The wake of prop 205’s defeat hasn’t even settled and we already have a new ballot measure filed, of which I for one support. Apache Junction’s Tim Cronin filed his initiative with the Arizona Secretary of State, which would amend our prop 203 laws and needs to now collect the 150,000 signatures to get on the next Ballot, so what is it about?

Cronin who directs a MMJ patient facility in Apache Junction proposes to lower the cost of the Department of Health MMJ cards from the current $150.00 down to just $10.00 making it more affordable for those in need of Cannabis as medication. He also is seeking to include additional qualifying conditions most notable among them being diabetes and P.M.S. Just those two would place a great number more Arizona Citizens under the umbrella of our successful MMJ program.

On a similar note Arizona Attorney Steven White is requesting a jury trial in filling a Verified Class action complaint with Maricopa County Superior court on behalf of Yolanda Daniels and Lisa Becker. Mr. White claims in his complaint that the $150.00 costs of the MMJ cards of which the state requires, have a chilling effect on a large population who are unable to afford the high cost of the Department of Health registration cards.

My personal belief is this would be a great time and opportunity for the Legislature to step in and demonstrate they work for all of the citizens of the State by supporting this cause. I am aware they are being lobbied to come up with some solution after the prop 205 vote and It would be nice to see an end to the unpopular 25 mile rule, with reasonable restrictions of course. This certainly is on the Christmas wish list I haven’t heard of any specifics as of yet but will be poking around; I’ll keep you updated. Aside from the legislature, it looks like were off to a great start this New Year advancing our cause through voter initiatives.

I First published the article below in the December issue of 710 Chronicle Newspaper and available online linked below. Instead of re writing what I had to say about prop 205 not passing here is my 2 cents.

http://www.710chronicle.com/just-proposition-205-fail/

Just How Did Proposition 205 Fail

BY Emory Caudill

So here I was, days after day clicking over to the Arizona State website for the updates on the counting of the 350,000 outstanding ballots, the anticipation was reminiscent of 2010 X 10. Most media already basically calling it without waiting for all votes to be counted, but I’ve decided to wait more out of respect than hope. So here it is, final Nov. 15^th edit before publishing, Prop 205 failed 48.33% in favor to 51.67% opposed.

Well at least we faired better than California did in 2010, their Prop 19 failed 53.5 % in opposition to 46.5 % votes in favor. I heard from a California resident it’s lucky for them this time around Jason Medar left the State of California and moved to Arizona. Here is a September 8, 2015 excerpt from Tucson Weekly articled titled “Weed War: The Split in the Pro-Legalization Initiatives” posted by Jim Nintzel

“Now, Arizonans for Mindful Regulation has persuaded Safer Arizona — formerly a backer of the MPP initiative — to adopt its cause. Its leader, Jason Medar, is a former Orange County, California, medical-marijuana dispensary owner who helped sink that state’s 2010 legalization initiative, Proposition 19. Medar claims he opposed the measure out of principle, not because he felt it was a threat to his businesses.

To be fair I don’t think we can blame a 3.34% loss or 82,256 votes solely upon Safer Arizona and Mr. Medar. It’s been no secret I’ve been a big supporter of Prop 205 not because of the Commercial aspects of which many activists in opposition stated was the reason or, at least what they settled on after many Safer Az statements were called into question. But has anyone looked at the commercial aspects of the states that passed recreationally? Prop 205 was not bad in comparison and nothing that a voter initiative couldn’t fix the specific issues contested if we were all united.

The saying only a fool represents himself in court, actually was an Attorney who represents himself in court has a fool for a client. Those who represent themselves in court are not professionals and shouldn’t be held to the same standard as attorneys. We’ve also heard the saying you can’t beat city hall; well my friends and me have over and over again and they don’t want that cat out of the bag, but not to say it’s easy. Why shouldn’t we be able to defend ourselves in court the same as filing our taxes? We are legally entitled to but it’s way to complex, that’s the point isn’t it. Most don’t file their own taxes because it’s so complex but some still do and fair just fine. So when I hear prop 205 was written poorly for me I didn’t see it, but that is because I read a lot of case law which the average citizen does not and with it I have challenged many attorneys and won not being an attorney myself. With that said something that reads much easier for the common citizen I’m certainly in support of, but just not so sure an iron clad proposition won’t get confusing for people and we have the same issue again of attorneys and citizens stating confusion. Keep in mind Attorneys disagree with each other every day, if one is in town he’s wealthy if two are in town they are both rich.

I have brought up issues regarding my Constitutional rights advocacy where the Circuit or Supreme Court case law states “it is well settled” and it falls on deaf ears, not because of law but politics. The truth is taking city and County politics into account, whatever proposition is passed in the future you can be sure someone will go to Jail for the State, county, or city to test the law. Who really controls police? Sad but the Mayor tells the city attorney what law he wants to skirt and the city attorney advises the police chief and the Chief down the line. They know the length of time it takes for litigation and the costs on the victim, we citizens must learn to defend ourselves and when you do that, it gets respect. It is black and white on paper in Scottsdale that law enforcement was advised if they come in contact with me to stand down. Why is that? We shouldn’t have selective enforcement in the United States so I’m telling all of you to expect whatever law is passed to be challenged, you can beat the rap but not the ride, I want to beat the rap.

The bigger picture we all need to focus on is the push for the Federal Government to reschedule, that’s the point of incremental change that NORML and MPP have fought for. Even if Safer Az garners support, lots of money and wins they owe a big portion of that to those two historic organizations. Not to mention the fat cats on Capitol hill will re write the rules anyway. Roll back the clock to 2010 and no way Arizona would bite for full on Recreational legalization and we think this next go around asking for more plants grown, less regulation will get more votes? MPP listened to us MMJ folks who wanted cultivation rights back. It’s more likely to succeed and garner support in seeing small changes that work, like prop 203 has done even with it’s holes. To ask for the whole pie at once, it won’t fly especially with the majority of prop 205 supporters angry, frankly I don’t think Safer Az can repair the damage and maybe doesn’t care to.

The numbers speak for themselves, 1,189,480 who supported prop 205 is one army. The 1,271,736 who opposed it according to state figures are A second army. Now the Bill Montgomery, Polk, all of their supporters were hugging Mr. Medar and his fellow comrades after it fell, but now the pitchforks and torches have dropped. The village is burnt to the ground and they both go their separate ways to now become enemies again. If Safer Az plans on passing anything they better consider new Leadership because like the Prohibitionists the fact checking didn’t quite pan out, the voters couldn’t see the forest through the trees, we were one army against two.

We are now more vulnerable to the Legislature lobbying going on right now, if safer reorganizes with new leadership or another Group materializes, it will put pressure on the legislature to come up with something reasonable if they rush to act. I’m certainly in favor of seeing the ACLU come in as some have suggested but they have failed Artists in Constitutional areas of which we were successful in their void, so it is not a requirement. Unless pressure is put on the Legislature we will only get something less than 205 and both sides of our camps will be unhappy. We need leadership who has a track record of building not destroying.

I had a recent discussion with a friend from California in the MMJ industry over his States passage of prop 64. He sees some down sides he said, but gets the big picture this is a push for Congress to act and is overall excited. In a year or two he states that if dispensary’s can demonstrate they can handle the transition they can turn to recreational, but explains it’s been status quo always 2 steps forward one back and it’s that way everywhere. They have still been busting dispensaries, cities banning grows ect. Nothing new except an inch closer to pushing the dominos over.

I couldn’t help but think Prop 205 seemed way better than what California got. I want to make clear yeah I’m pissed at Safer Arizona and Jason Medar but respect that others have a different view, so long as it’s founded in truth. I’ve got friends who are pretty dedicated to safer Az for whatever reason, I respect them and know they respect me. I’m going to wipe the slate clean, listen to what each side presents and fight for my interests as an MMJ advocate. You see I’ve always been a fighter, I do best fighting alone, I’ve fought for my rights and just so happened in doing so granted others those rights.

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” ― John Lydgate

I came across A comment from a February 22, 2016 New times article titled “Second Arizona Pot-Legalization Campaign Nears 100,000 Signatures” the commentary struck a bell with me.   Recently I’ve notice paltry support of comment “likes” on their social media. The best feedback Medar seems to have in online article commentary was from 2015, just look at all the comments on past articles compared to now, he and his supporters are lucky most of the time to get one “like” so is all his thousands of supporters just a con job? Where are the dedicated supporters? We have seen he can tear things down but what about building something responsible considering other citizen’s rights and safety? Or have we all been conned by a propaganda expert?

Chris PA

Jason Medar, I’ve watched videos of your position. Its simply a matter of you having hurt feelings about no longer being involved in the only legalization effort with a chance of passing. You want more plants at home, meaningless to most people. You want higher limits to amounts you can have on you, meaningless to most people. Things like having the concentrates being treated by the same weight limit, as the plant is just nonsensical. More stores, that will happen over a few years. The foot has to get in the door. Then as the concept is proven out, changes can come. Any normal person knows that is how these things work. Taking your ball and going home just ruins it for everyone. This is AZs one shot at this for 10 years. If you think you will be able to jump right back on this in 2018 you are insane. Right now is the perfect storm of support in a state like AZ and it should be capitalized on. Extremist liberal hippie groups like yours do way more harm then good in these kind of matters.

It is time for me to get over this and move on to support whatever direction I feel to be correct, I think safer Arizona should re-think things. In 1968 Lyndon Johnson had proof Richard Nixon sabotaged the Vietnam War peace talks and claimed that Nixon was guilty of Treason and had blood on his hands. That blood was 22,000 more American lives before the war ended. LBJ didn’t inform the Country because he feared the country would not be informed until after the Election and we would have a President unable to lead, will Mr. Medar?

STATE of Arizona, Plaintiff/Appellant, v. Valerie Ann OKUN, Defendant/Appellee. No. 1 CA–CV 12–0094. Decided: January 10, 2013

A year after we passed prop 203, California resident Valerie Okun had her Medical Marijuana confiscated at a I-8 boarder check station, charges were filed but dropped after she procured her MMJ authorization and Superior court ordered her MMJ to be returned.

Now in the wake of prop 205’s failure there will likely be an Arizona driver coming back from California’s New years day party in celebrating the passage of prop 64. We now resume the bad game of musical chairs, somebody’s going to fall,. It won’t be such a happy return of the partygoers who dropped a joint in the car and the dog sniffs it out.

Highway patrol and boarder searches will no doubt be ramped up for their favorite cash cows, to begin the slaughter. Sadly with the loss of prop 205 this analogy will play out to the first new crop of Arizonans next year to be arrested, prosecuted and potentially be sentenced to prison for possession under an Oz. Of course many will think they can just go to the TASK program, pony up the $1,000.00 and then drive to all the classes, no record. TASK doesn’t have to take you according to them you have to apply.

Someone who doesn’t have a lot of money makes it even harder to jump through all the hoops, without being sent to jail. If you fail pass go, don’t collect $200.00 and go directly to jail to complete your sentence. A few somebodys are going to think “wow that really wouldn’t have been fake legalization, I would have had my weed given back to me, have a nice day Mr. Police officer”.

Does safer AZ really think the Public officials won’t send the police to test their initiative if it’s passed? They don’t understand that Attorneys who say “its not drafted well” just mean “we want to be the ones to draft it and get the notoriety.”

They believe 8oz possession limit will fly with average Religious Jane and John Doe and it not look like it’s just cover to become a “Dealer”? Prop 205 protected against that and they disliked it.

Are there going to be protections for Residential landlords that got burned by large scale grows from “Dealers” rewiring, flooding and devaluing their houses? Oh wait they want to grow more plants than 6 such as prop 205 reasonably allowed.

How about protections for smoke shop owners like prop 205 had ;

36-2851 Not withstanding any other law, except as otherwise provided in this chapter or rules adopted pursuant to this chapter, A person who is at least 21 years of age is authorized and it is lawful in this State and may not be used as the basis for prosecution, penalty or seizure or forfeiture of assets, to posses, use, transport, deliver, MANUFACTURE or purchase marijuana accessories, OR DISTRIBUTE OR SELL MARIJUANA ACCESSORIES to a person who is at least 21 years of age.”

 The argument Mr. Medar seemed to claim stating Smoke shops would be put out of business didn’t come from him when pressed, as he stated to me. He wrote that a couple smoke shops were told by attorneys Prop 205 “could” force them to close. I asked what smoke shops and which attorneys stated that, I received no reply. The question needs to be asked of them if some smoke shop owners were led to believe that like Nixon if they kept prop 205 from passing they would get distribution rights. It just doesn’t make sense that one industry to benefit so greatly if prop 205 passed would be against it. How many people are going to buy pipes in Cali this New Years? For that matter how many Az MMJ cardholders are going to car pool to Cali to get their meds now that Cali in effect reciprocates AZ cards. What a missed opportunity for our economy and real legalization that would have kept real people from jail.