Section 1. Title.
This act may be cited as the “Arizona Medical Marijuana Act.”

Sec. 2. Findings.

The People of the State of Arizona find and declare the following:

A. Marijuana's recorded use as a medicine goes back nearly 5,000 years, and modern medical research has confirmed beneficial uses for marijuana in treating or alleviating the pain, nausea and other symptoms associated with a variety of debilitating medical conditions, including cancer, multiple sclerosis and HIV/AIDS, as found by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine in
March 1999.

B. Studies published since the 1999 Institute of Medicine report have continued to show the therapeutic value of marijuana in treating a wide array of debilitating medical conditions. These include relief of neuropathic pain caused by multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS and other illnesses that often fail to respond to conventional treatments and relief of nausea, vomiting and other side effects of drugs
used to treat HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C, increasing the chances of patients continuing on life-saving treatment regimens.

C. Marijuana has many currently accepted medical uses in the United States, having been recommended by thousands of licensed physicians to at least 260,000 patients in the states with medical marijuana laws. Marijuana's medical utility has been recognized by a wide range of medical and public health organizations, including the American Academy of HIV Medicine, American College of Physicians,
American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and many others.

D. Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports and the Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics show that approximately 99 out of every 100 marijuana arrests in the U.S. are made under state law, rather than under federal law. Consequently, changing state law will have the practical effect of protecting from arrest the vast majority of seriously ill patients who have a medical need to use marijuana.

E. Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Rhode Island and Washington have removed state-level criminal penalties for the medical use and cultivation of marijuana. Arizona joins in this effort for the health and welfare of its citizens.

F. States are not required to enforce federal law or prosecute people for engaging in activities prohibited by federal law. Therefore, compliance with this act does not put the state of Arizona in violation of federal law.

G. State law should make a distinction between the medical and nonmedical uses of marijuana. Hence, the purpose of this act is to protect patients with debilitating medical conditions, as well as their physicians and providers, from arrest and prosecution, criminal and other penalties and property forfeiture if such patients engage in the medical use of marijuana.

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Arizona  - Final Published Act - Proposition 203