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Marijuana advocates to turn in more than 200,000 signatures

Ben Giles//June 29, 2016//[read_meter]

Marijuana advocates to turn in more than 200,000 signatures

Ben Giles//June 29, 2016//[read_meter]

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Supporters of recreational marijuana use will turn in hundreds of thousands of signatures Thursday morning to get an initiative to legalize marijuana on the November ballot in Arizona.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol will submit over 200,000 signatures of Arizonans who support the initiative, which would create a retail market to regulate and sell marijuana for recreational use.

Arizonans approved the sale of medical marijuana by a slim majority in 2010.

The campaign, backed by the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, set a goal of roughly 230,000 signatures when it began collecting petitions in May 2015. They’ll need 150,462 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. The Secretary of State’s Office is responsible for validating the signatures.

If put on the ballot and approved by voters in November, the initiative, known as the Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act, would decriminalize the possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana and private consumption of marijuana by adults 21 and older. Individuals would be allowed to grow up to six marijuana plants, with no more than 12 plants in a home.

The initiative would create an industry by which marijuana can be produced and sold, subject to a 15 percent tax, with regulation from an entirely new agency, a Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control. Private sales would still be illegal. Localities would be left some wiggle room to adopt their own marijuana regulatory policies, so long as they don’t conflict with the intent of the act.

Backers have pushed legalization as a highly regulated system of manufacturing, transporting and selling marijuana, and as a taxable source of funding for schools. Legalized marijuana sales would generate an estimated $53.4 million in state revenue in fiscal year 2019, $38 million of which would be earmarked for schools and public health funding, according to a recent analysis by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. By 2020, marijuana taxes and fees could generate $81.9 million, analysts found.

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