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Alright I’m going to be making a thread on 207 with information I believe to be important whether or not you have made a decision
I do want to point out that I am not against the bill since I do believe there is good that can be brought from this but I am definitely not fully for it either since I do believe there are many things left out that should’ve been established as well
Before I really actually start to actually get into specific I want to point out that once this bill is favored by the majority there is no going back and changing laws due to voter protection act which can cause a few problems down the line
With voter protection act there is no way to be able to change certain things that will be passed within the law such as reallocation of funds needed in a different sector, the number of plants that can be grown, changing the amount someone can carry on them at times
This right here can be a problem for sure if money is needed to be reallocated into another sector that could really use the funds
A major issue with the taxation is 1/3 of all taxed dollars will be going towards police enforcement agencies, yes you read that right the very same agencies everyone has been trying to petition to defund will be getting the majority of the taxes made through legalization
Now the thing I really don’t understand with this point is why are we going to just be giving more tax dollars to police organizations if there are still many people calling for defunding of police and putting that into other places where it’s more needed
Another major issue is the fact that you have to APPLY to get your records expunged meaning it’s not a full guarantee that your records will be expunged, what really needs to happen is all records are expunged period no matter who or how much was on them at the time being
There is absolutely no reason as to why all records should not be expunged and only certain cases are allowed for expungement when everyone deserves to have the same opportunity to clean their record
A very major concern I have is that people want to see more people of color owning business yet this bill just paves the way for more white owned businesses to buy up all of the licenses and control the market leaving others not actually being able to participate
Everyone should be allowed to participate in the legal market if they decide to do so, these opportunities should not be open only to big corporations that don’t even pay a fair wage to their workers that work behind the counters helping people get what they’re looking for
To combat this I think legalization must go through federally before it hits the states so people can actually go to the bank, get a loan with no hassle to start something of their own before letting big corporations come in and wreak havoc in order to combat this rising issue
If big corporations come in and sweep up all of the licenses all its going to do is give them more control over the market and dictate pricing squeezing out all of the other establishments
Understand most of the time people think social justice will come from this when the promises that are made aren’t fulfilled, most social equity programs that are established to help minorities don’t even get that many people of color actually into their own establishment
If social equity programs can’t keep their promises and actually get a certain number of minority owned establishments set up in time it still paved the way for more white owned establishments to continue opening up and dominate the market
Not many of you know this but some shop owners are trying to blackmail and strong arm brand owners into donating to the safer act and they openly said they won’t buy from people who haven’t even donated to the cause
This right here is a major issue focused around blackmailing extractors, growers, chefs into donating to a cause that is still funded by big marijuana corporations such as Harvest and CuraLeaf who have many different licenses in various states alone already
They are the two biggest corporations that are trying to expand and create the monopolization that is still already being set up as of right now
There are currently only three testing labs set up in AZ and not that many of you even know that all three are actually currently hella backed up trying to get results in for products that have been sent to get tested
A key part of the monopolization I have been talking about that is already starting to take affect is the only 3 testing labs in AZ have already began to hike up their prices after things started to get really backed up earlier this month
With that being a major issue if these labs don’t stop with being so backed up and very behind on testing product we can actually start to see even more shortages that have already been happening when covid hit in March
With that being said the key thing to fixing this major issue is to open up more labs for testing product to really but again that cannot happen without proper funding needed through banking which can’t happen because everything still isn’t legal at federal level
This right here will also be the key reason why you see the price of marijuana skyrocket a lot more than it already has with shortages from covid, do not be surprised when you go in to find out they’re selling what they had for $25 an eighth now going for $40+
Now the main concern of it all is that there are no established protections for the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act that keeps people who actually need marijuana for medical purposes from not having to pay the imposed tax increase everyone else will have to pay for
Without proper protections established everyone who has paid the fee of getting their medical card will still have to pay the imposed tax of 16% rather than keeping those under the medical program at the 6.1% rate making it harder for those who really depend on the plant
Forgot to mention this earlier but a very key part of the monopolization is the fact that the bill was actually written by big establishments that are looking to expand as much as possible without still giving other the chance to participate in the legal market itself
I can keep going in with many different points I still probably forgot to bring up after making this thread but I’ll go ahead and throw in the links that support the facts that have been said
https://learnaboutsam.org/marijuana-and-social-justice/ this one has to be the most important link to look over in my opinion if you’re going to end up clicking on any of them honestly
