Proposition 205, which would legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Arizona, is spurring some local business and community members to question how they will be impacted if it passes.
Greg Centrone is the co-owner of Bud’s Glass Joint, a shop that sells glass pipes and tobacco products in downtown Phoenix. He said he opposes the November ballot initiative because of the power the proposed regulatory body will have over his sales. According to the initiative, a commission of seven members selected by the governor will be in charge of enforcing regulation.
“That panel can come in and regulate the way that we sell marijuana-related products, so they can zone our establishment and tell us we can’t be here — we have to be in a certain zone,” Centrone said.
The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol is the committee that submitted Proposition 205, along with the necessary signatures. The group supports legalization in order to avoid a policy of prohibition it claims is failed.
“Prohibition has never worked in the United States,” Barrett Marson, spokesperson for the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol, said. “Marijuana today is readily available.”
If Proposition 205 passes, it would make it legal for people 21 years and older to use, possess, manufacture, give away or transport up to one ounce of marijuana and grow up to six marijuana plants. It would also impose a 15 percent tax upon the sale of marijuana and marijuana products.
Though recreational marijuana use would be legal, Marson said businesses will retain the right to maintain a drug-free workplace, meaning employers can still fire employees who legally use marijuana.
Arizonans for Responsible Drug Use, a group opposing Proposition 205, take the position that because the initiative would make it so possession or use of marijuana “may not be used as the basis for penalty,” employers would be unable to discipline or condition employment offers off of drug tests on marijuana or its metabolites.
Marson said one benefit of the legalization of recreational marijuana is the tax revenue. The taxes collected will be used to fund public education and public health.
If Proposition 205 passes, it is projected to bring in $135.4 million in tax revenues by 2020. An estimated $86 million will go towards K-12 education and full-day kindergarten programs each year, according to the fiscal note provided by the Arizona Joint Legislative Budget Committee.
Safer Arizona is another group that supports the legalization of recreational marijuana, but does not agree with how Proposition 205 plans to go about regulation.
Chairman of Safer Arizona David Wisniewski said he believes there will be a discrepancy between the supply and demand of marijuana in Arizona if the initiative passes. According to Wisniewski, Arizona has 1.4 million more people than Colorado, but will have only 150 dispensary licenses compared to 900 in Colorado.
“Our attorney is predicting that with the artificial choke on the market, the dispensaries won’t even come close to accommodating the demands, which will cause the black market to explode,” Wisniewski said.
Regardless of Proposition 205 passing or not, Safer Arizona will begin collecting signatures immediately after Election Day to get a new legalization initiative on the ballot in 2018, according to the group’s website.
“That law [Proposition 205] is so bad, we are forced to file an initiative that repeals it in 2018 and replaces it with total legalization and decriminalization,” Wisniewski said. “People can vote yes on it, but even if they vote yes on it, we intend to take it down and replace it with the real deal in our 2018 campaign.”
Contact the reporter at Nathaniel.Thrash@asu.edu.
