House Concurrent Resolution 2045, introduced by Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, seeks to limit medical marijuana to 2% THC and require cigarette-like warning labels be added on all medical marijuana products.
HCR 2045 would also require that the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) research unsubstantiated links between cannabis use, schizophrenia and violence, Phoenix New Times reported.
“Not everybody’s going to become paranoid schizophrenic and act out violently, but a lot of people are,” Bowers claimed.
Bowers isn’t an expert on cannabis by any means–he just happened to have read a Reefer Madness-touting book recently, and then decided to create a new bill (HCR 2045) based off his new medical “discoveries” about cannabis.
“This bill would essentially end the medical marijuana program in Arizona as we know it,” said Dr. William Troutt, a local naturopath. “The only cannabis varieties below 2 percent THC in the dispensary are CBD varieties.”
The highly irrational bill would drastically upend Arizona medical marijuana patients’ lives because patients would no longer have access to potent-enough medical marijuana flowers, concentrates, edibles, tinctures and topicals.
However, Sam Richard, Executive Director of the Arizona Dispensaries Association, recently said that Bowers agreed to remove the 2% THC limit. But only time will tell if this is true, a rumor or a tactic to elude the Arizona medical marijuana community.
“Rusty Bowers has been a very hardhearted legislator when it comes to caring about the way that marijuana has improved the lives of people,” said Mikel Weisser from the Arizona chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
If the bill passes through the House and Senate it could be on Arizona voters’ ballots this November.
Contact your local representative to convey your opinion on this cannabis issue.