Safer AZ October Legislative
Update
By
Mikel Weisser
Safer Arizona is a non-profit political action committee
that focuses on cannabis reform through the legislative process—addressing laws
and politicians directly. Currently, we are working on three legislative approaches
to reducing the harm Arizonans suffer from unjust and unnecessarily harsh
cannabis laws.
A.
The “Tax
& Regulate” Citizens’ Initiative—Originally the creation of Safer AZ
treasurer, Dennis Bohlke, based on Colorado’s successful 2012 citizens’
initiative, Bohlke offered the text of the initiative online for three months
for public input before submitting it to the AZ Secretary of State’s office in
June. Intended to be purely an “organically
grown” citizen-driven petition drive, SA’s work in promoting the petition has
been mostly word of mouth w petition gathering at public cannabis friendly
events such as NORML meetings, large-scale protests and concerts or live music
venues. Publicity effort have been inconsistent, but gaining momentum and have
now included national and international press coverage. Recent articles in the Arizona Republic, Phoenix New Times, Culture
Magazine, Rueters, and the Huffington Post have increased public
awareness and extended the circle of petition gatherers, though the majority of
the work is occurring in the metropolitan areas of the state.
A new development in promoting petition circulation
has been the additional step of conducting appeals at political party meetings.
Party members are familiar w the importance and process of petition gathering
and are quick to see the eventual political advantage of being publicly active
on this issue, despite the fact that many of older, more traditional party
members balk at the idea. Of note: in attending events w both major parties, a
trend is developing. Members of both the Democratic and Republican Parties are
supporting the petition and volunteering, though leadership is wary. In urban
districts, GOP take as strong an interest in advancing the petition as Dems and
in Mohave County, the GOP 1st vice chair and other members of their
leadership are actively advancing the petition and cannabis issues in general. Resistance
is essentially generational, but it should be noted the “hippies of the 60s”
are now the voters in their 60s.
B.
The “Harm
Reduction Measure” Statehouse Bill—This bill hopes to reduce criminal
sentences for cannabis possession from felony to misdemeanor. The felony
penalty law is a legacy from the waning years of impeached governor, Evan
Mecham and leads to 18,000 charges a year. While the vast majority of these
cases end up in a diversion or TASC program w charges eventually reduced to
misdemeanor, lives are still wrecked and the charges can jeopardize parenting,
state assistance, ed funding, college admissions, military qualifications and
even gun-owner rights. Also the creation of Dennis Bohlke, the “Harm Reduction
Measure” is a rewrite of ARS13-3405 (the section of state statute dealing w
cannabis/marijuana), editing the majority of the language and lowering
penalties for various levels of possession. Bohlke had originally drafted the
legislation in 2010 and presented it as a citizens’ initiative, but withdrew it
to focus efforts on the successful Prop 203 MMJ law.
The majority of my work as legislative
liaison for Safer AZ has focused on advancing this bill into the AZ statehouse
for introduction at the upcoming Jan. 13 opening of new AZ legislative session.
To that end, I have been polling the statehouse and conducting one-on-one
sit-down presentations to members of the state legislature. In addition to
having meetings w state representatives myself, I have also brought members of
the cannabis community and leadership in Safer AZ to meet w the legislature and
other key, including the Department of Public Health (overseers of the state’s
medical marijuana program) and representatives of law enforcement and criminal
justice.
At the Legislature, thus far (as of
10/11/13) we have contacted the offices of 32 of 60 representatives (including
the office of the Speaker of the House) and 11 of 30 senators. Four senators
and fourteen representatives have had official “sit-down” meetings, or extended
casual discussions. Responses tend to fall toward party lines w the majority of
Democrats supporting the idea of the bill and several offering extensive advice
on how to advance this legislation. Particularly helpful on the Democratic side
have been Tucson area representatives Victoria Steele and Stephanie Mach and
PHX area representatives Mark Cardenas, Jonathan Larkin and Andrew Sherwood.
The majority of the Democrats polled however, stand firm in their belief that
the bill must be advanced through the legislative process by Republican
leadership to succeed in the AZ political landscape. On the GOP side, in the
senate, LD5’s Dr. Kelli Ward & LD13’s Don Shooter have both offered
support, w Sen. Ward inviting Safer AZ to attend a stakeholders’ on a somewhat
related alcohol measure and Sen. Shooter advancing the text of the bill to the
senate’s legislative counsel for review (this process is currently underway.)
The majority of the GOP membership approached
on the bill have grave concerns over getting constituency support and some,
such as LD16’s Kelly Townsend, are adamantly opposed to any lessening of
cannabis enforcement and, in casual conversations, have refused to take
official meetings on the issue. Others, such as LD5’s Doris Goodale and LD25’s
Justin Pierce (both on the judiciary committee, the committee that would hear
the bill) & LD1’s Karen Fann, while supportive of the ideas in the proposed
changes are concerned that GOP leadership and right-wing voter resistance to
easing cannabis restrictions make any ameliorating changes in cannabis
enforcement highly unlikely. Citing anti-cannabis crusaders such as LD12’s
Eddie Farnsworth, LD23’s John Kavanagh in the House & LD 20’s Kimberly Yee
in the senate, mainstream GOP leaders suggest that the current complexion of
the statehouse makes the bill a tough sell.
I am not daunted, however, as the
continuing process itself is shifting opinion all by itself and cannabis reform
on the national scene is shifting AZ trends. We still have yet to contact over
half of the legislators and have only conducted meetings w 18 of 90. A new
development on this front is exhorting citizens, at political party and
cannabis-related/friendly meetings to contact their legislators, call on them
to support the “Harm Reduction Measure,” and ask for meetings to discuss
cannabis.
Working w NORML, we are in the early
planning stages of turning Jan. 13, the opening day of the new legislative
session, into a cannabis education day, as part of an all-out push to get the
statehouse to take on cannabis reform. My office continues to focus on political
education in general and has now taken to including presentations to political
clubs and civic organization in addition to continuing to schedule legislative meetings
as time permits.
(Currently as part of me keeping track of
my work, Safer AZ is conducting a poll of legislative positions on various
cannabis legislative issues and will present the results as part of NORML’s
upcoming voter awareness guide and also as part of our efforts to generate public
support for cannabis reform.)
C.
Tucson
City Ordinance “Measure AZ”—Created by Tucson Shawn Earl, based on Oakland’s
city ordinance AZ, which lowered cannabis enforcement to “lowest police
priority,” the Tucson activists of Safer AZ have been working with the city
council for months trying to advance this ordinance. Recently (Sept. 25)
representatives from Safer AZ met w Tucson city council member Paul Cunningham
and the city attorney to discuss the measure. However in subsequent
negotiations the city has shifted their position and leaning toward a more
restrictive measure that only covers MMJ patients and then in only limited
circumstances. The Tucson Safer AZ activists are continuing to push for their
measure through public outreach such as speaking at events, conducting fund
raiser concerts and appearances at city council meetings.
D.
On the
Horizon—Safer AZ has also been asked from various sources to address other
injustices in AZ cannabis law and have begun preliminary work in addressing the
following issues: 1) Metabolite measurement in DUI cases, particular for MMJ
patients; 2) Clarification of the “concentrates and resins” in ARS 13 and ARS
36, to allow continued production of edible MMJ products to provide for the
large numbers of patients for whom smoking is not a preferred delivery method.
Both of these issues are best addressed through legislative action and awaiting
the drafting of bills to introduce to the legislature.
ALL ARE INVITED TO VOLUNTEER TO DISCUSS AND
CRAFT LEGISLATION.
OUR LIVES, OUR LAWS
Safer AZ
