Homeless in Arizona

Last night I some more math on that proposed Phoenix tax that would shake down marijuana growers for $50 per sq ft of their business and marijuana sellers for $280 per sq ft. I suspect that is a yearly tax, because the article didn't mention a time frame for the tax.

I walked off the distance of a large Circle K gas station and it seemed to be 100 feet by 40 feet. That would make it about 4,000 square feet.

I walked off the distance of a second Circle K which is the normal sized Circle K and it was about 50 feet by 50 feet or 2,500 square feet.

The Phoenix tax is $280 a square foot, so that would be a $700,000 tax on a 2,500 sq ft traditional sized Circle K or 7/11, or a $1,120,000 tax on the larger sized Circle K or Quick Trip QT gas station. [I did a quick Google on this and it said the average Circle K is about 3,500 sq feet]

I have said many times that if we are going to have an intuitive that legalizes marijuana it has to limit the amount of taxes government bureaucrats can slap on marijuana.

If the marijuana initiative doesn't limit the amount of tax the government can slap on marijuana, these government tyrants can easily create an outrageous tax like this Phoenix tax on marijuana to effectively make marijuana illegal with high taxes.

The same is true with zoning laws. If we have an initiative that lets the government pass zoning laws that terrorize marijuana businesses, the govenrment will pass super restrictive zoning laws to effectively make marijuana illegal.

The RAD initiative forbids the govenrment from taxing or zoning marijuana businesses so if RAD was passed the city of Phoenix would not be able to pass these terrorist laws against marijuana businesses. The RAD marijuana initiative says:

2. The government shall NOT tax, regulate, or pass any laws governing the use of marijuana.

When me, Alex and Dave wrote the initial Safer Arizona we included the RAD stuff about zoning, but let the government tax marijuana at a rate no greater then the sales tax on food.

But when marijuana criminal defense attorney Tom Dean got involved he removed the restrictions on zoning, so this outrageous Phoenix marijuana tax on the square footage of a marijuana business would be allowed.

Tom Dean also removed the restrictions limiting the sales tax on marijuana to be no more then the sales tax on food, so the 17% marijuana tax would also be legal under the Safer Arizona initiative.

Folks if we are going to legalize marijuana we HAVE to hand cuff our govenrment masters and forbid them from slapping outrageous taxes or zoning restrictions on marijuana.

And the only initiative that does that is the RAD marijuana initiative. The RAD initiative follows the article on the sales tax.

Sadly when Tom Dean re-wrote the Safer Arizona initiative he seemed to sell out the marijuana community.

I was kicked off of the Safer Arizona board of directors for complaining publicly that Tom Dean was turning the Safer Arizona initiative into a mini-version of the evil Prop 205 written by MPP or the Marijuana Policy Project and the legal Arizona medical marijuana cartel.

Remember this isn't the 1st time govenrment tyrants have tried to use taxes to make marijuana illegal.

In 2011 Kyrsten Sinema introduced a bill which would have effectively made medical marijuana illegal in Arizona by slapping a 300%, $900 an ounce tax on medical marijuana. I suspect that tax was for her buddies in the police unions.

When marijuana was made illegal with the "1937 Marihuana Tax Act" the Feds slapped a $100 an ounce tax on marijuana.

$100 an ounce in 1937 was a huge tax. In 1937 you could buy a brand new car for $600. So the tax on 6 ounces of marijuana was the cost of a brand new car.

Source Also see: ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10}

Phoenix Mayor proposing hefty tax on marijuana businesses for public safety funding

By: Courtney Griffin

POSTED: SEP 28 2018 07:53PM MST

VIDEO POSTED: SEP 28 2018 09:46PM MST

UPDATED: SEP 28 2018 09:47PM MST

PHOENIX (KSAZ) -- Should marijuana dispensaries, cultivation sites, retail business locations and public consumption lounges be subjected to a tax to help fund Phoenix Police and Fire Departments?

Phoenix Mayor Thelda Williams announced this idea yesterday to the city manager.

Fox 10's Courtney Griffin spoke with a small business owner and customers who say they support public safety, but also believe there is a better way to go about this.

The idea is to tax medical dispensaries to help fund public safety.

"I have no problem with that. Firemen and police don't have a problem showing up to our house when we need help, do they?" said a customer.

Mayor Williams says the police and fire departments are strained and unable to keep up with the public safety needs due to financial constraints.

"I'm very sympathetic and understand there is a deficit, and we need to cover it, and I'm happy to be a part of the solution. I just don't think the way they are doing it is far. We shouldn't carry the whole burden.

But Lilach Power, owner of Giving Tree Wellness, say sit can't be funded by small business owners, and the cost would be outrageous, forcing them to possibly leave the city or turn around and thrown that additional cost on patients.

"We are going to have to roll it on 178,000 patients in the whole state to cover for this. Some cultivation will just leave the city. Patients will go to other cities because it's going to be cheaper," Power said.

In this letter from the mayor to the city manager, there are several options on how the money would be collected. The letter states the occupational license tax in method would cost $50 per square foot for the cultivation and infusion sites and $280 per square foot used for retail or public consumption space. [Is that a yearly tax? monthly tax? One time tax?]

Another option would be 17 percent of the business gross receives from the previous 12 months or a flat rate tax.

"On the cultivation side, it can get up to almost a $1 million, $980,000 a year. It depends on the size of your cultivation. There's just no way to compete in the market if this is the kind of taxes you need to pay. They're just going to leave. We won't be able to do it," Power said.

The mayor states that as it stands now aside from some fees to the Arizona Department of Health Services, the dispensaries are only asked to pay sales tax on their retail sales activities at 2.3 percent.

The letter also mentions that if there is an emergency at a cultivation or production site, first responders have an increased risk responding due to lack of information on the current layouts, hazardous chemicals and materials because of restricted regulatory inspections that the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act enforces.

"I'm all for helping the community. I have several friends who are firefighters, you know, police officers. So I need as much help as they get get, however, this is a place where people to come from medicine and let's not exploit that. Let's meet somewhere in the middle," said a patient.

We reached out to the mayor's office, but they declined our request to comment.

Phoenix dispensary owners are gathering for an emergency meeting tomorrow to discuss their options.

As for Mayor Williams' idea, it will be presented to the city council on Tuesday and dispensary owners plan to be at that meeting.

Initiative to re-legalize Marijuana & Hashish in Arizona

100% complete re-legalization of marijuana & hashish 1. The government shall recognize that marijuana abuse is NOT a criminal problem but a medical problem.

2. The government shall NOT tax, regulate, or pass any laws governing the use of marijuana.

3. The government shall NOT assist any other government entities, such as Federal, foreign, world, Native American or state governments in enforcing any laws against marijuana.

4. The government shall NOT pass any guide lines, rules, regulations or laws discriminating against people or entities that use marijuana. Such as laws that limit a marijuana user's guns rights or parental rights.

5. Any person convicted of any marijuana offense in the past shall automatically have their criminal record cleared of those charges and automatically receive a full pardon for those charges.

6. Any person arrested for any marijuana offense in the past who accepted a plea bargain for reduced charges shall automatically have their criminal record cleared of those reduced charges and automatically receive a full pardon for those reduced charges.

7. Any government employee, agent, elected official, judge, law enforcement officer or prosecutor that arrests a person, violates a person's rights, passes a law or issues a ruling, guideline or edict that that interferes with a person's marijuana use shall be personally and civilly liable to each person for each incident for a minimum of $1 million in damages or 10 times the actual amount of damages whichever is greater. There shall be no immunity to a person who claims to be "acting in good faith" or for any other reason.

8 . All government courts shall accept cases involving marijuana use, and decide the case based on the oral, written, or other contracts of the parties involved. Courts may not refuse cases by saying that marijuana is illegal under Federal law, international law, or other laws.

9. Definitions: For this initiative the word "marijuana" refers to any form of marijuana, cannabis, hashish or hemp and includes concentrated forms such as THC, CBD, hash, hash oil, wax, shatter and all other forms. This includes any form of "marijuana use": recreational, religious, medical, commercial, industrial or any other use. This includes all parts of any plant of the genus cannabis, whether growing or not, the seeds of such plant, the resin extracted from any part of a plant of the genus cannabis; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture or preparation of such plant, its seeds or its resin; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture or preparation of such resin or tetrahydrocannabinol. Shall include, but not be limited to; all paraphernalia for marijuana use, such as pipes, bongs, cigarette papers or dabbing tools.

10. "Marijuana use" shall be defined as; but shall not be limited to: using, smoking, vaping, eating, consuming, drinking, snorting, transdermal delivery, injecting, sale, transfer, growth, cultivating, manufacture, processing, cooking, production, storage, possession, giving legal advice, transportation, or importation of marijuana.