Homeless in Arizona

Source Also see: ^{1 2 3 4 5}

When me, Alex and Dave wrote the initial Safer Arizona initiative it was based on the RAD 2016 initiative and was 100% legalization of marijuana with 3 minor exceptions which were:

1) we added an 18 year age limit, which Dave changed to 21 because of his mom. There is no age limit in the RAD initiative.

2) we allowed a tax on marijuana not to exceed the sales tax on food. The RAD initiative doesn't allow the government to tax marijuana.

3) we set some requirements for labeling and testing marijuana. The RAD initiative treats marijuana like tomatoes or potatoes and doesn't set any labeling or testing requirements.

When marijuana criminal defense attorney Tom Dean got involved with the Safer Arizona the plan was for him to review it for Constitutional problems. But instead of reviewing it for Constitutional problems, Tom Dean gutted a lot of the protections me, Alex and Dave put in it for marijuana users.

It seemed like most of the stuff Tom Dean added to the Safer Arizona initiative were to help marijuana criminal defense lawyers like himself. And to help the existing legal medical marijuana cartel become the legal recreational marijuana cartel.

Some of things Tom Dean added to the Safer Arizona initiative were:

Tom Dean made it illegal to grow marijuana which was visible from a public place. So you couldn't grow marijuana in an unfenced yard. For that matter you couldn't grow marijuana in your living room, if it was visible from the street.

Page 2 - 3-3702 H - Cultivation of cannabis [marijuana] from personal grows, home gardens, and commercial grows may not be visible from a public place from ground level without the use of binoculars, infrared imaging, thermal imaging or any other artificial surveillance equipment or other optical aids.

Tom Dean made it illegal to grow marijuana home gardens within in 1,000 feet of a school. Something which would make it illegal to grow marijuana in huge areas of most cities like Phoenix, Tempe, Tucson or even Flagstaff.

Page 2 - 3-3702 G - Commercial grows, home gardens and cannabis sales [marijuana sales] are not authorized within 1,000 feet of a school

Tom Dean made it illegal to grow more than 48 marijuana plants without a government license. And the DEA and other Federal police could use the public records from those sales tax licenses to hunt down and arrest marijuana growers on federal marijuana felony charges.

Page 2 - 3-3702 - E.2 - All persons who are at least twenty-one [21] years of age are authorized to cultivate cannabis [marijuana] ... for personal use, provided that the cultivation does not exceed forty-eight [48] cannabis plants in a state of efflorescence / inflorescence.

Tom Dean made it illegal to sell any amount without a government license. And the DEA and other Federal police could use the public records from those sales tax licenses to hunt down and arrest marijuana sellers on federal marijuana felony charges.

Page 2 - 3-3702 E.5 - The person cultivating the cannabis [marijuana] shall be permitted to ... transfer such cannabis to other persons ... provided that nothing of value is transferred in return. [i.e. You can give away the marijuana you grow, but you can't sell the marijuana you grow unless you get a sales tax license]

Page 3 - 3-3706 B - A person or entity operating a business for income from the resale of cannabis [marijuana] or cannabis products shall obtain a transaction privilege license [sales tax license] and any standard local tax and/or business license

Tom Dean made it illegal to sell marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school. Something that would severely restrict marijuana businesses.

Page 2 - 3-3702 G - cannabis sales [marijuana sales] are not authorized within 1,000 feet of a school

When me, Alex, and Dave wrote the initial Safer Arizona initiative we thought that cities and counties would pass zoning laws which were intentionally aimed at making marijuana businesses illegal, so we forbid the government from passing zoning laws aimed at marijuana businesses.

But we did say that marijuana businesses had to obey all other zoning laws.

Again Tom Dean came along and flushed all those protections for marijuana businesses down the toilet and allowed cities and counties to pass zoning laws that could be used to terrorize marijuana businesses.

Page 2 - 3-3705 A - Cities, towns and counties may enact reasonable zoning regulations that limit the land use for commercial grows, home gardens, and businesses engaged in retail sale and wholesale of cannabis [marijuana] [Tom Dean didn't define what "reasonable" is so, cities and counties probably would be able to get away with passing draconian unreasonable laws, and not worry about it until somebody with lots of money came along and sued them]

Tom Dean made it illegal to possess marijuana in government buildings, which would have caused anybody that accidently took some marijuana into a government building to be arrested.

Page 5 - 3-3713 C.1-3 - The possession of cannabis [marijuana] shall be prohibited in the following places only: school buses ... government buildings [except colleges]

When me, Alex and Dave wrote the initiative Safer Arizona initiative we gave automatic FREE pardons to anyone convicted of a victimless marijuana crime.

Tom Dean changed that and made people file motions and jump thru hoops to get their pardons. I suspect Tom Dean put this in the Safer Arizona to generate some revenue for his law firm.

Page 4 - 3-3711 B.1 - Any person who was sentenced ... may file a motion to modify the sentence with the judge, commissioner, justice of the peace or magistrate who pronounced the sentence or imposed probation or such judge, commissioner, justice of the peace or magistrate's successor in office.

10 Page 4 - 3-3711 B.2, B.4 - No later than thirty (30) days from the filing date of the motion to modify sentence, the court shall either grant the motion to modify sentence or, if the state objects, schedule a contested resentencing hearing. ...

The court shall either grant or deny the motion to modify sentence no later than sixty (60) days from the date of the filing of the motion to modify sentence.

Page 4 - 3-3711 C - The defendant may file a petition to expunge conviction with the judge, justice of the peace or magistrate who pronounced sentence or imposed probation

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Here is a link to the Safer Arizona initiative on file with the Arizona Secretary of State's office

Here is a link to the RAD 2016 initiative which the Safer Arizona initiative was based on.

Here is a link to the RAD 2018 initiative which has a few minor changes from the RAD 2016 initiative.

Here is the text of the 2018 RAD initiative. Note item 8 has been deleted for the 2020 initiative:

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 regulations discriminating against people or entities that use use marijuana.

5. For this initiative the word marijuana refers to any form of marijuana, cannabis or hemp and includes concentrated forms such as hashish, hash oil, wax and shatter. This includes any form of marijuana used for recreational use, religious use, medical use, commercial use, industrialist use or 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. This includes all paraphernalia for marijuana use, such as but not limited to pipes, bongs, cigarette papers or dabbing tools.

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

7. 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 for those reduced charges and automatically receive a full pardon for those reduced charges.

8. [Deleted]

9. Any government employee, agent, elected official, judge, police officer or prosecutor that arrests a person, 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.

10. 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.

11. The use of marijuana is defined as, but not 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.