Safer Arizona, a grassroots marijuana legalization political action committee in Arizona, is filing a marijuana legalization ballot initiative on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. The group will have until July 2018 to collect the necessary 152,000 signatures to get their initiative onto the November 2018 ballot.
David Wisniewski, chairman of Safer Arizona, told AZmarijuana.com: “We are pumped up and more prepared than ever. This campaign we are starting off with over 300 volunteers signed up and waiting to collect signatures. We have enough paper to print 65,000 signatures of the 152,000 signatures needed and thousands of dollars to ship petitions to volunteers. We believe we are going to be successful at getting on the 2018 election ballot.”
Some of the main points of the initiative include:
- Adults ages 21 and older would be permitted to transport, use and possess marijuana
- Allowing for homegrowing of up to 48 plants before agricultural regulations are enforced requiring Transaction Privilege Tax Licensing
- Removing any and all criminal penalties associated with prohibition of marijuana
- Leftover marijuana violations would be handled with fines instead of criminal offenses
- Protections for marijuana user that want to own a gun(s)
- Free market system where licensed businesses will be permitted to sell marijuana and marijuana-infused products
- Sales tax guidelines, along with allocations of tax dollars for education
- Marijuana would be classified under the Department of Agriculture for regulation
- Prohibits Arizona from reinstating marijuana prohibition
- Protects parental custody in cases where children are taken from parents for marijuana use
- Prior conviction reprieve for prior marijuana-related offenses
View the entire Safer Arizona Cannabis Legalization Act