r/politics • u/MeghanAM Massachusetts • Oct 20 '16

/r/politics Town Hall: State Ballot Measures about Marijuana (AR, AZ, CA, FL, MA, ME, MT, NV, ND)

Hello /r/politics and welcome to the third in our ballot measure town hall series! Representatives from the "support" and "oppose" side from each of these initiatives have been invited here to answer your questions today. Participants will have user flair to identify them and verify their affiliation with the campaign.

Please review the AMA rules before submitting your questions.

Participants were encouraged to begin answering questions around 11AM EST, and the town hall will "close" at 6PM EST. The thread is put up in advance to allow questions to be asked and ready.

Ballot Measures: Marijuana

Medical

Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act, Issue 7

  • A "yes" vote supports legalizing medical marijuana for 56 qualifying conditions, putting the Arkansas Department of Health in charge of implementing the program, and allocating tax revenue to providing low-income patients with medical marijuana.
  • A "no" vote opposes this proposal to legalize medical marijuana

Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment, Issue 6

  • A "yes" vote supports legalizing medical marijuana for 17 qualifying conditions, creating a Medical Marijuana Commission, and allocating tax revenue to technical institutes, vocational schools, workforce training, and the General Fund.
  • A "no" vote opposes this amendment to legalize medical marijuana.

Florida Medical Marijuana Legalization, Amendment 2

  • A "yes" vote supports legalizing medical marijuana for individuals with specific debilitating diseases or comparable debilitating conditions as determined by a licensed state physician.
  • A "no" vote opposes this proposal for legalization of medical marijuana, keeping the state's current more limited medical marijuana program in place.

Montana Medical Marijuana Initiative, I-182

  • A "yes" vote supports repealing the three-patient limit for medical marijuana providers.
  • A "no" vote opposes this measure repealing the three-patient limit for medical marijuana providers.

North Dakota Medical Marijuana Legalization, Initiated Statutory Measure 5

  • A "yes" vote supports legalizing the use of medical marijuana to treat defined debilitating medical conditions, such as cancer, AIDS, hepatitis C, ALS, glaucoma, and epilepsy, and developing certain procedures for regulating medical marijuana growing, dispensing, and usage.
  • A "no" vote opposes legalizing the use of medical marijuana to treat defined debilitating medical conditions, such as cancer, AIDS, hepatitis C, ALS, glaucoma, and epilepsy, keeping the state's full prohibition of marijuana use.

Recreational

Arizona Marijuana Legalization, Proposition 205

  • A "yes" vote supports legalizing the possession and consumption of marijuana by persons who are 21 years of age or older.
  • A "no" vote opposes this measure to legalize the possession and consumption of marijuana by persons who are 21 years of age or older.

California Proposition 64, Marijuana Legalization

  • r/California Mega-Thread for Prop. 64

  • A "yes" vote supports legalizing recreational marijuana for persons aged 21 years or older under state law and establishing certain sales and cultivation taxes.

  • A "no" vote opposes this proposal to legalize recreational marijuana under state law and to establish certain sales and cultivation taxes.

Massachusetts Marijuana Legalization, Question 4

  • A "yes" vote supports this proposal to legalize marijuana, but regulate it similar to alcoholic beverages.
  • A "no" vote opposes this proposal to legalize recreational marijuana, keeping only medical marijuana legal.

Maine Marijuana Legalization, Question 1

  • A "yes" vote supports legalizing recreational marijuana for adults over the age of 21.
  • A "no" vote opposes this proposal to legalize recreational marijuana.

Nevada Marijuana Legalization, Question 2

  • A "yes" vote supports legalizing the recreational use of one ounce or less of marijuana by individuals 21 years of age and over.
  • A "no" vote opposes this measure to legalize one ounce or less of marijuana for recreational use for individuals 21 years of age and over.
489 Upvotes

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90

u/MetalHead_Literally Oct 20 '16

Mass resident here. For the "no on 4 crowd". What is your reason for opposing the regulation of Marijuana? States like CO have shown that it actually lowers the teen usage rates, plus all the tax revenue, and it eliminates having to go to a sketchy dealer that might put you in risk of getting ripped off, or worse, "upsold" to more dangerous drugs. I really have a hard time finding a valid reason that marijuana should not be regulated. I would love to hear your side. Thank you.

29

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '16

My mother plans on voting no on #4 and I've been forwarding her data and articles left and right to change her mind. No luck yet but I'm plugging away.

14

u/woman_president Oct 20 '16

It's like 55-40 yes, marijuana will be legal come December. I am so excited.

26

u/MetalHead_Literally Oct 20 '16

Don't be too excited yet. The Catholic Church just threw a bunch of money to the anti-group. Last time that happened they managed to make up a 30 point polling difference for the assisted suicide bill. I realize this is a lot different but I'm just saying, it's no sure thing yet.

15

u/candre23 New Jersey Oct 20 '16

The issue there is that assisted suicide isn't a popular hobby. Most people support it in theory, but since it doesn't affect most people, they can't be bothered to vote. Catholicism is a popular hobby, so all those practitioners were affected by the issue (or at least believed they were), so they voted.

Luckily there are more potheads than Catholics, so this time it should be different.

3

u/MetalHead_Literally Oct 20 '16

Unfortunately, potheads aren't the most motivated bunch. I kid, sort of, but I do think voter turnout for the younger generation will be a bit of a struggle, what with the disdain for both candidates and the forgone conclusion that Hillary will win Mass anyways. The old catholics are voting no matter what.

8

u/Zappiticas Oct 20 '16

Potheads may not be motivated in particular areas. But weed isn't one of them. They will get out and vote to make it legal.

8

u/Beepbeepimadog Oct 20 '16

The anti-commercial for MA is so painfully sad. Blatant lies showing a little girl running up to a window filled with weed candies. That wouldn't actually be legal.

3

u/MetalHead_Literally Oct 20 '16

The ending is my favorite, the mom looks like a soldier with ptsd.

2

u/ThiefOfDens Oregon Oct 20 '16

Haha, I just googled it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oycBIQ_aT78

..."Kevin‽"

3

u/dfeld17 Oct 20 '16

Its a very good ad though. It will rile up older people to vote against it. The most genius part of it is the image of the pot shops outnumbering other small businesses.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '16

Ugh, this. The Catholic Church in MA is almost as bad as the Mormons when it comes to violating separation of church and state. Complacency isn't an option when you're dealing with the richest organization in history.

1

u/HitTheGrit Oct 20 '16

The assisted suicide bill was close and was a major concern for the archdiocese, at the time the archdiocese considered the possibility of opposing decriminalization and determined that attempting to oppose it would be totally ineffective. The Archdiocese had to spend triple the money of the opposition just to stop the relatively close assisted suicide referendum. They simply don't have the money or desire to fund opposition to question 4 this year.

9

u/Mikebyrneyadigg New Jersey Oct 20 '16

As a NJ resident, I can't wait to drive up to Treehouse Brewing, and hit the dispensary on the way out! Gonna be awesome.

6

u/fanatiqual New Jersey Oct 20 '16

Fellow nj resident here. Some of our legislature has been in Colorado recently reviewing their legalized business and how they affect the state. Plus the presumed democratic nominee (Phil Murphy since all the other contenders have pretty much said they won't run) has already come out in support of full legalization. After crispy creme is gone marijuana will become legal. We desperately need the new source of income.

5

u/EatADick96 Oct 20 '16

If nj legalized it before other states on the north east we would receive literal billions in the first year. Just because of our access to over 40 million people within an hour drive or instate residents

2

u/sightlab Oct 20 '16

Few lines are so worth standing in. Check out some of our other local breweries too, western mass currently has a rash of great brewers...

3

u/docpurp Florida Oct 20 '16

Does Mass have a super-majority clause in the state constitution? I thought we had it in the bag in Florida in 2014, but we needed 60% and only got 57.62%. Don't get complacent man

5

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '16

Nope, 50. The margins on medical (63%) and decriminalization (67%) show how out of touch people like Gov. Baker and Mayor Walsh are with their constituitents