Number of Arizona marijuana initiatives doubles

Second marijuana initiative filed ... The Campaign to Legalize and Regulate Marijuana filed paperwork last week for a competing effort to legalize marijuana, potentially jeopardizing any effort to legalize the drug in 2016.

Like the first initiative, the group seeks to let adults carry up to an ounce of marijuana and proposes a 15 percent tax to help fund public education. However, those who carry more than 8 ounces of marijuana could be slapped with a misdemeanor, as opposed to a felony, as the first initiative proposes.

Jason Medar, who is leading the Campaign to Legalize and Regulate Marijuana, said voters would be better off without legalization than it would be with the competing initiative, Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act.

"If somebody has more than 1 ounce or less but less than eight we probably shouldn't put them in prison," Medar said.

Carlos Alfaro, Arizona political director of the Marijuana Policy Project, which is pushing the Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act, said his is the more viable of the two proposals. He shrugged off speculation that competing efforts could cause confusion among voters, and therefore doom them both.

What are they smoking? ... Secretary of State Michele Reagan took her disagreement with the Citizens Clean Elections Commission over who has a say in campaign finance to her state website, posting a poll on her blog asking if the commission should "broaden its mission" to money issues. (It already has a role there, by the way.)

But click on the poll and up pops this question: "Should Arizona legalize marijuana?"

Last we checked, the office isn't doing marijuana, at least not on the regulatory front. Spokesman Matt Roberts says the office polls current topics to encourage newly registered voters to engage in public policy.

As for the Clean Elections poll morphing into a marijuana question, Roberts said it had nothing to do with the fact the campaign-finance question was polling heavily in favor of the commission. Instead, he forgot to disable a link from Reagan's blog to the poll. As for the weed question, it also was enjoying a smokin' good run: (91 percent to 8 percent).

Quote of the week

"I thought that I would send an e-mail to the superintendent letting her know that all of the staff at the Jefferson building were going to be clearing out and not showing up for work on Monday. And if she orders us back on Tuesday, then we'll probably show up without going to court."

— Michael Bradley, chief of staff to Superintendent Diane Douglas, joking about his Memorial Day plans.