Money Matters, Simplified.
Arizona contemplates: legalize medical marijuana or not?
by Jamie Anderson - October 11, 2010 - comments
Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron estimated in a February report that legalizing marijuana would bring a $20.1 billion boost to government budgets nationwide. About two-thirds of that would come in savings from not enforcing marijuana laws.
Before they head to the general elections, which are barely a month away, the citizens of Arizona confront a tricky question, whether to legalize medical marijuana or not.
If the proposition, the only citizens’ initiative on the ballot, is approved, it will allow patients with a "debilitating medical condition" to obtain an "allowable amount of marijuana" from a "nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary."
Controversy not new
Debilitating medical condition, among other diseases include cancer, glaucoma, positive status for human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, hepatitis C, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and agitation of Alzheimer's disease.
"Medical marijuana was more effective than serious painkillers such as Oxycontin. I have a painful neuropathy that marijuana helps me with. It helps me sleep and improves my mood," claims one such patient who has benefited from the policy.
Thus a patient with any of these conditions would, on the recommendation of the doctor, be allowed to possess and use the marijuana to treat or alleviate the condition or symptoms associated with the condition.
The controversy of medical marijuana in Arizona is not new. The proposition was initially approved by the citizens in 1996 with a 65-35 majority. However, the legislature overturned it at that point of time.
Thereafter, in another voter initiative in 1998, the citizens again approved the measure. The measure prevented the legislature from toppling the voter-approved initiatives and referendums.
The proposition led to the establishment of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project. Proposition 203 of the project allowed scores of seriously ill patients to use the drug on doctors' recommendations.
The beneficiaries, the detractors
"Medical marijuana was more effective than serious painkillers such as Oxycontin. I have a painful neuropathy that marijuana helps me with. It helps me sleep and improves my mood," claims one such patient who has benefited from the policy.
On the other side are vociferous opponents, including all of Arizona's sheriffs and Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk.
An alarming set of data put forth by these critics of the policy is that 75 percent of legal marijuana users in California are aged less than 40.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment also reveals that the average age of its medical marijuana users is 40.
Seventy-three percent are men, and 93 percent report using pot for "severe pain," the department said.
Proposition 203 has incorporated various checks and balances in place so that the measure is not abused.
The measure does not “authorize operating, navigating or being in actual physical control of a motor vehicle, aircraft or motorboat while under the influence of marijuana.”
“A registered qualifying patient would not be considered to be under the influence of marijuana solely because of the presence of marijuana in the person's system that appears in a concentration insufficient to cause impairment,” states Proposition 203.