Our View: Prop. 205 is the wrong way to legalize marijuana
Endorsement: There are merits to legalizing pot. But Arizona's initiative isn't the way to get there.
The debate over marijuana legalization no longer splits in traditional ways. It’s not a clean left-right break.
Many conservatives see the merits of legalizing pot. They want to finally end a prohibition more destructive than the one that spawned speakeasies nearly 100 years ago. Many liberals still agonize at the social costs, particularly to children, if drug use is legitimized on the grand scale.
With early voting underway, Arizonans are confronted with this question on their Nov. 8 ballot.
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Proposition 205, the “Arizona Marijuana Legalization Initiative,” if passed, would legalize the recreational use of marijuana for adults 21 years or older, allow them to grow the plant in their home, and create the market and regulatory structure for the legal sale of recreational pot.
4 reasons why we oppose the measure
While we believe it is responsible to explore the legalization of marijuana, The Arizona Republic opposes Proposition 205 for several reasons:
- It experiments with the health of our children.
- It is a money grab by the medical marijuana industry.
- It would set in concrete drug policy that would be hard to amend with corrective legislation.
- And there is no urgency to do this now.
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The war on drugs has had its victories but is also strewn with casualties. It feeds an insidious black market that preys on children, destabilizes neighborhoods and even foments violence in neighboring Latin America.
We agree with the proponents of Prop. 205 that it makes no sense to yoke small-time pot smokers with prison time, a criminal record and a black mark that travels with them to job interviews.
The United States began the incremental decriminalizing of marijuana long before Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational pot. Even before medical marijuana entered the scene in California in 1996 and found acceptance in 25 other states and the District of Columbia, states were already gradually easing the penalties for casual marijuana use.
Troubling signs out of Colorado
Now the push is on to close the circle on marijuana and make it as legitimate as tossing back a can of beer.
Arizona has the advantage of watching Colorado’s marijuana experiment to know what to expect. And while the results are spotty, there are troubling signs. Colorado has witnessed a spike in that state in the number of children needing medical treatment for accidental exposure to marijuana, according to a study published in July in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In 2014 and 2015, there were 87 cases of children ages 9 and younger ingesting, inhaling or being otherwise exposed to cannabis called in to the state’s regional poison control center. In the four years before legalization, there were a total of 76 cases.
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“I think other states, if they pass laws to legalize marijuana, have to be cognizant of these things and think about” measures to protect children, said the leader of the study, Dr. George Sam Wang, assistant professor at the University of Colorado-Denver, CNN reported.
Further, the science on marijuana use is incomplete. We still do not understand the long-term effects on health, communities and public safety, reports Republic journalist Yvonne Wingett Sanchez.
Business are concerned about the impact of employees getting high. On “Meet the Press” in March 2014, California Gov. Jerry Brown said, “How many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation? The world’s pretty dangerous. Very competitive. I think we need to stay alert, if not 24 hours a day, more than some of the potheads might be able to put together.”
Money grab by medical marijuana industry
Prop. 205 is actually a money grab by the medical marijuana industry that is helping to fund the initiative. The law gives medical marijuana dispensaries the pole position for highly limited retail licenses, which would create a cash bonanza for the industry.
One of the real difficulties of Prop. 205 is that it voter-protects a law that is highly experimental and would in all likelihood require corrective measures. The Legislature would need a supermajority (three-fourths) vote to amend the law.
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Finally, we think Jerry Brown was on point when he told the New York Times in 2014, “We ought to kind of watch and see how things go in Colorado.” While California voters will decide whether their state goes legal this year, Brown’s words still ring with wisdom.
What’s the rush?
Let Colorado and Washington be the guinea pigs, and let Arizona learn from their mistakes when those are finally well-understood.
The Arizona Republic urges a “no” vote on Proposition 205.
