Pubdate: Thu, 22 Jan 2015
Source: Tucson Weekly (AZ)
Copyright: 2015 Tucson Weekly
Contact:  http://www.tucsonweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/462
Author: Maria Ines Taracena

TO POT OR NOT

A Primer on Two Marijuana Bills Making Their Way Through State Legislature

State Rep. Mark Cardenas, a second-term Democrat from the Phoenix 
area, introduced legislation to legalize recreational pot and another 
to decriminalize by reducing penalties for possession.

The first, House Bill 2007, would green light the purchase, 
consumption and possession of pot to adults 21 and older. You'd also 
be able to grow up to five plants for your smoking or eating 
purposes, but you can't smoke in public and you can't use a fake ID 
to purchase or sell to minors, among other regulations that are the 
same as how the state deals with alcohol.

And it would be similar to how the medical marijuana system functions 
already""everyone who qualifies could grow their own or go to a 
dispensary to buy it.

Similar to what is happening in Colorado, Washington state and 
Oregon, the revenue for the state would explode""this bill plans to 
tax marijuana at $50 per ounce.

The Arizona Department of Health Services would have the ability to 
adjust the tax rate annually "to account for inflation and deflation 
based on the consumer price." The Department of Revenue would 
distribute every three months revenues generated by these taxes, 
which would be broken down as follows: 30 percent to education; 10 
percent to health services for use in voluntary alcohol, tobacco and 
marijuana abuse treatment; 10 percent for the department to develop 
public education campaigns for youth and adults about the health and 
safe risks of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana; and the remaining 50 
percent would go to the state's general fund.

As the state faces a $1 billion deficit, and with Gov. Doug Ducey's 
plans to suck out millions and millions of dollars from the education 
fund to alleviate part of this shortfall, that revenue""which would 
be around $48 million according to a 2014 report by the Joint 
Legislative Budget Committee""might be what determines the fate of that bill.

Also, a bill signed into law would be much easier to go back to and 
change in the future if needed. Even groups like Safer Arizona, who 
are crusading to get a citizens initiative to legalize pot in 2016, 
argue an initiative is harder to change later""proposed adjustments 
are required to be approved by 75 percent of the state Legislature.

Mikel Weisser, political liaison for Safer Arizona and former 
Democratic candidate in Arizona's Congressional District 4 (he lost 
to Republican incumbent Paul Gosar last year), along with other Safer 
members and marijuana advocates, has been at the state Capitol since 
the 2015 legislative session began last week, meeting with lawmakers, 
like Cardenas, who support the legalization of marijuana, as well as 
trying to attract more legislative followers.

He says another bill he's excited about is HB 2006 (also introduced 
by Cardenas), which would amend a section in the state penal code 
dealing with marijuana arrests and convictions.

"Cardenas introduced a similar bill in the 2014 legislative session, 
which would have made it harder for an average marijuana user to get 
charged with a felony. That bill didn't get a hearing," Weisser says.

In simple terms, the bill would establish lesser punishments for 
possession of marijuana. Right now in Arizona, if you have less than 
two pounds of pot, depending on what you were planning to do with it, 
it all leads to felony charges.

"When you have 16,000 people a year who have their employment ability 
tarnished by a felony arrest, you are essentially dooming them," 
Weisser says. "If these people can't feed their families, because 
they lost their earning power, they end up with government 
assistance." Quite simply, putting average people away over pot 
possessions and marking them with that scarlet letter, it ends up 
becoming a burden to tax payers.

With this bill, for instance, if you are found with one ounce of pot, 
it'd be considered a petty offense; if you're found with two pounds 
or more with intent to sell, the class 4 felony would become a class 
3 misdemeanor.

Weisser says there are a few other rumored marijuana-related bills 
that haven't been filed yet. And, as of last Thursday, neither one of 
Cardenas' bills had more than one sponsor.

"They don't have to have a bunch of sponsors, but the bills that 
everybody wants to jump in the bandwagon with have a much easier time 
than bills that are floating out there on their own," Weisser says.

The next step is for the bills to be assigned to a committee and be 
given a hearing.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom