By Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror
Arizona voters may be asked to severely limit the amount of THC that medical marijuana can contain, if the top Republican in the Arizona House of Representatives has his way.
After reading a controversial book that links marijuana use to mental illness and violence, House Speaker Rusty Bowers wants to limit medical marijuana to a THC content of only 2%. Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the chemical responsible for most of marijuana’s psychological effects.
Bowers’s House Concurrent Resolution 2045 would set the strict THC limit on marijuana and marijuana products sold in Arizona medical marijuana dispensaries. It would also mandate that the Arizona Department of Health Services develop warning labels and require the department to study the relationship between marijuana, schizophrenia and violent behavior using money gathered from the medical marijuana program.
Because voters approved the state’s medical marijuana program in 2010, major changes like those proposed in HCR2045 must be approved by voters.
“This is an absurd piece of legislation predicated on misinformation and aimed at rolling back the will of Arizona’s voters. It’s a shame that our leadership doesn’t focus on real issues that our state needs help with such as a sustainable transportation infrastructure, Improving our education system, and planning for alternative water sources, rather than worrying about marijuana, which objective studies show to be a safe alternative medicine.”
