Homeless in Arizona

I suspect the Phoenix New Times will lose a lot of money in display advertizing if the AZfrm initiative passes because marijuana will go from being a specialty item marketed by a cartel of 85 or so medical marijuana dispensaries to a generic commodity like tomatoes or potatoes sold by 1,600 retail recreational marijuana stores.

These 1,600 new recreational marijuana stores won't run the display ads that the cartel of 85 or so medical marijuana stores run every week in the Phoenix New Times.

On the other hand if the MPP initiative passes the size of the medical marijuana cartel in Arizona will double to include a recreational marijuana cartel with from 85 to 160 cartel members.

And of course those cartel members will probably continue to run display advertizing in the Phoenix New Times. And of course 85 of the new recreational marijuana cartel members will be the same as the 85 medical marijuana cartel members because the 85 or so medical marijuana cartel members get automatic membership in the recreational marijuana cartel.

Last the Phoenix New Times isn't just a local weekly Phoenix newspaper. They own weekly newspapers around the country that stand to benefit from MPP type cartels. That includes weekly newspapers in New York City (Village Voice), Los Angles, Westwood (part of Los Angeles), Orange County, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Miami, Palm Beach, Dallas, Houston and others.

Source

Arizona's Week in Weed: Legalization Measure Hits Milestone, Bill Montgomery Spreads Another Absurdity, and More

Monday, April 18, 2016 at 5:30 a.m. By Ray Stern

Arizona's Week in Weed: Legalization Measure Hits Milestone, Bill Montgomery Spreads Another Absurdity, and More

Arizona has marijuana on the brain — and no wonder: The state has one of the country's biggest medical-marijuana programs, it may approve an adult-use legalization initiative at the ballot in November, and it shares a border with one of the world's biggest producers of cannabis.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Arizona announced that it reached 200,000 signatures toward its goal.

But it's not yet time for a smoke-break: The group will continue to gather signatures until it reaches 225,000, far more than the roughly 150,000 it needs to put the legalization measure on November's ballot. That'll give a good cushion in case Republican Secretary of State Michele Reagan starts tossing out tens of thousands of petitions for alleged problems after the July 7 turn-in date.

The measure makes it legal to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, five grams, or six live plants without penalty, and sets up a system of retail stores where adults 21 and older would buy cannabis products.

Remember the sweet and cuddly U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency that earlier this month announced it would consider rescheduling marijuana from its current, absurd classification as a Schedule One drug? Yeah, well, last week the DEA was back to usual self with raids on dozens of homes and warehouses in Colorado for marijuana violations, causing pro-cannabis activists in Arizona and elsewhere to take huge notice.

In dramatic scenes that played out in numerous, quiet neighborhoods, cops and federal agents barged into homes and hauled people off in handcuffs. So much marijuana was confiscated that National Guard units were brought in to help. A National Guard truck was used to take away 300 plants found in one home.

What's going on, cannabis enthusiasts lamented on social media — didn't voters legalize marijuana in Colorado? The answer is that there are limits to the state's legalization program: 300 plants is far over the legal limit of six plants per person, with 12 maximum per household.

Authorities claim that, in at least in some of the cases, suspects from Texas bought homes in Colorado for the purpose of growing marijuana that would be shipped out of state.

* Arizonans for Mindful Regulation makes a "final plea" for volunteers and donations:

The scrappy, second-place marijuana-legalization campaign in Arizona doesn't have the financial muscle of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Arizona, but it claims to have collected more than 100,000 signatures so far. It made a "final plea" for volunteer signature-gatherers and donations last week, The campaign still needs to collect 120,000 signatures in the next three months.

Perhaps, it can be done. If so, voters will get to choose between the CRMLA initiative and the AZFMR measure, which provides for 10 times as many cannabis retail outlets, decriminalization for black-market dealers, and boosted protection from governmental interference with the law.

However, potential donors should realize that the group actively opposes the CRMLA and claims it'll ramp up its opposition if it doesn't make November's ballot. This means money given to AZFMR actually could help sink the chances of legalization in Arizona this year.

A day after the CRMLA announced it had reached 200,000 signatures, Bill Montgomery — a longtime foe of cannabis-law reforms — said at his weekly news conference that marijuana was behind the dramatic tripling of heroin deaths in the past few years. Following a video presentation featuring former heroin addicts, reports Channel 3 News (KTVK-TV), Montgomery said, "every single one of them, when they were discussing their own addiction or someone else's, referenced beginning with marijuana use."

The absurd "stepping-stone theory" is alive and well, it seems. Montgomery's take makes it seem like no one would try heroin if not for the evil weed. The county attorney's tried to draw this connection before: Last year, New Times noticed that in the middle of an anti-heroin public service announcement paid for with the public's money, Montgomery's video producers stuck an image of a bunch of normal-looking people smoking marijuana.

Whatever substance heroin addicts may have started with, the simple fact remains that the vast majority of cannabis users have never tried, much less become addicted, to heroin.

A military appropriations bill will contain a bipartisan amendment by U.S. Senators Steve Daines (R-Montana) and Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) that would allow Veterans Affairs doctors to discuss medical marijuana with patients as a possible option to treat various ailments.

Like other marijuana-related measures coming from Washington D.C. in the Barack Obama era, this one doesn't provide a long-term fix. It stops funds from being used to discourage doctors from talking to their patients about marijuana as a potential treatment and eases the minds of doctors who would like to recommend marijuana to some patients but have worried it might get them in trouble.

Veterans will just have to hope the bill gets renewed or that a new law that permanently protects their rights gets passed.