By Evan Wyloge | Arizona Capitol Times
The same well-funded, national organization that ushered Arizona’s medical marijuana law onto the books in 2010 already plans to return for a 2016 full-legalization effort. But that just isn’t soon enough for some local activists.
A proposed ballot measure for November 2014, drafted by north Phoenix computer engineer Dennis Bohlke and filed under the campaign committee Safer Arizona, would implement a Colorado- or Washington-style marijuana legalization, if voters approve it. Under the proposed system, adults would be able to purchase, possess and use marijuana. And state and local governments would be able to regulate and tax the industry.
The biggest challenge for the group, Bohlke said, will be gaining the signatures that would put the measure on the ballot. The group needs 259,213 valid signatures to make it to the ballot. Most signature gathering efforts plan to get around 30 percent more than what’s required to account for the signatures deemed invalid during a sampling done by the Arizona Secretary of State’s office.
