Arizona voters approved medical marijuana in 2010, and since then the world as we know it has not ended. This year a legalization bill similar to Colorado’s is on the ballot (Prop 205), and it’s currently leading in the polls by about 10 points. Most of the money and political muscle, however, is behind the $4 million “NO” campaign, funded by businesses (like the alcohol industry) and spearheaded by Gov. Doug Ducey, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery and the usual fundy clown car.
The airwaves here are flooded with TV commercials, mostly from the monied “NO” side, and almost every one of their ads features Colorado teachers and administrators complaining about the effects of decriminalization. According to the Colorado educators, their schools didn’t get the money they were promised and kids are smoking a lot more weed. “Don’t follow the Colorado model,” is the message in all of the “NO” ads, such as this one below.
It turns out some Colorado lawmakers are not too keen on Arizona’s anti-pot campaign using these testimonials, since they contain “inaccurate and misleading statements.” In response, three Colorado legislators just sent a letter to the “NO” group, asking them to stop lying in their ads:
As members of the Colorado Legislature who played intimate roles in the budgeting and appropriation of marijuana tax revenues, we feel it is our duty to set the record straight so that voters in both states have accurate information about this subject.
We can say with certainty that the claims about Colorado marijuana tax revenues featured in your committee’s ads range from highly misleading to wholly inaccurate.
The letter goes into detail, pointing out that Colorado schools actually received more money than was anticipated—listing, precisely, who received how much. It’s big numbers. Further, the “NO” campaign’s argument that Colorado students are getting high more often now also rings hollow:
Rates of teen use have actually remained relatively unchanged since 2009 and are in line with the national average. In fact, they were slightly lower last year than they were prior to legalization.
Sure, it’s fair to raise questions about driving while high and edibles, especially where children are concerned, but ads that say schools will lose and society will rot are just a step above Reefer Madness.
What the “NO” ads don’t mention, which a letter from Arizona clergy does, are the lives ruined and the millions spent over the last decade to lock up 150,000 Arizonans, disproportionately Latinos and African Americans, for possessing small amounts of weed. It’s probably just a coincidence that the private prison industry here runs the legislature and executive office.
If Prop 205 passes, don’t bet against the Republican majority trying to override it legislatively or nullify it in the courts. No doubt anticipating 205’s popularity in the libertarian southwest, they even introduced legislation this year that makes it easier for these numbskulls to kill voter-approved initiatives. Because they know better. Especially about pot.
Heck, they silenced a few enviro-hippies in tiny Bisbee, and squashed Tucson’s gun buyback program, so banning “dangerous drugs” statewide should be a piece of cake. Toast!