Homeless in Arizona

Laurie Roberts also admits that she is a prohibitionist and wants to keep marijuana illegal.

Yesterday I read the lawsuit, and I suspect they are right in two areas.

1) The MPP initiative seems to be in violation of the gift clause in the Arizona Constitution because it gives the 85 or so medical marijuana dispensaries a monopoly on growing and selling recreational marijuana.

Yea, the same dispensaries that financed the initiative.

2) It seems to address more then one subject which is also a violation of the Arizona Constitution. I know a Libertarian initiative that John Buttrick wrote maybe 15 years ago got ruled unconstitutional on this. John Buttrick even warned the people about it, but they didn't take his advice.

John Buttrick is the only Libertarian judge in Arizona. I think he was appointed by Jane Hull.

Source

Roberts: Pot opponents slap voters in face

Laurie Roberts, The Republic | azcentral.com 11 a.m. MST July 12, 2016

Opponents of legalizing the recreational use of marijuana in Arizona are suing in hopes of keeping the proposal off the November ballot.

Put another way, opponents of legalizing weed don’t trust Arizona voters to do the right thing.

So their play is to run to court to make sure you never get that chance.

Consider yourself slapped, whether or not you support legalizing marijuana,

In Arizona, we have a constitutional right to make laws by voter initiative. (Or to veto laws by referendum as is underway now in an effort to stop our leaders from opening the floodgates to even more dark money in this state.)

The people who started this state made sure of it.

Now the people who have organized to fight legalizing weed are trying to strip you of that right.

In its lawsuit, the group claims the initiative’s summary – the one made available to people signing petitions – is misleading because it doesn’t adequately explain everything the initiative does.

As if you could explain everything this 38-page initiative does in the 100 words allowed by Arizona law.

Courts have ruled that not every provision of the measure must be covered in those 100 words.

Still opponents, including Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery and Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk, believe the initiative is flawed. And now only that, they say, it unconstitutionally allows existing medical marijuana dispensaries the first shot at opening the limited number of marijuana stores that initially would be allowed.

Indeed, it does give dibs to the current pot lobby.

Of course, it gives dibs to the current pot lobby. There is, after all, money to be made and it’s the pot lobby’s initiative.

Did you think the owners of the medical marijuana dispensaries were going to allow others to muscle in on the action?

It may well be a violation of the gift clause in the state Constitution.

But those are arguments to be made during the campaign, or after the proposition becomes law – if the proposition becomes law.

I don’t think we should legalize marijuana, or that we will.

Not until there’s a definitive study that says it’s not harmful to kids. Not until we’ve seen the long-term effects in Colorado and the three other states that have legalized recreational use of marijuana.

But that’s not Bill Montgomery’s call.

It’s our call. It became so the minute 258,582 Arizonans signed petitions to put it on the ballot.