Medical Marijuana was passed in November 2010 Arizona with Prop 203, becoming the 15th US State to comprehend its medicinal qualities for various debilitating medical conditions. The Arizona Department of Health Services is currently assembling the Rules and Regulations because of its dispensing and usage.
Marijuana was legal until 1937 at the US. It had been commonly prescribed . The Marijuana Tax Act was introduced before Congress in 1937, which was passed and put a tax on the sale of cannabis. This tax equaled roughly one dollar on anybody who commercially dealt marijuana. The ACT did not criminalize the possession or use of marijuana nonetheless. Even the American Medical Association opposed the bill, asserting that cannabis wasn't dangerous and its medicinal use would be severely curtailed by prohibition. Within 4 years, medical marijuana was withdrawn in the US pharmaceutical market due to the law's requirements.
Back in 1970, the Controlled Substances Act was passed, making Marijuana a Program 1 Narcotic. A Schedule 1 Narcotic is supposedly one which has a high potential for abuse, no medical use, rather than safe to use under medical supervision. As you will read shortly within this E-Book, a lot of states disagree, and Arizona is the newest to comprehend marijuana's benefits medicinally.
In 1996 California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana. The California Compassionate Use Act, known as Proposition 215, let patients freedom from prosecution with a physician's recommendation. The federal government went after the initiative and threatened to detain doctors for recommending it, but a federal court decision protected physicians under the First Amendment.
Despite persistence of federal oppositions, numerous states have passed their own medical marijuana laws, with the latest being Arizona. Canada has also changed their laws with respect to medical marijuana as well. In 2005, the Supreme Court upheld the federal ban on marijuana but didn't question the validity of their state laws. Thus, patients are protected from state prosecution in the states with valid medical marijuana, but not federal Oklahoma Marijuana Both the DEA and Justice Department have stated that they don't want to really go after patients, just massive traffickers.
There weren't lots of regulations put into place in California upon passing medicinal marijuana. As a result of federal regulations state had widespread misuse of medical marijuana with the prospect of federal prosecution looming.
That all changed in 2009. President Obama declared his administration would no longer use federal resources to go after dispensaries and patients as long as they complied with state laws. Dispensaries started to multiply like rabbits, and in a few months patients had been signing up in Colorado in a rate of 1000 per day. In Los Angeles alone, medical marijuana dispensaries outnumber McDonald's and Starbucks by 2 to 1.
Arizona became the 15th state to legalize medical marijuana with Prop 203 passing in November of 2010. It was an extremely close vote that required over 11 days following the actual election to finalize the count. 1.7 million people voted and initially the vote was 7000 votes from it, but when it was closing it won with slightly over 4000 votes.
Voters have passed medical marijuana in Arizona twice in the past but due to wording and conflicting federal laws nothing actually went in to effect. Marijuana stays completely illegal under federal law. It's a Schedule 1 Medication under the US Controlled Substances Act, which means it's regarded as with high abuse potential and no medical usage. Its possession, sale, manufacture, transport and distribution for any purpose are against federal legislation.
But an increasing number of states continue to recognized its medicinal purposes. Fifteen states now have laws permitting medical use of marijuana. These laws exempt patients from criminal charges for personal possession and/or cultivation of small quantities with a physician's recommendation. What this signifies is since the overwhelming majority of smaller scale drug offenses are prosecuted by state legislation, patients are generally safe in those states from arrest (as long as local legislation is followed).
A 2002 Time magazine survey showed that an amazing 80% of Americans supported legalizing medical marijuana.