Homeless in Arizona

Prop 205 isn't about legalize marijuana because the marijuana laws are evil draconian laws.

Prop 205 is all about making billionaires out of the owners of the 85 or so medical marijuana dispensaries by giving them a second monopoly on growing and selling recreational marijuana. They already have a monopoly on growing medical marijuana in Arizona. Well almost a monopoly. With the evil 25 mile rule about 3% of the medical marijuana patients in Arizona are allowed to grow their own marijuana. The rest are forced to pay the $300+ an ounce price the medical marijuana cartel charges.

J.P. Holyoak says Prop 203 will

Curb the drug cartels

And of course all the crime associated with the marijuana black market will continue to exist, side by side with legal marijuana.

J.P. Holyoak gives us another line of BS and says Prop 203 will keep marijuana out of the hands of teenagers with this line of BS:

Keep pot out of teens' hands

For that matter most teenagers, would not be able to afford the $300 an ounce price of legal marijuana. No make that $370+ an ounce once the standard 8% sales tax, and 15% marijuana tax is throw in.

J.P. Holyoak is right on argument number 3.

Generate cash for Arizona

That is outrageous compared to the lousy 3% tax on tea which caused the Boston Tea Party and lead to the over throw the British government. Some people used the figure of 1.75 percent for the tax. I'm not sure which is correct.

If you are a marijuana users with an opinion on this I suggest that you send a letter to the Arizona Republic on this. Their email address is:

opinions@arizonarepublic.com

Source

My Turn: What marijuana legalization is really about

J.P. Holyoak, AZ I See It 4:53 p.m. MST August 10, 2016

Here are seven facts about Arizona's pot initiative including how the tax dollars will be divided between departments.

My Turn: A legitimate marijuana industry has many benefits, and we intend to highlight them with facts, not ideology.

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.

And we will highlight the economic benefits of a legitimate marijuana industry that creates jobs and generates tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue.

Goal 1: Curb the drug cartels

Illegal marijuana sales have enriched drug cartels and contributed to street violence for decades. This criminal market will dissipate once adults are able to purchase safe products in a safe environment. It has only been a few years since Colorado voted to regulate marijuana like alcohol, and according to a report in The Economist, state officials estimate licensed sales are already meeting 70 percent of demand, with legally home-grown marijuana covering much of the rest.

It appears to be having a significant impact on the cartels. The Mexican Competitiveness Institute estimated that passage of the Colorado law and similar measures in Washington and Oregon could cost the cartels as much as 30 percent of their earnings from U.S. marijuana trafficking.

Not surprisingly, Mexican and U.S. officials have been reporting fewer seizures of marijuana on the border, and there was a 31 percent drop in overall homicides in Mexico from 2011 to 2014.

Goal 2: Keep pot out of teens' hands

Another goal of our initiative is to keep marijuana out of the hands of teens, and there is no better way to do that than to take sales out of the underground market. It will never be possible to fully eliminate teen marijuana use, but it appears that regulation could reduce it.

In June, Colorado public-health officials announced that rates of teen marijuana use were actually slightly lower in 2015 than they were in 2011, the year before marijuana became legal for adults. They also came in below the national average that was reported earlier that month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Goal 3: Generate cash for Arizona

Although it is not the primary goal of the initiative, it is worth noting that it will generate some much-needed revenue for our state.

The Arizona Joint Legislative Budget Committee estimates it will produce more than $120 million in annual tax revenue within the first two years of implementation, including approximately $60 million per year for K-12 education. And by 2020, about $500 million in marijuana sales will be occurring in regulated stores rather than the underground market.

With so much money being taken out of the pockets of cartels and criminals, you would think they’d be lining up to oppose the initiative. Yet, for some reason, it is law-enforcement officials the likes of county attorneys Sheila Polk and Bill Montgomery who are leading the fight to keep the revenue flowing into the criminal market instead of state coffers.

This next few months, our campaign will engage these opponents and others in a robust debate. We will stick to the facts, and we hope our opponents won’t stray too far from them.

In either case, we are confident that the values our initiative represents — individual freedom, personal responsibility, common sense and the common good — will trump the antiquated ideology of marijuana prohibition.

J.P. Holyoak is the chairman of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol. Follow him on Twitter, @RegulateAz.

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Here are some of my arguments on why people that favor legalizing marijuana should vote against Prop 205

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As of Thursday, August 11, 2016 Proposition 205 or Prop 205 will be the official name given to the MPP or Marijuana Policy Project initiative to legalize marijuana.

I'm 100% for legalizing not only marijuana, but all drugs.

But I'm against Prop 205, which is the phoney baloney MPP or Marijuana Policy Project initiative to legalize recreational marijuana in Arizona because it's 99% about creating a monopoly on growing and selling recreational marijuana for the existing 85 medical marijuana dispensaries, by giving them a monopoly on recreational marijuana.

Yea, those are the same 85 or so medical marijuana dispensaries that financed the initiative with about $2.5 million dollars of their money.

Prop 205 or Proposition 205 is called the "Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol" or "CRMLA".

Prop 205 still allows people to be charged with felonies for numerous victimless marijuana crimes.

Prop 205 creates a new "marijuana police force" to arrest people for victimless marijuana crimes. And the folks at MPP want us to think they are "legalizing marijuana". What rubbish!!!

Under Prop 205 it is still a felony to possess more then 2.5 ounces of marijuana. It will be a misdemeanor to possess over 1 ounce of marijuana but less then 2.5 ounces.

It is still a felony under Prop 205 to possess more then 5 grams or a fifth of an ounce of concentrated marijuana.

Under Prop 205 it is still a felony to grow 7 marijuana plants for a single person.

It is still a felony under Prop 205 to grow 13 marijuana plants for a household.

Under Prop 205 city and county governments are allowed to ban growing of marijuana. And if city and county governments treat recreational marijuana with the same "Reefer Madness" attitude they have treated medical marijuana you can expect it to be illegal in most cities and counties in Arizona to grow recreational marijuana.

Marijuana lawyer Tom Dean says he thinks it should be a misdemeanor to illegally grow marijuana plants if they are banned. But I think he has also said that prosecutors may try to charge people will felonies for violating the ban.

Under Proposition 205 it's a felony to sell that unused marijuana you paid $300 an ounce for to a friend.

Proposition 205 slaps an outrageous 15% tax on marijuana sales. That is in addition to the current 8% or more sales tax you will pay on marijuana purchases. Remember the Boston Tea Party was over a lousy 1.75% tax on tea. [I have also seen a 3% figure for the Boston Tea Party tax]. Marijuana users will be paying around a 23% tax on marijuana when you combine the 15% marijuana tax, and the current sales tax of 8%.

If recreational marijuana sells for around $300 an ounce like medical marijuana does, you will be paying a tax of $70 for each ounce of marijuana you buy, bringing the total cost of an ounce of marijuana to around $370 an ounce.

Remember illegal black market marijuana sells for around around $50 to $100 an ounce. If legal recreational marijuana sells for $370 an ounce after taxes, the law will not end the crime associated with black market marijuana. In fact the law will allow illegal black market marijuana sellers to raise their prices, because legal marijuana will cost around 4 to 8 times what illegal black market marijuana costs.

Proposition 205 creates a new government bureaucracy to regulate marijuana, which is the "Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control". We don't need more government bureaucrats in Arizona.

Proposition 205 allows the owners of medical marijuana dispensaries to modify Prop 203 or Arizona's Medical Marijuana Act. Half of the members of the board will be owners of medical marijuana dispensaries, and half will be appointed government bureaucrats. Many people suspect that Prop 203 will be gutted to increase profits for the dispensaries. Like it is now being done in Washington and other states that have passed similar MPP laws.

The number of recreational marijuana stores in Arizona will be limited to a maximum of 160. That's one store for almost every 40,000 Arizona residents. That number is based on 10 percent of the series 9 liquor licenses. BUT the department doesn't have to issue all 160 licenses. They only have to give the existing 85 or so stores with medical marijuana licenses a recreational marijuana license. And I expect that is what will happen. If that is true there will be one marijuana store for every 80,000 Arizona residents.

Proposition 205 allows "Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control" to control "head shops" or "smoke shop", which means all the current "head shops" or "smoke shops" probably will be made illegal, and only the 85 or so stores which will be given a monopoly on selling recreational marijuana will be allowed to sell marijuana smoking accessories. If you own a "head shop" or "smoke shop" Prop 205 could drive you out of business.

Proposition 205 does NOT give automatic pardons to anyone convicted in the past of marijuana crimes, which would be legal under the law.

If you want to legalize marijuana the right way, sign the Safer Arizona 2018 petition to legalize marijuana when it comes out on November 9, 2016 and vote for it in the 2018 election.

And please vote no on the phoney baloney MPP initiative and tell these corporate whores they are not welcome in Arizona and send them back to Washington D.C. where they belong with all the other government crooks.