Prop 203 -- the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act -- Puts the Chronic in Chronic Pain

Got cancer? Have some pot. Dying of AIDS? Have some pot. Handicapped from the effects of multiple sclerosis? Have some pot.

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• Arizona Department of Health Services
• Lesley Meng
• Andrew Myers
• Psychoactive Drugs
• Medical Marijuana

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Chronic headache, heartburn, or painful pimples? Have some pot!

This could well be the case after November 2, if Arizona voters approve Proposition 203, the "Arizona Medical Marijuana Act."

In terms of regulating the number of pot dispensaries and keeping detailed records, Prop 203 is the state's smartest medical marijuana measure proposed to date, and proponents say it's a solid plan to provide seriously ill patients with medication. But like medical marijuana laws in California and Colorado, Prop 203 includes weed treatment for "chronic or severe pain." That's what the vast majority of patients in those states use pot for, not truly debilitating illnesses.

Prop 203 would allow registered patients, both terminal and just "in pain," to purchase medical marijuana from a licensed dispensary. It's an issue that crosses party lines — according to the latest Rocky Mountain Poll, 66 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Independents favor Prop 203, along with 40 percent of Republicans. Given the poll numbers, Prop 203 is the most popular item on the ballot this year — not surprising, given Arizona's history with marijuana measures.

Arizona voters passed one of the first medical marijuana measures in the country, way back in 1996. It was called Proposition 200, and it softened sentencing for non-violent drug offenders and permitted doctors to "prescribe" marijuana. Although Prop 200 won at the polls with 65 percent of the vote, the state Legislature quashed it over one word — "prescribe." Because marijuana is a federally controlled substance, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration prohibits physicians from "prescribing" it. So Proposition 200 was never enacted, and a lot of voters were, frankly, pissed off.

To prevent lawmakers from overruling them so easily in the future, voters passed Proposition 105, the "Voter Protection Act," in 1998. Under this law, the Legislature cannot tamper with voter-approved measures, at least not without three-fourths of the legislative vote. So if Prop 203 passes, it will be a lot harder to kill.

Pot law reform came before Arizona voters again in 2002, but it wasn't just about medical marijuana — this bill, sponsored by the People Have Spoken campaign and also (unfortunately, for current supporters) called Proposition 203, was basically a marijuana decriminalization bill, with such provisions as using taxpayer dollars to fund medical marijuana programs and releasing convicted, non-violent drug offenders from prison. It failed by more than 150,000 votes.

"The measure that failed in 2002 was really wacky," says Andrew Myers of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project, which authored Prop 203 this year. "There were a lot of crazy things written into it. It called for things like agents to give seized marijuana to patients for free. This measure is nothing like that."

In fact, this year's Proposition 203 is the most detailed medical marijuana measure Arizona's ever seen, and it's more evolved than similar laws passed in other states.

If Prop 203 passes, Arizona will become the 15th state with a medical marijuana law. Critics point to problems with medical marijuana systems in other states, where thousands of pot dispensaries have popped up, offering a smorgasbord of marijuana products to hundreds of thousands of "patients" — the majority of whom are not cancer or AIDS patients, but people under 40 taking marijuana for "pain relief."

There's concern that Arizona will have similar problems. But unlike measures in other states, Prop 203 includes an immediate plan for oversight by the state health department, grants zoning authority to municipalities, and limits the number of dispensaries that can open statewide.

The initiative does bear some resemblance to California's Proposition 215 (passed by voters in 1996) and Colorado's Ballot Amendment 20 (passed by voters in 2000). All eliminate state penalties for patients who use medical marijuana, and include severe or chronic pain among the lists of "debilitating conditions."

But neither California's nor Colorado's initial medical marijuana bills limited the number of dispensaries that could open. Consequently, both states have been flooded with them. There are now close to a thousand dispensaries in Los Angeles alone — more locations than Starbucks, according to a report on National Public Radio.

Prop 203 calls for no more than one dispensary license to be granted for every 10 pharmacy permits issued by the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy. As of this writing, that equates to 124 dispensaries statewide.

"People are concerned about the proliferation of dispensaries. I think a lot of that is because of what happened in California," says Myers. "We're the only state to regulate from the beginning. We wanted to learn from past mistakes in other states. The difference is, we limit the number of dispensary licenses. You're not going to see them on every corner. "

But opponents of Prop 203 are also concerned with the list of "debilitating conditions" in the initiative. In California, it's relatively easy for residents to get medical marijuana for "pain." Patients can receive recommendations from doctors they've just met for things like sore backs and headaches, and there are tons of "patients." The California branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) estimates there are more than 150,000 medical marijuana patients in the state, and that 40 percent report using pot to treat "chronic pain."