By Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Capitol Times
Some Republican lawmakers are sounding the alarm to their colleagues that recreational marijuana legalization efforts are likely to pass at the ballot in November and that the legislature would be wise to consider legalizing the drug to avoid triggering voter-protection measures.
However, the effort may be coming too late to head off a voter-approved law, even if the Republicans who control the legislature wanted to.
“I think the legislature needs to accept the fact that the initiative is going to pass,” Rep. Travis Grantham, R-Gilbert, told Arizona Mirror.
To foster discussion about what it will mean if voters legalize marijuana, Grantham let the Regulatory Affairs Committee, which he chairs, hear testimony Feb. 10 on a Tucson Democrat’s legalization bill that otherwise is unlikely to be considered in the GOP-led House of Representatives.
