Apache Kush
Member
I tried to read all that but it make little sense in that context. What changed what happend?
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Old School Arizona
- Thread starter mofeta
- Start date
pastispast
New member
Have not ever found a strain like Mad Jag, still the best in my memories. I remember the sun tea jars with the label saying it was from the rim.
Apache Kush
Member
i love arizona jst turnes 30 in this great state, love the rim too my fav part
R
rbt
I am confused with the 30K & 10K commercial grow license. It is all tax deductible to a for profit operation. That is a bucket full out of the ocean of tax that can be collected. Safer Arizona had proposed in the 2014 for the control to be under the Liquor control board now this is new Gaming? I don't doubt this is an effort to include the Indian reservation on their gaming and gambling pact. If you don't go along with the state mandates on Marijuana then we will forgo your gaming monopoly. ( stinks )
A friendly adversarial advocate IMHO. If I may let's do a little math here
. SA is proposing a flat $50.00 tax per ounce or $800.00 LB.
Right now the average price per ounce at the retail Dispensary $340.00 or $5440,00 after taxes $4640.00
So if the burden matched the tax rate all a unlimited producer would have to grow to pay the Tax burden would be 38 pounds. Really I am sure you would like to grow for quality I admire that I salute you. But after a year of upstart and development 38 pounds of flower will be about .0001% of his/commercial grow how is a small grower of quality going to be allowed in his distribution and how can a quality grower compete with aggressive sales competition you carry his you wont carry mine @ 1/3 the cost? The retailer wont be able to carry quality product and 3 times the cost and making his other stock less valuable and a smaller margin wont make good business sense IMHO.
Another consideration a unlimited commercial grower is in the agriculture business. Not hard to make other parts of the farm carry the overhead for awhile. It will just slightly change his gain/loss ratio slightly plus it will then be all tax deductible. A common joke told around the family how does a farmer double his income? >>> puts up 2 mail boxes. Look around rural America farm after farm going broke and the huge corporate farms reaping huge profits. In 2014 Arizona took in 112 million in Marijuana Tax revenue Colorado both Medical & Recreational 75million. Yea I don't like it as it is sorry but it is a work in progress. Thanks for the post people need to be watching. All of these Huge licence keeps the average guy out of the business If people are going to pay a butt load for POT I would rather have it go to my neighbors effort than to the government that take 45% off the top and then the cost is that is never over. I don't think you know that beast that is lurking here what is the cheapest by far in a box of Wheaties >>> the Wheaties.
R
rbt
$30,000 is the cost of a New Holland 28 HP 3 point manual hitch tractor (no attachments) which is about
.034% of equipment expense on my brothers place last year. You are dealing with Big business here don't go for anything less than what you have now 12 plant now 12 plants forever. No grows over 300 plants or maybe even less and strict quality and test controls gaming what a crock it is almost insulting especially to the Indian and Tribes. If the Indian want to grow Gods bounty he should not have to pay a sin tax on it. Gaming is man made
.034% of equipment expense on my brothers place last year. You are dealing with Big business here don't go for anything less than what you have now 12 plant now 12 plants forever. No grows over 300 plants or maybe even less and strict quality and test controls gaming what a crock it is almost insulting especially to the Indian and Tribes. If the Indian want to grow Gods bounty he should not have to pay a sin tax on it. Gaming is man made
Take a look at the big tree growers on "The Ultimate Sativa" thread and imagine 12 plants with 5-6 lbs on each = 60+ lbs. Don't pretend that small harvests like that won't make it into the market through "farmer friends" and others selling commercially.
The other factor in an open market is that even if many large farmers switch over to cannabis, they will be the Budweiser and Coors while smaller, more specialized growers will be the unique breweries and craft beers.....or in wine terminology, Mogen David and Two-Buck Chuck (Trader Joe's special) vs the winemakers pulling in $15-25 a bottle from Napa and Sonoma. The taste is different, that being the quality, and its not just genetics but rather the attention given to growing, time of harvesting, aging (curing for cannabis), and processing/bottling.
Try some nice cured herb that has decent genetics and was bottled for 6-12 months at 60F. The taste of the terpenes changes the overall product incredibly. DJ Short for instance is reputed to smoke herb that is at least 2 years old and carefully bottle-cured.
There is always room for quality.
The other factor in an open market is that even if many large farmers switch over to cannabis, they will be the Budweiser and Coors while smaller, more specialized growers will be the unique breweries and craft beers.....or in wine terminology, Mogen David and Two-Buck Chuck (Trader Joe's special) vs the winemakers pulling in $15-25 a bottle from Napa and Sonoma. The taste is different, that being the quality, and its not just genetics but rather the attention given to growing, time of harvesting, aging (curing for cannabis), and processing/bottling.
Try some nice cured herb that has decent genetics and was bottled for 6-12 months at 60F. The taste of the terpenes changes the overall product incredibly. DJ Short for instance is reputed to smoke herb that is at least 2 years old and carefully bottle-cured.
There is always room for quality.
R
rbt
I do salute you on the diligence and honor you take in the perfection of your grow. I would favor quality any day. The question here is not quality or questionable viability of ones grow. As you used the comparable of MD 20 20 to a Napa Valley Sonoma or a Paso Robles Merlot. The government does not limit quantities or right to market with excessive tax rates. The bar is set for all to meet and taxed on percentage of sales basic free market. The government controlling grows distribution and sales in Arizona Has netted the state 112 million in 2014 compared to Colorado's 75 million. All this is doing is just licensing criminal business from before if you don't pay the tax your a criminal. It is by that thought I stand in protest. I am flexible with this nonsense $300 for a card I have gone to some of the dispensaries quite a few but not worth patronizing really to me. Reminds me of Spencers gift shop and petually oil.
R
rbt
Just as a thought the question on amount of plants or put a limit on cubic area of foliage or pot size and all plants have to be in pots. We all know your not going to yield 5-6 lbs in a 3 gallon pot. Let Medical patients have 12 plants in flower no more than 36 total not allowed to have bigger than 5 gallon pots/buckets. I feel guilty ashamed to have other backyard growers being prosecuted while others are making millions. I know some made a lot of money over the years with Marijuana what paid was the risk. Now the king wants his share? The Indians can do on their own lands as they please without be encumbered in any way or fashion by Arizona gaming laws ridiculous & insulting. Not all tribes have gaming but share somewhat in the proceeds from the other tribes. So they are now limited by what they can do on their own lands by Sin monies from gaming? what's the difference here between the BIA and the State Gaming Comm.
Apache Kush
Member
hmm..
I shared this story over in the Vintage Colombian thread, but it went over like a fart in an elevator. It seems that Red is on a mission to rehabilitate Colombia's international image so true tales of what it was like down there in the 1970's are frowned upon. I was there. Believe me, it made the wild wild west look tame in comparison.
Perhaps my tale of my first 24 hours in Colombia belongs in the dodging a bullet series, since I emerged unscathed from myriad opportunities to end up robbed, busted, dead, or all three.
I first went down to Colombia in about 1975. I had spent a lot of time in Jamaica but I was told that I should try Colombia, Santa Marta specifically, to get to the source of the Santa Marta Gold.
My buddy and I flew into Barranquilla from Miami. As soon as we cleared Customs, there was a hanger on who attached himself to us and starting asking us where we were going to stay. We knew nothing about Colombia, other than we wanted to get to Santa Marta, so instead of chasing the fellow off, we told him that we were looking to spend the night in a cheap hotel and catch a bus to Santa Marta the next morning.
Our new friend got us set up in a cheap and seedy hotel. In subsequent visits, I always enjoyed staying at the stately El Prado hotel, but this first night was just a cheap little dive. Our guide waited while we stashed our bags in the clean but spare room and asked us what we wanted to do next. Drugs we replied. So off we went to the local Farmacia. We purchased a variety of pills, including some reds and some valium, as I recall. We were used to buying Mandrax at the pharmacies in Savana-la-Mar, Jamaica, but I don’t think we were able to buy either Quaaludes or Mandrax at that Farmacia.
We popped some pills and did some walking and eventually arrived at a bar/whorehouse. For a few bucks, our guide/pimp obtained some good strong buds wrapped in little balls of brown paper. We drank and danced with the girls and had sex, but due to probably the valium, which my buddy called “forget me nots” since it was always hard to remember what happened after you took them, my memories of that night are similar to the way a drug high is depicted in a bad movie, flashes of disconnected memories- a pretty face, another round of drinks, pissing against a tiled wall instead of in an urinal, an unmade bed, lots of laughing and shouting, and finally a long stagger back to the hotel. I have to hand it to our guide. He took care of us. We spent some money at the bar, but not too much, we did not get rolled or robbed and in the condition we were in at the end of the night, we were ripe for the picking. We paid him his fee and went to our hotel room.
The walk had sobered us up a bit and the pills had worn off over the course of the night, so before we went to sleep for the night, we used some of the brown paper the ganja was wrapped in to roll up a little spliff. We smoked it in the room, which had vents out to the courtyard inside the hotel, but no one complained since it was late and all was quiet. We were fascinated by the Colombian matches, which were small and could be struck anywhere to light, even though they did not have a separate tip. I wish I could get some of those good little matches.
The next morning, we asked the front desk where to catch a bus to Santa Marta and were directed to a terminal within easy walking distance. Once on the bus, we sat in the back and watched the scenery roll by. There is an interesting area between Barranquilla and Santa Marta where the people live on rafts and get around by canoe. On this trip, I don’t recall stopping at any security checkpoints, although I was stopped on other trips.
As everyone knows, the best cure for a hangover is a joint, so right there on the bus, we dug out the ganja and rolled up a fatty and smoked it on the bus. Obviously, the other people on the bus must of thought we were mad, but no one said anything and we smoked it down to the nub.
It turned out that the bus was going to Rodadero, instead of Santa Marta. Santa Marta is just over the hill from Rodadero. I found out just how far it is one Christmas night, when I partied too late in Rodadero and when I tried to catch a cab back to my hotel room in Santa Marta, I found that there were none available. So I walked the entire way.
Rodadero is a tourist beach town. A hanger on approached us soon after we got off the bus and directed us to a nice modern high rise hotel, which again was relatively cheap. Our new friend also offered to bring us some Santa Marta Gold. We were suspicious and a bit paranoid, but we came to party, so we negotiated the deal. For a pittance, he brought us a large bag of bright yellow buds that we could not smoke in a month of trying.
After smoking a jay and being delighted with the quality, the next order of business was to see what the local Farmacia had in the way of wares. It turns out that this guy had very little, except for some little glass vials of morphine, which we purchased along with some syringes.
After some time checking out the local bars, we ran into a guy who sold us some cheap and strong cocaine. So it was back to the hotel room to try my first and only speedball, a mixture of morphine and coke. It was quite a rush. Given the combined effects of the two drugs, I didn’t know whether to shit or vomit first.
After the edge wore off the high, we went out to the street, found a couple of hookers, and returned to our room to party. Given the high, I was able to screw the very pretty young girl, but I was not able to come. Unfortunately, after an hour or so of steady pumping the hooker had enough and wanted to get paid and get about her business. Since I did not finish, I refused to pay her.
I headed out to the street to find another hooker in order to get my rocks off, but before I found another girl, the first girl had gone and got the cops. The cops explained to me that I was either going to pay the girl for her time or go to jail.
Given those two options, I paid the girl. Meanwhile it had gotten late and I didn’t manage to find a woman that night. But the next day in Santa Marta I did notice three blond gringas who turned out to be from Montreal. But that is another story. This story was just about my first 24 hours in Colombia.
Santa Marta Beach
My buddy with his puta
Puta at the sidewalk cafe
One more story from the Vintage Colombian thread. One guy didn't like this story because he claims an American bill doesn't get brittle from being buried in the sand for two weeks. As if he has ever buried an American bill in the sand in a tropical beach town to find out.
Thinking about it, in this story I dodged the ultimate bullet, the Grim Reaper himself. I was on the ragged edge of death, but I guess I was just too damn mean to die. I never went to the doctor down there or in America for whatever disease I had. I just hung in there and sweat it out.
Colombian women are beautiful and very sexy too. They were as attracted to a tall blond blue-eyed Gringo as this Gringo was to their fine features, dusky complexion, straight black hair, and sloe-eyed beauty.
I soon learned what Estás casado? meant, since the girls asked that question early in every introductory conversation.
Colombia may be safer now, but I find it hard to believe that they have forgone their thieving ways. They put Jamaicans to shame with their ability to steal everything not nailed down.
And it was not just Gringos they stole from. The house I stayed at in Taganga on one trip had big chunks of broken glass bottles embedded in concrete on top of all the walls surrounding the house and garden. it was there to keep the neighbors out of the yard so that they wouldn't steal your stuff.
With all the flies on the food and with raw sewage running down the middle of the dirt roads in Taganga, I came down with something that was damn near fatal.
I had two hammocks. One I strung up in the house and the other I strung up under an orange tree in the back yard. I would lay in the hammock in the house, shivering, coughing, sweating, and feeling miserable, until the sun got up in the sky high enough so that the house became too hot to bear. Then I would reluctantly drag myself out of the hammock in the house and to the hammock under the orange tree.
I would lay in the hammock under the orange tree, watching the leaf cutter ants marching all day with their outsized burdens raised over their heads, until the evening chill drove me into the house.
Even with the broken glass on top of the walls surrounding the back garden, eventually the outside hammock disappeared. I kept up the same routine as before, but I had to take down and move my sole remaining hammock with each trip back and forth from house to garden then back to the house.
I was very weak and did not eat anything for ten days. On the eleventh day I reached up into the orange tree and ate one orange. The next day, I ate two oranges. The next day I ate four oranges.
I was still weak, but I was getting stronger. After being so sick for two weeks, I finally made up my mind to get to Santa Marta. I had not washed for two weeks, so I had to wash myself and my hair in a plastic basin of water. I also shaved. I checked out my visage in the little mirror hung on a tree and I looked almost human.
To keep from being robbed penniless by my neighbors, I had buried a fifty dollar bill in the sand when I first became ill. I dug the bill up and headed out to catch the bus to Santa Marta. I wanted to get to a Chinese restaurant I knew and have a big plate of chicken and stir fired vegetables. First I had to change my US fifty at the bank for Colombian bills.
The bank looked at my last fifty dollars and declared that it was too dry and brittle from being buried and they would not change it to pesos. I was screwed.
Luckily, not far from the bank I ran into a couple of gringos who I knew. I told them my predicament and they quickly offered to do the exchange giving me pesos for my American bill.
Flush with pesos, I had a fine meal at the Chinese place. Then I walked to a hotel that I had stayed at on previous trips and enjoyed sleeping in a bed in a room with air conditioning. After two weeks of spending day and night bent like a banana, it was great to be able to stretch out and sleep on my side under some sheets.
I don't know what illness I had. I do know that for months afterwards I would get spells of alternating chills and sweats. One time in particular, I was in a hotel in Lima, Peru and I started getting chills. It got so bad that I was shivering and shaking like I was in below freezing temperatures in my birthday suit. I had to put a sweater on and get into bed and under the blankets to finally get a little relief. If I went out dancing at night I my shirt would get drenched with sweat in minutes.
For years afterwards I would suffer from night sweats. I would wake up in the middle of the night with my bed and pillow soaked with sweat so bad that I would have to lay a couple of towels down on the bed to be able to go back to sleep.
Eventually, over a period of years, that gradually went away and I no longer have any symptoms.
What is that Nietzsche said? "What does not kill me, makes me stronger."
Brevity is the soul of wit, but you can overdo it.
Thanx for sharing Your memories Sforza. I enjoy them very much, Sir.
Twisted
Twisted
never heard tht one
haven't read your posts yet but ...that guy...... i read a few posts and suggested he ought to learn how to speak spanish... told me that he didn't need to to do his job.............. ...that there was "nowhere and no time for him to learn"
also made a suggestion about how he treats his wife, shouldn't have wasted my time there either.
never heard tht one
haven't read your posts yet but ...that guy...... i read a few posts and suggested he ought to learn how to speak spanish... told me that he didn't need to to do his job.............. ...that there was "nowhere and no time for him to learn"
also made a suggestion about how he treats his wife, shouldn't have wasted my time there either.
Brevity is the soul of wit is a Shakespeare quote from Hamlet. Didn't you have to read that in High School?
http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/brevity-soul-wit
But you can overdo it was original by me.
hmmm seems to be a tad on the short side to me. Why bother posting that?
Thank you, TT.
Driving a big rig for all those years, I imagine that you have dodged many a bullet. Have any dodging a bullet stories you can share?
I drove from Arizona east on I-10 on this past New Year's Day. I checked the weather and although there were ice storm alerts and warnings, it looked like the bad weather was going to stay north of I-10.
On my out of Van Horn I caught a glimpse of a temporary warning sign with words spelled out in moving LED lights. I was doing 80 MPH so I did not get much time to read and comprehend the message, but I thought I saw something along the lines of "Seek Shelter Immediately" and a message about the highway being closed at Ozona.
It would have been nice if they would have put the warning sign a mile or two before Van Horn, since by the time I read and understood the message, I was past the last exit.
There was a rest stop a few miles east of Van Horn, so I pulled over and used my Iphone to check the traffic and weather to see if it showed I-10 being blocked. It showed the bad weather still north of I-10 and the highway clear to San Antonio, so I proceed on my way, since I wanted to get to where I was going.
Where I-10 and I-20 split, the weather and the road started to get bad. It was very foggy and it was snowing, so visibility was poor and the road was slippery, but I kept going, although I dropped my speed to 70. I was still passing lots of cars and no cars were passing me, so I was probably going too fast for conditions.
As we were coming up on Balmorhea, we hit a traffic jam on I-10 and we had to sit for hours until we finally were able to slowly proceed in stop and go traffic at about 5 MPH.
Eventually we came up on what had caused the traffic jam in the middle of nowhere. For several miles there were trucks jack-knifed, rolled over, and stuck in the median of the highway. I guess between the icy roads and rolling hills, the trucks lost traction and then slid until they hit the grass median, where they came to a sudden and eventful stop.
I image you have seen similar and a lot worse, during your years hauling the freight.
It is like the old Taj Mahal song that I always loved: Six days upon the road and I'm going to see my baby tonight!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5UUS0B3Gag
BTW if you like swimming, and I do, there is one hell of a huge spring fed swimming pool located in the State Park at Balmorhea. I drove past that exit in the middle of nowhere for years until I read about the world's largest fresh water pool being in Balmorhea in a Spirit in-flight magazine on a Southwest Airlines flight.
"The main feature of the park is the 1.75-acre (0.71 ha), 3.5-million-US-gallon (13,000 m3) freshwater pool built around the springs. The spring has a constant flow of 22 to 28 million US gallons (110,000 m3) a day so no chlorination is required. The water temperature ranges from 72 to 76 °F (22 to 24 °C) and up to 30 feet (9.1 m) deep."
They have camping there along with some nice cabins/motel. It is worth a visit. There are also a lot of catfish swimming in the pool. The water is nice and cool and fresh even in a hot West Texas summer.
PS, it just occurred to me. I think I dodged a bullet due to the traffic jam. I was rolling along at 70 MPH even though I knew the road was bad. If I had hit that icy patch at 70, I would have ended up in the ditch or the median like all those trucks did. But because of the traffic jam, I had to drive very slowly. I was bitching about the delay, but in retrospect, I would much rather have been stuck in traffic than have destroyed my truck and perhaps been injured or even killed. I wonder what I did in a past life to deserve all the good karma that I have enjoyed in this one?
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San Carlos Indian Reservation
San Carlos Indian Reservation
Back to Arizona.
I stopped at the outdoor market at the San Carlos Indian Reservation just before Christmas. Had a nice breakfast burrito and a cup of Joe.
Clear blue Arizona sky.
I put my pitbull on a leash and let her walk around and check out the scene. Unfortunately, she is a handful when not on her pinch collar, and I had left that collar at home, so she was pulling and lunging everywhere. Not that she was barking or growling, she was lunging and pulling so she could near to people and be petted. But the people at the market did not know that and there were a lot of little kids around. But everyone was mellow and did not mind the
dog.
I'll bet if I had done the same thing in a California farmer's market, they would have freaked out and arrested me for disturbing the peace.
Here she is playing with her boyfriend.
I am thinking breeding her to him this spring.
Here is another picture of the market:
Good food.
Shot of the toys for the kids.
We bought a colorful and cheap blanket at the market, besides the food and coffee. I use it to cover my dog's bed. She loves that it is nice and soft and fuzzy.
I took my wife and my neighbor and his wife out to the steakhouse at the San Carlos Reservation for Christmas, but not on Christmas Day. The food was good. Well worth the money. I like to spend some money at the reservation when I get the chance. I also gassed up at the reservation when it was time to hit the road and come on home.
At least it is not a picture of sushi!
San Carlos Indian Reservation
Back to Arizona.
I stopped at the outdoor market at the San Carlos Indian Reservation just before Christmas. Had a nice breakfast burrito and a cup of Joe.
Clear blue Arizona sky.
I put my pitbull on a leash and let her walk around and check out the scene. Unfortunately, she is a handful when not on her pinch collar, and I had left that collar at home, so she was pulling and lunging everywhere. Not that she was barking or growling, she was lunging and pulling so she could near to people and be petted. But the people at the market did not know that and there were a lot of little kids around. But everyone was mellow and did not mind the
dog.
I'll bet if I had done the same thing in a California farmer's market, they would have freaked out and arrested me for disturbing the peace.
Here she is playing with her boyfriend.
I am thinking breeding her to him this spring.
Here is another picture of the market:
Good food.
Shot of the toys for the kids.
We bought a colorful and cheap blanket at the market, besides the food and coffee. I use it to cover my dog's bed. She loves that it is nice and soft and fuzzy.
I took my wife and my neighbor and his wife out to the steakhouse at the San Carlos Reservation for Christmas, but not on Christmas Day. The food was good. Well worth the money. I like to spend some money at the reservation when I get the chance. I also gassed up at the reservation when it was time to hit the road and come on home.
At least it is not a picture of sushi!
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Arizona Legalization Update 2/20/15: Ten Things to Know about MPP’s Newest “Final” Draft
by Mikel Weisser
Legalization Update 2/20/15:
Ten Things to Know about MPP’s Newest “Final” Draft
1.It’s NOT final. In the rush to have the fastest kneejerk in the west various marijuana activists have been trying to exploit insider connections to provide the activist community w the supposed latest “final” version of MPP’ ballot measure draft before it gets filed. This “final draft” was leaked late Sunday afternoon, online before evening was out and officially refuted as “final” before coffee-break Monday morning. It does reflect substantial revisions from the draft of 1/26/15, most of which are good news for Safer AZ’s mission. Industry leaders however still have much to settle in establishing the regulatory structure.
2.It’s Still Homegrown. Despite concerns over polling, MPP has consistently stuck to their commitment to personal grow rights. The numbers look like this: 6 plants per person, 12 per household. You get to keep all the marijuana produced on the premises as well, so this means in all practicality, marijuana possession levels will be only related to public possession, since all the marijuana on one’s property could have been produced in earlier grows. With the possibility of limited cultivation licenses in the fee schedule, anyone whose thumb isn’t green enough w 12 plants should be able to buy their way into the industry. But don’t kid yourself, compliance regulations for marijuana establishments are designed to weed out the illegal and inept. Bartering between friends will be legal however, so the desires of most backyard gardeners will be protect. Beyond that, hey, get a license.
3.It’s No Gamble. After being roundly rejected by most quarters of AZ’s marijuana community (activists and industry-types alike) the proposal that adult use marijuana licensing should be run through the Dept. of Gaming is scrapped. Licensing will continue in DHS (Dept. of Health & Human Services) till July 1 of 2018, when all marijuana licensing, medicinal and adult use, will be regulated by the newly created, Dept. of Marijuana.
4. It’s Bullet-Proof. One of the biggest challenges to creating citizens’ initiatives in AZ is creating a set of rules that have to fiddle-proof to prevent legislators of various intentions from being able to make substantial changes to the program, yet supple enough to adjust to actual unforeseen complexities of governing such an industry. Looking to the as-of-yet unassailable Clean Elections Commission structure with a non-partisan political appointment process and internal reviews procedures. The structure should be ironclad when comes to outside forces and empowered to create the complex regulatory structure that will protect consumers and not hamstring the industry as it builds itself.
5.Is Hemp Legal? Though this ballot measure is designed to govern marijuana, an interesting development between the 1/26/15 and the 2/15/15 draft is the addition of the words “should be legal” into the paragraph in the finds section on Hemp. The earlier version of the sentence said “hemp should be regulated separately from” the more THC-laden strains of cannabis (i.e. marijuana). That passage now reads “the people of the State of Arizona further find and declare that hemp should be legal and should be regulated separately from” the THC strains of cannabis (36-2820.4) Later in the document (2822.6) it permits the state legislature to regulate and tax hemp. In the personal use and cultivation section a person’s right to “possess, produce, process, manufacturer, purchase, obtain, sell or otherwise transfer, or transport industrial hemp” is explicitly affirmed (2831.3). A lot obviously hangs on the difference between the meanings of the words “shall” & “should,” as “hemp shall be legal” v “hemp should be legal,” so for now we are asking for clarification.
6.What is a Plant? Home cultivators around the state appreciate the distinctions between a seedling, a clone, a vegetative state plant or one in full flower. Only the later has appreciable THC levels. Currently the definitions section defines “Industrial Hemp” (2821.4) & marijuana sort of (2821.7) by identifying what it is not, for example hemp. But if hemp is defined as a low-level THC cannabis plant, what about THC-heavy strains prior to their flowering state when they are still low-level THC bearing?
7.Forgot About Dre? One of the original concerns of Safer AZ, and the activist community as a whole, has been addressing: the damage already done to the tens of thousands of Arizonans who have been collateral damage in the War on Drugs, is still MIA. Post conviction relief, record expungement and current prisoner resentencing options are not in the language and, so far, unlikely to be added. Legislative fixes similar to Mark Cardenas’ 2014 bill HB2474 might be the only way to get justice for those whose lives are forever scarred by prohibition. Some of us can’t forget the past or that this language forgets to fix it.
8.THC & CPS? One of the most egregious acts of AZ’s scandal ridden Child Protective Services agency has been their targeting of parents w mmj cards. Already a national epidemic, CPS agencies around the country contend that parents w marijuana charges or even mmj cards are drug dependent and neglecting their kids, no matter the reality of the circumstances. While anecdotal evidence is strong, CPS denies such evidence, but the new law should end any questions of cannabis and kids: “No person may be denied custody of or visitation or parenting time with a minor, and there is no presumption of neglect or child endangerment for conduct allowed under this chapter, unless the person’s behavior creates an unreasonable danger to the safety of the minor as established by clear and convincing evidence.” (2831.4)
9.The No-Zone Layer. Beyond the state laws regarding the various aspects of marijuana regulation, the ballot measure clearly establishes the ability of local jurisdictions to have “local control” in regulating marijuana in their cities. While earlier drafts included provisions allowing cities to control the transportation of marijuana in their zoning jurisdictions have been struck, cities can still regulate “the smoking, production, processing, and manufacturing of marijuana when it is injurious to the environment or otherwise is a nuisance to a considerable number of persons” (2827.2a).
10. Schooled on “School” a final clarification from earlier drafts is that the word “school” is clarified to mean K-12 and younger educational facilities. Colleges, technical institutes and adult learning facilities would still be able to regulate cannabis on their properties, but not w the weight of felony arrest behind them.
--Mikel Weisser is the political director of Safer Arizona
by Mikel Weisser
Legalization Update 2/20/15:
Ten Things to Know about MPP’s Newest “Final” Draft
1.It’s NOT final. In the rush to have the fastest kneejerk in the west various marijuana activists have been trying to exploit insider connections to provide the activist community w the supposed latest “final” version of MPP’ ballot measure draft before it gets filed. This “final draft” was leaked late Sunday afternoon, online before evening was out and officially refuted as “final” before coffee-break Monday morning. It does reflect substantial revisions from the draft of 1/26/15, most of which are good news for Safer AZ’s mission. Industry leaders however still have much to settle in establishing the regulatory structure.
2.It’s Still Homegrown. Despite concerns over polling, MPP has consistently stuck to their commitment to personal grow rights. The numbers look like this: 6 plants per person, 12 per household. You get to keep all the marijuana produced on the premises as well, so this means in all practicality, marijuana possession levels will be only related to public possession, since all the marijuana on one’s property could have been produced in earlier grows. With the possibility of limited cultivation licenses in the fee schedule, anyone whose thumb isn’t green enough w 12 plants should be able to buy their way into the industry. But don’t kid yourself, compliance regulations for marijuana establishments are designed to weed out the illegal and inept. Bartering between friends will be legal however, so the desires of most backyard gardeners will be protect. Beyond that, hey, get a license.
3.It’s No Gamble. After being roundly rejected by most quarters of AZ’s marijuana community (activists and industry-types alike) the proposal that adult use marijuana licensing should be run through the Dept. of Gaming is scrapped. Licensing will continue in DHS (Dept. of Health & Human Services) till July 1 of 2018, when all marijuana licensing, medicinal and adult use, will be regulated by the newly created, Dept. of Marijuana.
4. It’s Bullet-Proof. One of the biggest challenges to creating citizens’ initiatives in AZ is creating a set of rules that have to fiddle-proof to prevent legislators of various intentions from being able to make substantial changes to the program, yet supple enough to adjust to actual unforeseen complexities of governing such an industry. Looking to the as-of-yet unassailable Clean Elections Commission structure with a non-partisan political appointment process and internal reviews procedures. The structure should be ironclad when comes to outside forces and empowered to create the complex regulatory structure that will protect consumers and not hamstring the industry as it builds itself.
5.Is Hemp Legal? Though this ballot measure is designed to govern marijuana, an interesting development between the 1/26/15 and the 2/15/15 draft is the addition of the words “should be legal” into the paragraph in the finds section on Hemp. The earlier version of the sentence said “hemp should be regulated separately from” the more THC-laden strains of cannabis (i.e. marijuana). That passage now reads “the people of the State of Arizona further find and declare that hemp should be legal and should be regulated separately from” the THC strains of cannabis (36-2820.4) Later in the document (2822.6) it permits the state legislature to regulate and tax hemp. In the personal use and cultivation section a person’s right to “possess, produce, process, manufacturer, purchase, obtain, sell or otherwise transfer, or transport industrial hemp” is explicitly affirmed (2831.3). A lot obviously hangs on the difference between the meanings of the words “shall” & “should,” as “hemp shall be legal” v “hemp should be legal,” so for now we are asking for clarification.
6.What is a Plant? Home cultivators around the state appreciate the distinctions between a seedling, a clone, a vegetative state plant or one in full flower. Only the later has appreciable THC levels. Currently the definitions section defines “Industrial Hemp” (2821.4) & marijuana sort of (2821.7) by identifying what it is not, for example hemp. But if hemp is defined as a low-level THC cannabis plant, what about THC-heavy strains prior to their flowering state when they are still low-level THC bearing?
7.Forgot About Dre? One of the original concerns of Safer AZ, and the activist community as a whole, has been addressing: the damage already done to the tens of thousands of Arizonans who have been collateral damage in the War on Drugs, is still MIA. Post conviction relief, record expungement and current prisoner resentencing options are not in the language and, so far, unlikely to be added. Legislative fixes similar to Mark Cardenas’ 2014 bill HB2474 might be the only way to get justice for those whose lives are forever scarred by prohibition. Some of us can’t forget the past or that this language forgets to fix it.
8.THC & CPS? One of the most egregious acts of AZ’s scandal ridden Child Protective Services agency has been their targeting of parents w mmj cards. Already a national epidemic, CPS agencies around the country contend that parents w marijuana charges or even mmj cards are drug dependent and neglecting their kids, no matter the reality of the circumstances. While anecdotal evidence is strong, CPS denies such evidence, but the new law should end any questions of cannabis and kids: “No person may be denied custody of or visitation or parenting time with a minor, and there is no presumption of neglect or child endangerment for conduct allowed under this chapter, unless the person’s behavior creates an unreasonable danger to the safety of the minor as established by clear and convincing evidence.” (2831.4)
9.The No-Zone Layer. Beyond the state laws regarding the various aspects of marijuana regulation, the ballot measure clearly establishes the ability of local jurisdictions to have “local control” in regulating marijuana in their cities. While earlier drafts included provisions allowing cities to control the transportation of marijuana in their zoning jurisdictions have been struck, cities can still regulate “the smoking, production, processing, and manufacturing of marijuana when it is injurious to the environment or otherwise is a nuisance to a considerable number of persons” (2827.2a).
10. Schooled on “School” a final clarification from earlier drafts is that the word “school” is clarified to mean K-12 and younger educational facilities. Colleges, technical institutes and adult learning facilities would still be able to regulate cannabis on their properties, but not w the weight of felony arrest behind them.
--Mikel Weisser is the political director of Safer Arizona
Sounds like it is getting hammered out for the most part.
Thnx 4 sharing MaJag.
Twisted
Thnx 4 sharing MaJag.
Twisted
