Marijuana would be legalized and taxed to help pay for senior citizens’ prescriptions, childcare for single working parents and other programs under an initiative proposed by an inmate at the state prison in Florence.

Initiative application I-03-2006 is the second application that Joel K. Barr has filed in the past two weeks. The latest proposal, submitted by mail, arrived at the Secretary of State’s Office on Feb. 18. His first proposal would do away with plea agreements, requiring all criminal charges to go to trial.

Not least among the barriers to enactment of Barr’s most recently proposed measure is that marijuana is a controlled substance under federal law.

The measure would require the signatures of at least 122,612 registered voters by July 6, 2006, to make the November 2006 general election ballot.

The proposed initiative reads: “It shall not be unlawful to possess marijuana. Every transaction wherein marijuana is sold or traded shall be taxed 25 per cent added to its transaction price or fair market value. The tax shall be collected by the seller on behalf of the Department of Revenue and shall be deposited into the state’s general fund. Failure by the seller to pay this tax in a timely manner shall be punishable by law to be enacted by the Legislature.”

Also on the application, Barr stated that the “initiative’s purpose is to provide supplemental funds for prescription medication for the retired; 24/7/365 day care for single working parents and more.”

Barr, 54, is serving a 40-year sentence on a total of 124 counts, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections. The more serious of the charges include molestation of a child, sexual exploitation of a minor and furnishing obscene material to a child, a spokesman said.

Barr hasn’t filed any paperwork with the Secretary of State for a campaign committee. Barr listed the main telephone number for the Florence prison as his contact information.

State election law requires that circulators of petitions be registered voters. Anyone who’s been convicted of a felony in Arizona may not vote unless he has petitioned a court to have his civil rights restored, a process that’s not available to anyone who’s currently incarcerated. —