Montini: News flash! 100 percent of Arizonans favor legalizing marijuana
If Trump wins, some of us will need it.
If Clinton wins, some of us will need it.
And since none of us knows for sure how the election in November will go, we ALL need to vote for … legalizing marijuana.
Stop the presses! Finally, something we agree on.
The signatures are in and have been validated.
Arizona voters will get to decide whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use at the same time we choose between Donald or Hillary.
At least we’ll get to make that decision if the agents of fear, who want to steal your right to vote, don’t prevail in court.
Opponents of what is now called Proposition 205 have gone to court to challenge the initiative, hoping to prevent all of us from getting to chance to determine for ourselves if marijuana should continue to be criminalized at the current level.
We know that it should not.
Prohibition isn't working (and never has)
We know that prohibition isn’t working, and hasn’t been working for generations.
Even in a conservative state like Arizona there is a decent chance voters would elect to make a change.
Under the initiative adults 21 and older could possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and grow up to six plants in their homes without obtaining licenses, as long as the plants are in a secure area. The initiative would create a Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control to regulate the "cultivation, manufacturing, testing, transportation and sale of marijuana."
CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN:What marijuana legalization is really about
The non-partisan Tax Foundation said Arizona could collect as much as $113 million in new tax revenue if marijuana is legalized for recreational use and taxed 15 percent.
Putting a question like this on the ballot isn’t guaranteeing its passage. It’s only guaranteeing that we get to decide whether it’s time for a change or not.
It won’t be an easy campaign. Already those opposed to the proposition are utilizing cheap fear tactics to frighten you into voting against it.
They’re not necessary.
Legalization isn't a magic solution
Anyone with common sense knows that legalizing marijuana and treating it like alcohol isn’t a magic solution.
Alcohol consumption remains a problem. Abuse is a problem. The same will hold true with marijuana. It will be messy. And we’ll never completely sort things out because there always will be people who abuse substances and act in ways that hurt themselves or others.
But alcohol was a problem before and during prohibition.
And prohibition added even more problems.
Just as the prohibition against marijuana costs us needless billions in legal fees, law enforcement and prison costs, let alone allowing criminal cartels to collect all the untaxed profits from sales.
It’s not an easy decision, but it’s a clear one.
Particularly now.
Think selfishly, in case your side loses. Or think generously, in case the other side loses.
The fact that our country, like it or not, is about to elect either President Donald Trump or President Hillary Clinton proves one thing:
We NEED marijuana.