By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX — Arizonans may get the chance to reconsider whether they think it’s OK for every adult to purchase and use marijuana.

Sean Noble has filed paperwork to put the whole question of recreational marijuana on the 2026 ballot. He contends the measure hasn’t lived up to its promise.

That promise, said Noble, is not that people who want the drug can’t get it. That has happened: There are more than 100 state-licensed outlet in Arizona, including some that deliver.

It’s what else he said they promised.

“They said, ‘We’re not going to be marketing to children, we’re not going to be making this easy, we’re not going to be making THC levels super extreme,’” he said, the last referring to how much of the psychoactive element is in the drug.

While there are laws restricting how marijuana can be advertised, Noble contends they are not sufficient.

Noble will need 255,949 valid signatures on petitions by July 2. Given the number that are normally disqualified, that makes the real goal in the 300,000 range.

What it also will take is money, with Noble saying he is getting cash from a national group called Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

He estimates it will take $5 million just to collect the signatures to get on the ballot. And the campaign itself, Noble said, can run as little as $10 million or as much as $20 million.

There’s also the fact the original measure was approved in 2020 by a margin of close to 3-2.

If he gets the signatures there will be opposition from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which was instrumental in getting states like Arizona to approve recreational use in the first place.

“Prohibitionists failed to make the case for continuing to criminalize cannabis consumers in Arizona and other states where voters had a choice in the matter,” said Morgan Fox, the organization’s political director.

“Now they are trying to mislead voters into thinking that recriminalizing responsible behaviors and pushing consumers back to the underground market will somehow improve public health and safety,” he said. “It’s shameful, disrespectful to voters, and woefully misguided.”

The initiative drive comes even as President Donald Trump this week signed an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to remove marijuana from the list of Schedule 1 drugs. Those are drugs that the government have restricting as having no medical use, including heroin and LSD.

None of that would eliminate the laws making possession, sale and transportation of marijuana a federal crime.

Instead, it would classify it as a Schedule 3 drug, which, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, has a “moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.” Trump also said rescheduling will make it easier to conduct research on both the benefits and potential dangers of the drug.

“It’s going to have a tremendously positive impact,” the president said.

Trump’s action also is a recognition that 38 states allow doctors to recommend marijuana to their patients. And 24 allow its use for recreation without running afoul of state laws.

The initiative also comes as state Rep. Selina Bliss wants to amend existing medical marijuana laws to give terminally ill patients a legal alternative to opioids or other pain killers. The Prescott Republican, who is a nurse, said that drug in many circumstances can be a far better alternative than what is being used legally now.

Her House Bill 2081 is modeled after what’s become known as Ryan’s Law in California, crafted by a father dealing with his 41-year-old son who was dying of pancreatic cancer. Bliss said Jim Bartell managed to find a facility that would allow him to be medicated with marijuana, meaning that Ryan was able to wake up, tolerate his pain, and “had quality of life for his last few days.”

“And I’ve got to say, being a nurse, seeing people in their final days and hours, that’s what really rang true to me why this is so important,” she said.

A patient or a patient’s caregiver would have access to the drug in an acceptable form, be able to administer it, and then lock it back up to ensure its security. The legislation even would add a patient’s use of medical marijuana to the required medical records.

None of that, Bliss said, is covered under existing laws, whether the 2010 medical marijuana act or the 2020 measure permitting recreational use.

If Noble and his backers get their way, any option under the 2020 law would disappear.

This isn’t the first fight for Noble, the founder and president of American Encore that has worked on Republican priorities, going back to a 2014 effort to kill the Affordable Care Act. His organization also has sued Secretary of State Adrian Fontes over provisions in the state’s Elections Procedures Manual.

Noble also worked to kill the 2016 effort in Arizona to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes. That measure went down to defeat by a 51-49 margin.

That year, Noble said, foes financed a campaign against that initiative. By contrast, he said, there was no organized opposition four years later.

That 2020 measure expanded the original 2010 law, which said that individuals have to have a doctor’s recommendation before being able to go to a state-licensed dispensary.

Those recommendations, by law, are limited to certain specific “debilitating medical conditions” like cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, hepatitis C and Crohn’s disease.

It also allows a doctor to write a recommendation for conditions that produce severe and chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures, and muscle spasms. It is that list to which Bliss seeks to add terminal illness.

Those who qualify are entitled to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana, with permission for those who live at least 25 miles from a dispensary to cultivate their own.

By contrast, the 2020 law permits adults — defined as 21 and older — to have up to an ounce and up to six marijuana plants. Users also pay a tax that doesn’t apply in cases of medical marijuana.

All that, however, leaves the question of whether Arizonans are ready to roll back a law that is less than six years old.
Noble said a poll he ran showed that 48% of those he asked support both medical and recreational marijuana use. But scrapping the latter and keeping the former, he said, boosts support to 52%.

That, however, assumes people really care one way or the other, at least enough so to repeal the law.

He also asked respondents how the availability of marijuana for recreational use has impacted them. Noble said 60% said not at all, with 7% saying positive and the negatives “in the double digits.”

Still, he insisted, that’s enough to put his measure over the top.

Even if his measure passes and the 2020 law is repealed, Noble insists that adults who really want marijuana, for whatever reason, are likely to be able to get it. He noted when marijuana was available only medically, the vast majority of those who got a recommendation did so under the “chronic pain” category.

“For adults that want to consume cannabis, they will be able to do that,” he said.