If the Marijuana Policy Project's initiative to legalize weed in Arizona lands on the ballot and passes next year, the state's education system could see a revenue of more than $40 million annually once the regulations are implemented, a press release from MPP says.

As a sign of good faith, MPP presented the state with a fake check for that amount during a news conference in Phoenix earlier today. 

“Generating revenue for our schools isn’t the only reason to pass this initiative, but it’s an important one,” says a statement by Lisa Olson, a Mesa teacher who participated in the news conference. “I support it because it will not only improve public education, but also public safety. Regulating marijuana would replace dealers on the streets with store clerks who ask for ID and only sell to adults.”

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol proposes taxing marijuana at 15 percent from licensed retail stores selling to adults 21 and older. A lot of that money will be used for implementation, and enforcement of regulations. All additional tax revenue collected, 40 percent would go to the state's Department  of Education for school construction, maintenance, and operating costs, and another 40 percent to the department's full-day kindergarten programs, the release says.

The estimate is based on marijuana sales in Colorado, but adjusted for differences in state population and marijuana consumption rates according to federal survey data, MPP says. Total retail marijuana sales in Colorado exceeded $253 million in the first six months of the year, generating roughly $16.6 million for public school construction, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue, MPP says. 

The group has to collect more than 150,000 valid signatures to get on the November 2016 ballot. The campaign has already collected about 60,000 total signatures since May.

“We’re finding a lot of support among parents,” says J.P. Holyoak, chairman of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol. “They don’t only see it as more money for schools, but also more control over marijuana. Marijuana should be sold by businesses that pay taxes and follow laws, not by cartels and criminals that evade them.”

The Marijuana Policy Project has gathered 50,000 signatures in the past 10 weeks for its ballot measure to legalize recreational weed in Arizona. 

The initiative would allow for adults 21 and over to buy, posses and even cultivate marijuana. There'll also be the opportunity to get retail licenses and revenue from taxation would go toward education and public health efforts.

“Adults of all ages and political stripes want to vote for this in November 2016,” says JP Holyoak, MPP's campaign chairman. “We are excited by the outpouring of support. This is the right initiative at the right time.”

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol began the signature-gathering process in May, and in a little more than month had already raised $300,000 and collected 25,000 sigs, according to MPP spokesman Barrett Marson. 

Voters can sign petitions at Motor Vehicle Division locations around the state, says a statement by MPP campaign political director Carlos Alfaro. 

Marson says MPP expects to collect well over 200,000 before the July 2016 deadline. State law requires a little more than 150,000, but they are trying to be cautious in case of invalid signatures.

"Prohibition does not work. It hasn't worked for marijuana, just like it didn'tdre work for alcohol," Marson told Tucson Weekly in July. "Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, and it is well past time to make adult use of marijuana legal. Right now, marijuana is in the hands of the cartels. The cartels grow, distribute and sell it here in Arizona and across the country. This is an opportunity to regulate and tax it, take that away from the cartels, and bring in much needed state money to education and ensure marijuana is regulated for adult use."

D.A.R.E., the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program kids like me had to attend weekly in elementary school, published a letter titled “Purchasing marijuana puts kids at risk"—a post which was calling for the legalization of the drug. 

The piece, originally posted as a letter to the editor in the Columbus Dispatch, was written by former deputy sheriff Carlis McDerment. McDerment argues that it would be easier to keep kids away from pot if it were legalized and distribution was regulated: 

The goal of prohibiting marijuana was to eradicate its use, but in reality, the drug has become infinitely harder for law enforcement to control. People like me, and other advocates of marijuana legalization, are not totally blind to the harms that drugs pose to children. We just happen to know that legalizing and regulating marijuana will actually make everyone safer. Merely decriminalizing it will do nothing to undercut the dangerous illicit market that is currently selling to kids everywhere.

It looks like D.A.R.E. republished the article (without reading it, obviously) after it came up in a news service they are subscribe to. Daren, D.A.R.E.'s "adorable yet courageous and street-smart mascot," must be so disappointed. Or maybe he's the one who published it. We'll never know. 

More marijuana businesses may sooner-than-later be able to get property, casualty and other insurance coverage, according, to a write up by Forbes.

Things haven't been great on the insurance end, because, although many states have legalized medical marijuana and roughly a handful have legalized recreational marijuana, weed is still a controlled substance at a federal level, which doesn't make it an attractive world to insurance companies. 

Apparently, insurance carriers are slowly beginning to explore their options. The money the marijuana industry fuels, I imagine, is very appealing. This means there can potentially be more options out there for weed entrepreneurs. Right now, very few companies offer coverage, which leads to paying ridiculously high prices for insurance, because there isn't much competition out there, and insurers know that. 

The founders of Bolder Cannabis and Extracts in Colorado offer their insight on the insurance ordeal, as they employ about 60 people to grow, process and sell marijuana, 

Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy has chosen the new political lobbyist and communications firm Axiom Public Affairs to represent their movement against the state's recreational marijuana legalization initiative.

The ballot measure's final draft was submitted to the Secretary of State's Office in April by the Marijuana Policy Project, which is also leading legal weed efforts for next year in California, Nevada, Maine and Massachusetts. Safer Arizona, MPP of Arizona, and other advocacy groups are in the process of gathering the roughly more than 150,000 signatures needed to get the initiative on the 2016 ballot. 

The Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy PAC isn't down with any measure that would green light the use, sale, possession and cultivation of ganja. The group mobilizes around the state to raise awareness of the plant's alleged harms, as well as recruits donors and supporters who'll help with the crusade. They fear legalizing weed will mean it'll wound up in the hands of children, among other negative outcomes.

“Unlike the industry and lobby groups that are funding efforts to legalize a dangerous drug in Arizona, we at ARDP are all working on a volunteer basis, so we are delighted to be able hire the A-team of consultants in Arizona to help us out,” said a statement by Seth Leibsohn, chairman of Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy. 

Arizona's measure would allow adults 21 and up to buy no more than an ounce of pot through a state-licensed retailer or dispensary. An adult 21 or older would be able to grow six plants and there will be a limit of no more than 12 plants per household. There is a license, worth $7,500, for people who want to sell their pot, without jumping into a full-on dispensary.

MPP expects taxes, set at 15 percent, to bring revenue of between $60 million and $100 million. The funds would go toward sales regulation, education and public health efforts.

Safer Arizona plans to host a series of public forums to answer everyone's weed questions.

The deadline to present signatures is June 2016. 

The nonpartisan research group Behavior Research Center says most Arizona residents support the legalization of recreational marijuana, as well as favor university research on the medical benefits of weed for conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder and epilepsy. 

Of about 700 adults interviewed for the Rocky Mountain Poll between the end of April and mid-May, 83 percent said they backed up former UA researcher Sue Sisley's study looking into the effects medical marijuana has on PTSD symptoms. They argued similar studies should be allowed at the three universities. 

Sisley's study was in its final stages of approval, when the UA killed her contract last summer. She wanted the university to house the trials there. Sisley argues Republican state legislators pressured UA officials to oust her, but they deny the allegations.

(Added after publication) UA spokesman Chris Sigurdson says the universities actively tried to continue the research with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, the group partnered with Sisley, but that they declined. Arizona State University didn't respond, and Northern Arizona University said no to the study.

She now has a $2 million grant from Colorado’s Medical Marijuana Scientific Advisory Council and a partnership with Johns Hopkins University. She hopes to carry on the study in the Phoenix-area, but Sisley recently said the Department of Veterans Affairs won't let her recruit veterans for her study's trials.

The University of Colorado is considering staging the trials there.

The VA sent Sisley this statement early June:

As you know, we’ve had changes in leadership here over the past several years. While a previous Medical Center Director may have approved a Grand Round by Dr. Sisely – or delegated this to a member of the staff - the current Medical Center Director did not.

VA health care providers are prohibited from offering opinions or recommendations on the use of medical marijuana. It would be inconsistent with the law or our values for us to conduct a grand round on medical marijuana.

In the case of recreational weed, more than 50 percent are good with allowing possession of small amounts. The support is stronger in rural Arizona (58 percent) and in Maricopa County (53 percent). The poll said less than half of people in Pima County back up legalization. 

In April, the Marijuana Policy Project filed Arizona's weed ballot measure with the Secretary of State's Office, after mending ties with weed activists demanding for home cultivation rights, and dispensary representatives who wanted a better licensing structure.

The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that medical marijuana patients cannot sell weed to other patients. 

A write up by the Phoenix News Times' Ray Stern reports the 3-0 ruling overturned a July decision by a Pima County Superior Court judge that said these types of sales are good to go under the Medical Marijuana Act, which was approved by voters in 2010.

From Stern's post:

The ruling resulted in the dismissal of a marijuana-for-sale case involving Jeremy Allen Matlock of Tucson and caught the attention of prosecutors around the state. Marijuana activists and criminal defendants were buoyed by Fields' ruling, hoping their own cases would be tossed out.

The 2010 law calls for state-regulated dispensaries that are now in place across Arizona. But Matlock, with his public defender, attorney David Euchner, argued that the law grants patients the right to sell to other patients in two separate sections. 

As long as there is no exchange of values, you can share your medical cannabis with other cardholders. 

Home cultivation rights have been at the forefront of many weed advocates like the folks with Safer Arizona—not only because they argue their medication would be more affordable than buying it from a dispensary, but also to allow entities of a way smaller scale than dispensaries get some revenue from this growing market. The same was argued while the state's recreational marijuana ballot measured was being drafted.

Some background by Stern:

Before the first dispensaries opened in Arizona, operators of compassion clubs and would-be independent cannabis dealers set up shop themselves on basically the same premise used in the Matlock case. A lawsuit on the matter filed by former state AG Tom Horne fizzled without resolving the legal question of patient-to-patient sales. Some continue to operate under the theory that such sales are legal, despite successful prosecutions — so far only through plea deals — of unauthorized cannabis dealers. The new opinion makes such operations even dicier.

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has approved an amendment that would allow Veterans Affairs physicians to recommend medical marijuana use for debilitating conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain.

The measure, sponsored by Democratic Senators Steve Daines of Montana and Jeff Merkley of Oregon is attached to the Senate version of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, and would undo a 2009 prohibition banning VA doctors from even suggesting medical weed to their patients.

Even though 23 states, including ours, have legalized medical ganja, it is still considered a controlled substance in the eyes of the feds. 

Here's a statement from Dan Riffle, director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy Project:

“A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers came together and passed broadly supported marijuana policy reform. This is exactly how most Americans want Congress to handle this issue. Hopefully we are reaching a point at which it is becoming the norm, rather than the exception. The pace at which support appears to be growing in the Senate is particularly encouraging.

“Doctors should never be prohibited from helping their patients obtain the best possible medical treatment. Many veterans are finding that medical marijuana is the most effective treatment for PTSD and other service-related medical conditions. Finally, Congress is working to remove barriers to accessing it rather than building them.”

The U.S. House rejected a similar amendment last month by a very narrow vote. It's, again, up to the chamber to pass or kill this measure. 

If Arizona legalizes marijuana next year, Indian tribes in the state won't have to follow the same rules. But the same goes in reverse: if the state says no to green, tribes can decide to jump on the weed train any time.

In December, the Department of Justice issued a memorandum that clarified tribes' role in the marijuana world. It said they are treated the same as states, meaning they make and follow their own prohibitions.

How likely is it that Arizona tribes will legalize mota before the state does, though? Not very, according to UA Indian law professor Rob Williams, whose expertise since 1987 is economic development in Indian Country. A big part of it is they don't want to worry about another substance coming in that could lead to more problems than what they currently face with alcohol abuse, Williams says. 

Still, he's been working with tribe representatives to keep them up-to-date with the rapidly-emerging (and very lucrative) weed business.

The economic options for tribes aren't solely based on growing and selling marijuana for locals, but maybe legalizing to attract outside investors—such as dispensary owners looking for growing facilities that don't come with the tax baggage. 

Tribes that possibly choose to grow marijuana on their land wouldn't be subject to taxation, Williams says. "Arizona has a rather complex regulatory regime, which with marijuana, would not apply in reservations, places where you could leverage your investment dollars."

"In California, we have had two very small tribes near Palm Springs announce multi-million partnerships for commercial medical marijuana," he says. 

The U.S. House killed an amendment yesterday that would have allowed physicians with the Department of Veterans Affairs to recommend medical marijuana to their patients.

The amendment—introduced by U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and co-sponsored by eight others including Arizona's Rep. Ruben Gallego, also a Democrat—to the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations bill was supposed to scratch a prohibition in the department that bans VA doctors from bringing up medical weed as an option to treat symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain and other conditions. 

“House Republicans just can’t help putting themselves on the wrong side of polling, history, and compassion for our troops. For a group of legislators who consistently insist on ‘getting government out of the doctor-patient relationship,’ tonight’s vote is a case study in hypocrisy," said a statement by Dan Riffle, director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy Project (they're trying to get a ballot to legalize recreational weed in the state).