Lawmakers are moving legislation that would ask voters to approve a new way of teaching English Language Learners in Arizona. 

Reyna Montoya was a math whiz, but she didn’t speak English when she was 13.

Mike Ulinger, who retired after 30 years as a Phoenix firefighter, said he couldn’t go anywhere or do anything and became an alcoholic to self-treat post-traumatic stress disorder he attributes to his job.

As a volunteer police officer in this northwestern Arizona city, Harley Pettit saw young people get in trouble for everything from drugs and alcohol to vandalism. In a small community with not a lot to do, he said, the last thing young people need is another way to get into trouble.

He’s worried that’s exactly what medical marijuana will give them.

The budget impasse between Brewer and leadership was largely broken when the Ninth Floor got lawmakers to revise their revenue projections upward, a revision that included a projected $10 million in sales tax revenue from medical marijuana.

Arizona Capitol Times reporter Evan Wyloge talks about what to expect from the final version of the Health Department's medical marijuana regulations, which will be released March 31.

Since voters passed Proposition 203 in November, the Health Department has been racing against the clock to get rules and regulations in place that will guide Arizona’s medical marijuana program. In an interview with the Arizona Capitol Times, Will Humble, the department director, previewed some of the changes coming in the final rules concerning one of the most contentious parts of the rules: how dispensary licenses will be distributed.

The House Ways and Means Committee on Monday did not to vote on a proposed 300 percent tax on medical marijuana in Arizona, opting instead to further investigate what effects such a tax could have.

While the state Department of Health Services will be mired in the process of drafting regulations for the industry over the next four months, it’s not stopping businesses from forming and pitching products and services that may never be approved by state regulators. And competition is already getting fierce.

A ballot measure allowing medical marijuana was too close to call. Unofficial returns Nov. 2 showed Proposition 203 trailing by a narrow margin.