For all of those advocates hoping Arizona may join other states like Colorado in legalizing marijuana, Safer Arizona had a disappointing announcement recently. The legalization efforts will be abandoned for 2014 after signature-gathering efforts fell far short.

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“It was around a third of what we were after,” said Mikel Weisser, executive director of the organization. “It’s not going to be a number that we are rallying behind, it’s a benchmark to improve from.” [Read more…]

The medical marijuana system in Arizona allows for patients of a very few medical conditions to seek authorization from their doctor and the state to be treated with cannabis from one of the state’s 71 dispensaries. An untold number of applications are denied every year because medical conditions like depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder are not included on the “allowed” list. Advocates are hoping that will soon change. [Read more…]

As we wrote last month, polls in Arizona have been mixed when it comes to determining just how many people want to legalize pot and how many want to keep it criminalized. But the latest poll indicates a small majority support legalization, a possible indication that we could be among the states changing marijuana laws in upcoming years, if not sooner. [Read more…]

The state of Arizona has more than 43,000 registered medical marijuana users. Among those users, an estimated 3 tons of medical pot was sold from state dispensaries in 2013. This is a remarkable number, especially considering many dispensaries didn’t open their doors in the state until later in the year. With even more sales likely in 2014, the revenue from medical marijuana could provide some within the state the push needed to support legalized recreational pot, though we are still likely several years away from that. [Read more…]