Marijuana Moment: Arizona Anti-Marijuana Campaign Drops Effort To Put Legalization Rollback On Ballot

[Tokeativity]

An Arizona campaign that had been seeking to place an initiative on the ballot to repeal of key provisions of the state’s voter-approved marijuana legalization law has given up the effort.

Under the “Sensible Marijuana Policy Act for Arizona” which was being spearheaded by Sean Noble, president of the political strategy firm American Encore, commercial recreational cannabis sales would have been eliminated while possession and personal cultivation would have continued to be legal.

Noble, however, is no longer pursuing the measure, telling local media that he has “adjusted my viewpoints on the threat to kids” posed by the legal marijuana industry.

He told Capitol Media Services that while he launched the campaign due to concerns about marketing of cannabis to children, he has come to realize that marijuana businesses in Arizona have “not done some of the things that I thought they were doing.”

“I went into it with a pretty profound belief that it was happening,” Noble said. “I was kind of relying on things that I had seen or read from other people.”

“I don’t think that they’re specifically marketing gummies and candies and that kind of thing the way that I was led to believe that they were doing,” he said. “Maybe they’re doing that in other states. But it’s not happening here in Arizona.”

According to Capitol Media Services, Noble also came to realize that there wasn’t broad public support for rolling back marijuana legalization in the state, raising questions about whether the time and money that would go into such a campaign would end up being worth it.

In January, two Republican members of Arizona’s U.S. House delegation spoke with Marijuana Moment about the proposed ballot measure to eliminate commercial cannabis sales in the state, voicing opposition to legalization.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) said he would like to see voters approve the rollback initiative.

“We need to really take a comprehensive look at cannabis all the way across the board. Science tries to commit one way or another to us, and we’re not getting the full background on it,” he said, adding that he still regards marijuana as a “gateway drug” to other illicit substances and arguing that the cannabis industry has “resisted every which way with the regulations.”

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) said that “the drug legalization movement kind of fails on me because of the social social construct and how much it costs us.”

Meanwhile, this year has seen a series of attempts to scale back adult-use legalization laws.

Anti-cannabis activists in Maine filed a ballot initiative to repeal state laws allowing recreational marijuana sales, but missed a deadline to turn in signatures for the 2026 ballot. A similar anti-cannabis measure in Massachusetts could potentially go before voters this year, but is currently subject to litigation.

The Arizona measure was distinct from those proposals in at least one significant policy area: It would not have taken away the rights of adults to grow their own marijuana.

Also, it would explicitly preserve components of the law aimed at expunging prior marijuana records.

Like the anti-cannabis proposals in other states, possession would have remained lawful if the initiative were passed—and Arizona’s medical marijuana program would have remained intact—but the commercial market for recreational cannabis that’s evolved since voters approved an adult-use legalization measure in 2020 would have been quashed.

A findings section of the initiative states that “the proliferation of marijuana establishments and recreational marijuana sales in this state have produced unintended consequences and negative effects relating to the public health, safety, and welfare of Arizonans, including increased marijuana use among children, environmental concerns, increased demands for water resources, public nuisances, market instability, and illicit market activities.”

“Arizona’s legal marijuana sales have declined for two consecutive years, resulting in less tax revenue for this state, while some patients have relied on recreational use of marijuana instead of utilizing the benefits of this state’s medical marijuana program,” it says.

“Sensible marijuana policy in this state requires a partial repeal of the Smart and Safe Act and authorization of the Arizona Legislature to make conforming changes to other Arizona laws, including those that relate to advertising requirements and taxation of marijuana and marijuana products, to effectuate the stated purposes and provisions of this Act.”

The initiative would have also instructed the legislature to make conforming changes by amending existing statute regulating the commercial industry, including tax and advertising rules.

In order to make the ballot, the campaign would have needed to collect 255,949 valid signatures by July 2.

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Sixty percent of the Arizona electorate approved marijuana legalization at the ballot in 2020.

A poll from last year found majority support for medical cannabis legalization (86 percent), adult-use legalization (69 percent) and banking reform (78 percent).

Arizona lawmakers are considering legislation this session to penalize people who create “excessive” amounts of marijuana smoke or odor.

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