I was kicked off of the Safer Arizona board of directors this year on February 18, 2017 for complaining that marijuana criminal defense Tom Dean was turning the Safer Arizona initiative into a mini-version of Prop 205.
Prop 205 is the horrible initiative that MPP or Marijuana Policy Project and the Arizona medical marijuana dispensaries put on the ballot in 2016. Prop 205 went down in flames and lost.
Me, Alex Gentry and Sergeant David Stephen Wisniewski wrote the original version of the Safer Arizona initiative.
That version was pretty much based on the RAD or Relegalize All Drugs marijuana initiative which I wrote. You can see the RAD initiative here:
http://relegalize.100webspace.net/legalize_marijuana_2018.php
The Safer Arizona initiative me, Alex Gentry and Sergeant David Stephen Wisniewski wrote completely legalized marijuana with 3 exceptions which are not in the RAD initiative.
1) we added an age limit of 18, which Sergeant David Stephen Wisniewski changed to 21 because of his mom.
2) we allowed a simple sale tax no greater than the sales tax on food.
3) we added some requirements for testing and labeling
After we wrote the initial version of the Safer Arizona initiative marijuana criminal defense attorney or lawyer Tom Dean got involved in it.
Tom Dean was supposed to review it for legal correctness.
But instead of reviewing it for legal correctness, Tom Dean started watering the the very strong initiative that me, Dave and Alex wrote and turning it into a horrible initiative. He added limits on growing marijuana, requirements for sales tax licenses, and many other things which weakened the rights of marijuana consumers.
Because of that I complained to the marijuana community on Facebook.
And because of that I was kicked off of the Safer Arizona board of directors.
If I had not been kicked off of the Safer Arizona board of directors, I would have quit over what I thought were horrible changes Tom Dean made to the initiative.
You can see some of my complaints about the Safer Arizona initiative on this web page that compares the RAD initiative to the Safer Arizona initiative.
http://relegalize.100webspace.net/compare_RAD_to_safer_arizona.html
Some of the complains about the Safer Arizona initiative I have are:
It requires you to get an Arizona sales tax license to grow over 48 plants, or sell any marijuana.
And since marijuana is still a felony at the Federal level that sales tax license can be use against you in a Federal court for growing or selling marijuana charges.
It limits a person to growing 48 plants.
It makes it illegal to grow plants that are visible from a public place.
It's illegal to grow marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school for some people.
It is illegal to sell marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school for anybody.
You can't sell your personal marijuana to a friend. You can only give it away.
Cities and counties can enact zoning laws aimed at marijuana businesses. That part says:
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 cannabisI suspect this will be used by cities and counties to terrorize marijuana business. I also suspect that the current medical marijuana cartel will demand that zoning laws be passed that give them an effective monopoly on selling marijuana in their cities and counties.
One example is Chandler passed a zoning law which requires medical marijuana stores to be 1 mile or 5280 feet apart.
I suspect if the Safer Arizona initiative passes many cities and counties will pass zoning laws that required marijuana stores to be located one mile from each other.
Some of the Safer Arizona board members say that won't happen because of other parts of their initiative. But I suspect since Tom Dean gave cities and counties the right to pass zoning laws that apply specifically to marijuana businesses, they will do it, and the courts will allow it.
The original version me, Dave and Alex wrote gave automatic pardons to anyone convicted of a marijuana crime. Tom Dean took that out and made people apply for a pardon. I guess the lawyers need the work.
I later kicked off of the PCC or Phoenix Cannabis Board of directors for telling people about all the problems in the Safer Arizona initiative. They claim it was for unprofessional conduct. But call it what you want, I was kicked off for exposing the problems with the Safer Arizona initiative.
