THE MEDIA: Internet.
WHO SAID IT: Marijuana Consumers Against Fake Marijuana Legalization.
THE COMMENT: "(Prop. 205) can prohibit smoke shops from selling glass, vapes and other cannabis related items."
THE FORUM: Facebook post.
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING AT: Whether Proposition 205 explicitly regulates smoke shops’ sales of products that could be deemed as "marijuana accessories."
ANALYSIS: This claim, shared in a Facebook post, has also appeared on posters inside smoke shops around the Valley.
Marijuana Consumers Against Fake Marijuana Legalization, which is sponsored by Arizonans for Mindful Regulation, opposes Proposition 205, which would legalize marijuana for recreational use in Arizona.
While most attacks on Prop. 205 have focused on the potential health risks for users and children, this group favors legalization but doesn’t like Prop. 205. It calls the ballot measure a jail-bait initiative because it does not remove felony penalties from most low-level marijuana offenses.
Marijuana Consumers Against Fake Marijuana Legalization could not be reached for comment. But to support its claim about smoke shops, its website cites the section of Prop. 205 that defines a new state regulatory agency that the measure would create, the Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control.
Prop. 205 creates a new Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control and says that this new Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control must enact rules and regulations for ANY businesses that THEY BELIEVE are selling Marijuana Accessories, according to their website.
It gives the following example: Under Prop. 205, any City or County could easily pass an Ordinance to say: Marijuana Accessories can only be sold on the premises of a Licensed Marijuana Retailer in this Locality.
Prop. 205 defines marijuana accessories as …any equipment, product or material of any kind that is used, intended for use or designed for use in planting, propagating, cultivating, growing, harvesting, manufacturing, compounding, converting, producing, processing, preparing, testing, analyzing, packaging, repackaging, storing, transporting or containing marijuana, or for ingesting, inhaling or otherwise introducing marijuana into the human body.
Some products sold at smoke shops could fall under this definition, even if they are marketed for tobacco use.
But Will Humble, health policy expert at the University of Arizona and a former director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, said there is nothing in state law currently to prohibit such local regulation in any Arizona city or county. Humble was head of the agency when the state’s medical marijuana program was developed.
While Prop. 205 doesnt explicitly protect smoke shops, nothing in the language of the proposition specifically targets them either.
Prop. 205 would, however, shift responsibility for issuing marijuana retail licenses from the Department of Health Services to the Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control, Humble said. And the leadership of the new department would be different, he added.
When I was (Department of Health Services) director, we put together a medical marijuana program that reflected the intent of the voters and statutory framework, he said. When the new agency comes to life and has a new director, that director might come to the job with some new worldview and make some new decisions. So that represents an unknown.
BOTTOM LINE: Proposition 205 does not explicitly target smoke shops. And nothing currently prevents local governments from regulating items sold in such businesses.
Prop. 205 would, however, propose a new department for issuing marijuana retail licenses. And it could potentially affect smoke shops if the leadership of the new department deems such regulations are necessary.
THE FINDING: One Star; mostly false
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker
Full Article: Fact Check – Would Prop. 205 Regulate ‘Marijuana Accessories’ In Smoke Shops?
Author: Kelcie T. Grega
Contact: 602-444-8000
Photo Credit: Marijuana Consumers Against Fake Marijuana Legalization
Website: The Arizona Republic
