Now that the court battles are over, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol has begun their mission to educate voters on what a “yes” vote on Proposition 205 will mean this November. One way that voters get their information on ballot initiatives is a pamphlet that is issued to all voters with a basic overview of the initiatives being voted on – but the description for Prop 205, while revised somewhat by a judge only a couple weeks ago, still leaves out important information, like where the 15% sales tax will be allocated.
The campaign wants to ensure that voters know where marijuana tax revenue would go, which is into funding for K-12 schools as well as funding for all-day kindergarten programs. Their first video advertisement features a mother, grandmother and an elementary school teacher explaining that they will vote “yes” on Prop 205 because it will generate millions of dollars for public schools. The campaign also staged a conference outside of Tempe Charter School recently and has received endorsements from multiple school board members throughout the state, including Buck Crouch of Sunnyside Unified School District.
“Never inhaled, never exhaled it,” Crouch said. “But I believe people have the right to make a choice on what they do as long as it doesn’t harm someone else. And I believe the main harm on marijuana has been the laws opposing it.”
Buck Crouch is a great example of how you don’t have to be a cannabis user in order to support cannabis legalization. There are ways that legalization will benefit the whole community – in small and large ways – but schools around our country are terribly under funded and if cannabis legalization can bring in some of that needed funding then everyone who is a parent, hopes to be a parent or who teaches should be in favor of it for that reason alone.
“Raising money for our schools isn’t the only reason to regulate and tax marijuana but it’s a good reason,” Inman says in the ad.
Kathy Inman is a grandmother and executive director of MomForce AZ, a pro-cannabis activist group made up of parents. The organization has also endorsed Prop 205 and will continue to help them advocate for the initiative. Kathy opens up the video ad, where she – along with another mom and an elementary school teacher – gives her testimony on why they are endorsing Prop 205 this November. The ad is already available on YouTube – and it is being marketed on Facebook and Instagram and may even air on TV in the coming weeks.
