But just because JP Holyoak makes his money by selling medical marijuana doesn't mean he is a good guy either.
In my opinion, JP Holyoak is a evil person just like Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery.
JP Holyoak is using the government to rip off users of marijuana by getting a government monopoly which allows him to sell marijuana at $4,800 a pound or $300 an ounce to sick people. Marijuana that would normally cost just a few dollars a pound if it was 100% legal for everybody.
And for that reason I consider JP Holyoak to be an evil person, just like Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery.
JP Holyoak wants to continue to rip off users of recreational marijuana by supporting the MPP initiative which will give the 85 or so medical marijuana dispensaries a new monopoly on selling recreational marijuana. I believe that JP Holyoak has one of those medical marijuana dispensaries, which will get a recreational marijuana license if the MPP law is passed.
It's kind of ironic that JP Holyoak and the folks at MPP have stolen the Safer Arizona and AZfrm or Arizonans For Mindful Regulation logo that "Marijuana is safer then alcohol".
Arizona Marijuana Legalization Campaign Says Bill Montgomery Took Booze Cash
Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 8:14 a.m.
By Ray Stern
Backers of an Arizona marijuana-legalization initiative blasted pot-prohibitionist Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery for taking alcohol-industry cash.
If Montgomery can't prove marijuana's more harmful than booze, Holyoak said, he ought to return the donations he's received recently from executives at Hensley and Company and Crescent Crown Distribution.
The campaign aims to put a ballot initiative before voters in November that would allow adults 21 and older to possess and grow small amounts of marijuana for personal use. It also calls for allowing current medical-marijuana dispensaries — plus a few dozen other businesses — to sell marijuana products.
Montgomery's been one of the most vocal opponents of the proposed law and claims that marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol
"Our campaign is calling on Bill Montgomery: Either prove alcohol isn't more dangerous or return the money from the alcohol industry," Holyoak said Wednesday, standing with the oversized check in front of the county administration building at Third Avenue and Jefferson Street.
Our campaign is calling on Bill Montgomery: Either prove alcohol isn't more dangerous or return the money from the alcohol industry.
Holyoak said he's not attacking alcohol or its industry, but only hypocrisy.
"We know marijuana is objectively safer," he said. "I'm not suggesting we go back to the days of Prohibition, but current prohibition makes less sense."
The campaign released Montgomery's February 1 campaign-finance report to New Times, which shows that he took the contributions from Andy McCain, Robert Delgado, and Douglas Yonko of Hensley, and James Moffett Jr. of Crescent Crown.
After the brief presentation, Holyoak and CRMLA campaign manager Adam Kinsey entered the building, followed by reporters, to try to give the check to Montgomery. Several security officers showed up to keep watch. After taking the elevator to the eighth floor, Holyoak took the check to the county attorney's front reception desk. John Dorsey, an investigator with the office, emerged to talk to Holyoak. He wouldn't take Holyoak's check.
Reached on Wednesday afternoon, Montgomery denied that he took donations from the "alcohol industry" but added he "quite possibly" accepted donations from friends or other people who may work in the beer or wine industry.
He pointed out that regardless of the donations, he was opposed to legalizing marijuana long before the current campaign cycle, adding that, "They're just blowing smoke."
If anything's hypocritical, he said, it's the way dispensary owners are pushing an initiative that gives them exclusive rights to the first recreational-use licenses.
"Crony capitalism through the ballot box," he called it.
Whatever the truth about legalized marijuana, Montgomery's statements must be juxtaposed by the fact that his office prosecutes thousands of low-level marijuana offenders each year.
Prove Marijuana Is More Harmful Than Alcohol or Return Alcohol Industry Campaign Contributions
SourceTo Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery: Prove Marijuana Is More Harmful Than Alcohol or Return Alcohol Industry Campaign Contributions refund
Posted By: Will Snyder, Publisher April 6, 2016
PHOENIX — Backers of a proposed ballot initiative to end marijuana prohibition in Arizona will issue a challenge Wednesday to Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery. The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol is calling on Montgomery — who says marijuana is too dangerous to regulate for adult use — to either prove marijuana is more harmful than alcohol or return campaign contributions he received from members of the alcohol industry last year.
“We are tired of seeing Mr. Montgomery demonize marijuana”The CRMLA will hold a news conference TODAY at 12 p.m. MST in front of the Maricopa County Administration Building (301 W. Jefferson St.), where the county attorney’s office is located. They will provide him with a jumbo-sized refund check for $8,050 from his campaign committee, Montgomery 2016, to his “alcohol industry contributors.” Montgomery 2016 received at least $8,050 in contributions from members of the alcohol industry in 2015, according to campaign finance reports.
“Mr. Montgomery’s public statements about our initiative indicate that he feels like marijuana should remain illegal because of its potential harms,” said CRMLA chairman J.P. Holyoak. “Yet marijuana is far less harmful than alcohol by every objective measure, and he accepts campaign contributions from people who distribute alcohol.”
Specifically, the CRMLA is challenging Montgomery to disprove the following three statements by the end of April, which is nationally recognized as Alcohol Awareness Month:
Alcohol is significantly more toxic than marijuana, making death by overdose far more likely with alcohol.More information regarding the relative harms of marijuana and alcohol is available here.The health effects from alcohol consumption cause tens of thousands of more deaths in the U.S. annually than the health effects from the consumption of marijuana.
The use of alcohol is more likely to be a contributing factor in acts of violence than the use of marijuana.
“We are tired of seeing Mr. Montgomery demonize marijuana, so we are simply challenging him to prove that it is more harmful than alcohol,” Holyoak said. “If he is unable to do so, we are calling on him to return the campaign contributions he has received from members of the alcohol industry.
“We are not attacking alcohol, alcohol consumers, or even alcohol distributors,” Holyoak said. “We are attacking Mr. Montgomery’s hypocrisy for accepting alcohol-related campaign contributions while advocating for the continued punishment of adults who prefer to use a less harmful substance.”
WHAT: News conference to issue Alcohol Awareness Month challenge to Maricopa County Attorney Bill MontgomeryWHEN: Wednesday, April 6, 12 p.m. MST
WHERE: In front of the Maricopa County Administration Building, 301 W. Jefferson St., Phoenix
WHO: J.P. Holyoak, campaign chairman, Campaign staff