The “Vote yes on Prop. 205 now, and fix it later” option, is NOT an option at all!
The Arizona Medical Marijuana Dispensaries are paying MILLIONS OF DOLLARS for Prop. 205 to pass specifically because it gives them an OLIGOPOLY on the entire Arizona Marijuana Market AND because Prop. 205 leaves the FELONY penalties in place for Marijuana offenses, which in-turn causes the value of Marijuana to remain artificially high and creates a very real incentive for customers to shop at their Dispensaries.
Theoretically, any law in Arizona can always be changed by a new Ballot Initiative later on. HOWEVER….
The problem is; If Prop. 205 were to pass, the Arizona Medical Marijuana Dispensaries who just spent MILLIONS OF DOLLARS to get an “Oligopoly” on both the Marijuana Market and the “Marijuana Accessories” Market would spend even MORE MILLIONS to stop us from changing the Marijuana law in any way that would affect their profits. (Like changing the law to remove FELONY penalties or changing the law to allow for more Marijuana Licenses, for example.)
Not to mention, if Prop. 205 DESTROYS all of Arizona’s SMOKE SHOPS, we can’t UNDO that damage in 2018 or EVER! That is PERMANENT DAMAGE!
If Prop. 205 DESTROYS our Arizona MEDICAL Marijuana Program, we can’t UNDO that damage in 2018 either! That is PERMANENT DAMAGE!
If Prop. 205 results in even MORE Marijuana Consumers going to jail and prison than ever before, we can’t UNDO that damage in 2018 either! That is more PERMANENT DAMAGE!
If Prop. 205 results in THOUSANDS of Marijuana Consumers being FIRED by their Employer, we can’t undo that damage either. Sadly, Prop. 205 does lots of PERMANENT DAMAGE that we simply cannot undo later.
We must also take into account that it would be incredibly difficult for us to gather support or financial contributions from the average Marijuana supporter for a 2018 Campaign to fix Prop. 205’s faults, primarily because the average Voter would think that Marijuana is already legal, without knowing of the true problems happening behind the scenes.
(For example, Carlos Alfaro, Campaign Manager of the Prop. 205 Campaign, frequently tells people that the Arizona Medical Marijuana Law is operating “flawlessly”, despite the fact that we all know that the Medical Marijuana Program has NUMEROUS problems!)
Besides, if the idea is that we should “Vote now, fix later”, then perhaps we should start by fixing Arizona’s broken MEDICAL Marijuana Law FIRST before trying to pass another broken Marijuana law that was written by the same group who failed us the first time.