of licensed dispensaries. Revenue from taxes would have funded regulation and licensing operations, with any excess going to education and substance-abuse programs.
It also would have permitted up to an ounce of buds, five grams of concentrates or six plants growing at a time.
There was strong opposition to Prop. 205 at the time. Had it been approved, it would have been difficult to reform due to voter protection. It would have been virtually untouchable.
2018 effort would have been a free-for-all
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Still, while Prop. 205 was struck down, the hairline divide between yay and naysayers seemed to indicate hope for the grassroots initiative.
The Safer Arizona Cannabis Legalization Act was even more expansive than Prop. 205, calling not only for unlimited possession but nearly unlimited cultivation by people and businesses.
History is marching toward the eventual relaxation of marijuana laws. Joining California, Washington and Colorado are Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington, D.C. The world also seems to have relaxed its position on pot.
Nothing is a slam dunk. And a successful campaign to legalize marijuana in Arizona will require thoughtful strategy and campaigning. For two cycles now, legalization efforts have failed here despite the fact that Arizona was an early convert to medical marijuana.
Grassroots groups and established dispensaries will need to collaborate more effectively to finally win passage of recreational pot.
Credit: www.azcentral.com
