Probation has been an abject failure. Marijuana is easily and readily available to everybody who wants it. So the choice we have is not whether or not marijuana is good or bad because its simply out there and it exists. Its a part of our society. We are saying we are far better off taxing and regulating thats there and sending the tax dollars to our school rather than keep it illegal enrichment of criminal drug dealers. Talk about colorado. Look at whats what its done to colorado. Increased traffic death does to marijuana. Accidental ingest rates for youth have skyrocketed because of legalized marijuana because they are looking like regular gummy bears. Colorado leading the nation now in teen use. We dont have to look far to see what its done to colorado. Number two, this initiative all drafted by marijuana special interests and they have funded over 90 of their campaign because they know people like j. P. Will benefit and reap millions from this. If it passes. And thats what this is about. They run a very Misleading Campaign for a Safer Community and more money for schools. Prop 205 wont do that but it will enrich the marijuana special interests pocketbooks. The argument that this should be you promoted that idea. Are they really the same thing, marijuana and alcohol in the sense that one is legal and one is not but in terms of the effects on society we know that marijuana is far safer than alcohol in every single regard. So i think if we were 20 turn the clock back 100 years and people said we have a choice, will we make marijuana legal or alcohol legal, its overwhelmingly people would it doesnt have the same effects on the body it doesnt promote or insight violent behavior mp when we look at incidents and problems and talk with any of our Law Enforcement community and ask them the same question which i do on a regular basis and Police Officers will say i get into fights regularly with drunks of very rarely if ever have i had a confrontation with somebody thats solely under the influence of marijuana. Marijuana is safer in every single regd. We criminalize this. That criminalize is a felony charge. Arizona has the harsh marijuana laws in the country. Why are we continuing to criminalized and here in arizona we have arrested and charged more than 150,000 individuals since 2005 with felony charges for simple marijuana possession. If somebody has a joint, they have a joint and they are caught, generally they are not going to get a felony. Here is what happens with it. The charges a felony here in arizona, so you go in front of the county attorney and he says, well, you have either a felony on your record or go to this task diversion program. Now here is something thats interesting because Bill Montgomery the county attorney has been a problem the most vocal opponent of proposition 205. Just this week it was revealed his office received kickbacks from the task force to the tune of about we have essentially prosecuting for profit. Rico money . Thats the money that is paid by those that are given the choice of a felony or go to the diversion program. I have to jump in. There is wild inaccuracies. The same Law Enforcement that j. P. Is talking about have come out in opposition of 205. The Arizona Police association. The police i have to ask why. I can tell you why. The sergeant out of colorado who leads the Drug Task Force in colorado has told he came down and spoke to many groups here and has talked about this and said legalization does not solve problems. Decriminalizing does not sob proves and increases them. This gets to a question i asked you before we started taping. On balance is it better to have more people high or drunk Walking Around . Thats the question the voters need to answer. Most voters will tell you, no. Just is that the best argument you got . Absolutely not. To dispel another inaccuracy. No, its not true that in arizona there is the harshest penalties for arizona thats not true at all. 131 of the 42,000 inmates that we have in arizona are behind bars right now because of marijuana. In arizona you dont go to prison or jail for felonies. You end up with a felony on your most of the folks behind prison are because they pled down from distributing it or these are higher value. More drugs. I think that there is absolutely truth to this. Our prisons are not filled with casual marijuana consumers and thats a misnomer thats put out there. But the reality is that while they dont go to prison, they do end up with criminal records. And so for smoking weed you shouldnt be in that group. Of course. Absolutely not. People that are consuming something objectively why not change the drug law rather than full legalization. Thats what we are doing it today. And john, another thing i have to butt in and say there is no objective evidence that marijuana is safer than alcohol and thats why most of the Law Enforcement lets fact check that one. Anything that increases traffic deaths is not more safe than alcohol. And you would agree that more traffic deaths are caused by alcohol than marijuana. I wouldnt disagree. But these are apples and oranges. Thats what you are comparing here. Marijuana affects everyone differently if you ingest it or eat it it takes 90 minutes for you to feel the full effects of it. Lets talk about somebody who eats a brownie or cookie and then 90 minutes, feels fine. 90 minutes later goes out and kills someone. Thats something that has happened in all the other states that have legalized not something that any of the voterses here. Thats been debunked by certainly the Colorado Department of transportation. And i would ask you, your news station and anybody else to go ahead to the Colorado Department of transportations website and look up their traffic fatalities and look at that data. It doesnt match with what you are told. We will provide our stats. This to me is always bothered get mayor within, anybody i know who smokes marijuana, they have no trouble getting it right now. Yeah, and point another thing out thats misleading here, some have said that and i think that one of the things the other campaign right now the proponents are trying to confuse is this prop 205 is about medical marijuana. Thats not what im talking abouts if if you let me finish my point here. Yes, anyone who needs medical marijuana im talking about somebody who wan their hands on it so easily. Then why should we have something that will legalize it . And this is not about legalizing it. If you read proposition 205 and we encourage every single voter to go to our website no prop 205. Com we have the language in there. If you wanted to decriminalize marijuana, just do a simple change in the paragraph and do it. This creates special monopolies for the marijuana special interests. Its a money thing. Thats the last thing thats funded in proposition 205. J. P. . And i think we should talk about the money thing. We talk about the funders of my side of the campaign. Certainly we have the Marijuana Policy project thats supported to the tune of about 1 million. The remainder, about threequarters of the campaign has come from local dispensers. I dont think its a surprise to anybody out there that those people that are involved in the medical Marijuana Industry are also supportive of ending the failed policies of thats not a surprise to anybody. What is a surprise to people is that weve see opioid manufacturer come in and contribute half a Million Dollars to their campaign. We have seen prison contractors contribute about 180,000 to their campaign. So when we have Opioid Drug Companies and then prison contractors contributing to keep marijuana a felony in the state of arizona, that tells me everything that i need to know about the no campaign. Cut through it tell them what means. Probation is in place and felony probation is in place because its profitable for those agencies and those governmental agencies to do. And the drug companies. Absolutely. First off, arizona based company. We are very proud that weve had a lot of donation from arizona based companies because they know this will reap major consequences for their employees and employer loss. Let me ask you about that. One of the questions about that is how do you maintain a drugfree work place once this passes . J. P. , you start. I think we need to look at the text of the initiative. And i like to refer back to the text of the initiative because it makes sense. 20 pages. Yeah. It is 20 pages. I know thats a big criticism by our opponents but my response is reading is hard and i your politicians can read 20 page pchesz regardless if they cant get through that, you can see why they and i can read. This chapter does not require an employer to allow or accommdate the possession of consumption of marijuana or marijuana products in the workplace and does not affect the abilities for employers to intact and enforce workplace policies restricting the consumption of marijuana by employees. Same as alcoho, you cant have an employee who comes in chronically drunk. They will bounce that person. If they come in and impaired or under the influence, whatever is it, the employee. Right to work state. Her this. Is that there are some marijuana advocates out there that are very unaphy about this because they are saying, wait a second, if my employer wants to drug test me and im positive for marijuana that employer can fire me. Which is true. They can i believe the employers should have the right to maintain whatever workplace policies they see fit. Im getting criticism from advocates my employer should not be allowed to fire me. System. The metabolites can remain in the system for 30 days. Thats a problem that could be problem if it were legalized if employers could cause trouble for employees. It may not be high at the moment but its in their system. The remnants or those may be in their system so those employers that want to maintain whatever policies they see fit have the ability to do so. Never know. Number one what you just said is absolutely correct. What he is failing to mention also in that 20 page is it creates a statutory right for every citizen in arizona to use marijuana. Where does it say it can you show me that. Number two, it is explicitly says if only way you can get punished for having a statutory right is if its in that initiative in the 20 pages is where its going to lay out. We dont have a statutory right to use alcohol in arizona. Sell alcohol, you name it. Statutory right. Its not only changes the wording. Its not there. If somebody goes tout lunch and eat a brownie and you just pointed out right now those metabolites stay in your system. If they come back to work and they are feeling the effects of it and they cause an accident and you are talking about a manufacturing plants, you name it, now that company has to bring a lawsuit on themself because they will have to proven its due to malfeasance or the tort lawyers dream. Looking at all of the different employer ramifications you think its onerous for employer. So Many Employers have come out against it and contributed to our campaign. I have in my language here and tell me if this is wrong. The new law allows anyone 21 or older to buy up to an ounce of marijuana or up to five grams of concentrated marijuana march 2, 2018. Thats correct. Current possession law that states the possession of any amount of mayor within even one joint is a felony. Decriminalizes that. No longer a felony in practice persons who are charged generally for probation we talked about that. Anyone 21 or older would be able to grow up to six of their own plants although landlords are allowed to prohibit growing plants. Is that long and short what weve got here. Yeah, that sums it up. Thats the accurate statement. W medical marijuana licenses for retailers . Who gets first dibs on that. The, pangs of the medical those medical mayor within they have a Physical Plant and they are in the business they get the first jump on it. The proponents offer is this is an economic thing for people like you who are owners who want to expand the business. What do you say to that . If they want to talk about having more dispensaries in this state, im thrilled to have that conversation. I think that would be a great when we were drafting this when went to colorado and started looking around. We went to denver and in denver they have more dispensaries than they do starbucks and subways and mcdonalds combined. So we look at this and we say this isnt necessarily. That speaks to demand. Yeah. We looked that and i dont think this is what arizona voters want. We would rather have a far more limited program like we do with the existing Marijuana Program today and its out there. Its available. People can its not in your face the way that we have seen it is in colorado. So if we had gone the colorado route with unlimited licensing, there is no doubt in my mind they would be screaming from the top of their lungs there will be a dispensary on every corner and they would be correct. When we tried to limit it, we are trying to create a monopoly which doesnt add up. Weve got 90 dispensaries right now. Certificates for about 30 more this year. Bringing the total to 120. And dhs has issued 100,000 card for medical marijuana. 100,000. It strikes me that we already have a channel to get weed if you are dieing to get it. You go to a homeopath it seems easy to get it to me. Let me correct. The other thing that colorado has that arizona wont have is the ability to alter the law. They have modified the law in colorado. Counties and cities can opt out. Under proposition 205 they cannot opt out if there is an existing medical marijuana two there is no way we can alter this and thats a very important fact. That is true because of vote proper dex law. Lets talk about that. Arizona voters to understand if they passthet governor cannot repeal it the legislature or veto it because the Voter Protection act passed in arizona. The only way to amend it to further its purpose. So little History Lesson is in order here. In 1996 arizona passed the first medical marijuana law. Legislature came in and wiped it off the books. Disrupted the voters and voters we dont care what you have to say we are wiping it off the books. The next opportunity they came back as John Sperling founder of university of phoenix and came back with a Voter Protection act and said if the voters pass something, the state legislature can only change it with a threequarter vote majority which means they bipartisan and in furtherance of the act. Now if they want to make other ch can simply refer this back to the ballot for either repeal or for any modifications. They dont have to collect the signatures. Thats a tough process. Its a little harder process but thats the point. And the point is because the state legislature dont let the politicians tinkers in thats the point. That wont be able to happen in arizona. It can happen. It will be difficult. My point is unlike colorado it should be difficult. The point being that in or in colorado they have an ability to opt out. Cities and towns. The legislature can amend it, fix it. In colorado they are banning edibles now. No, they are not. They didnt pass the law recently no, they are not. They didnt ban certain edibles. They are banning edibles. I will let you talk about this in the break. We are going to take a break. We were back on newsmaker sunday. Fascinating debate on prop 205. Full legalization of marijuana. You are voting on it. We will back on newsmaker sunday. Prop 205 to fully legalize marijuana in arizona. They have done it in colorado and washington state. We have some states to look to get a sense how its working. J. P. Is a supporter of legalizing recreational marijuana. One of the major supporters and voices. And adam is a no on proposition 205 Campaign Manager. Its been discussed in the money, some of it will go toward education. Some say thats an interesting idea. You love that part of the prop. Its an important part of this. And then there is the commercials that are running against us saying the money is not going to education and they point to colorado and i think that there should be an explanation of the differences. Here in arizona we say we will put that money directly to the schools. It doesnt go to the general state legislators to do the right thing them have demonstrated history of malfeasance on the education issues in this state. We have the jlbc which has put a net number of about 55 million. Joint legislative Budget Committee nonpartisan. We have the Nonpartisan Tax Foundation put out a higher number of the grand canyon institute. But in colorado, only the first 40 million could go to education. And so the School Districts then apply to the state for those funds and their application process favors the rural School Districts. You see these commercials, they say denver got nothing. Well, guess, what denver schools didnt even apply for any of the money. We have only a minute left. Will the money go to schools . No. Of the 55 million, that by every single does that buy every single child a text book in arizona. The education budget is 9 million. Doesnt give any teacher a raise. You think this is simply marbling. This is a Marketing Strategy and thats why they have led with that. If you look at the prop 205 signs, the yes on prop 205 signs. It says more money for schools. We have to stop right there. Couple of Closing Remarks from both of our guests right after this on newsmaker sunday. Back on newsmaker sunday, fully legalize marijuana in arizona. J. P. Hole on the left of your screen and the Campaign Manager for not on prop 205. Weve talked a lot about colorado. Is colorado instructive when arizona voters assess how this might play out here. Very much so. As i mentioned earlier, the colorado experiment we believe has been a failure but at worse or at best for them its inconclusive. We have seen is major consequences like i talked about in traffic deaths and accidental ingest rates and you have superintendents in colorado saying where is the pot money we were promised. The cherry creek superinte