AZ GROWERS IN DANGER PLEASE HELP! BOYCOTT Giving Tree Wellness Center!!

[AZgreenthumb]

Hello all my rollitup homies this is a call to action there have been recent developments in the AZ legalization effort if you have been following my posts than you know that MPP (Marijuana Policy Project) pulled a fast one and cut home cultivation rights out of the bill at the last minute before filing it with the state we caught on to it we protested and got MPP to put home cultivation rights back in the bill but now there is an entirely new problem several dispensary owners who do not agree with home cultivation have split off from MPP and have started there own legalization initiative that is much more strict than MPP's version and will not include home cultivation rights the person who is spearheading this inititive is Gina Bernans medical director for the Giving Tree Wellness Center this competing inititive threatens to derail the entire legalization effort either both ballot measures will fail or they both consume so much resources that should have been dedicated to one initiative that they cant even get either one on the ballot to begin with.

THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION:
IF YOU LIVE IN AZ AND YOU SUPPORT HOME CULTIVATION RIGHT I ASK YOU TO BOYCOTT THE

GIVING TREE WELLNESS CENTER JAM THERE FACEBOOK PAGES WITH MESSAGES OF PROTEST

TELL EVERYONE NOT TO SHOP THERE AND SPREAD THE WORD IF YOU HAV ANY IDEAS ON HOW TO FUCK WITH THERE BUISNESS LEGALEY POST THEM HERE.

GIVING TREE WELNESS CENTER CONTACT INFO:


ADDRESS:21617 N 9th Ave, Phoenix, Arizona 85027

FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/TheGivingTreeWellnessCenter?fref=ts

PHONE NUMBER:
(623) 242-9080

EMAIL: [email protected]

 

[_MrBelvedere_]

AzgreeNthumb when I protested two weeks based on your alert, I told them that growers rights must be secured. A week later MPP responded and said:


My name is Carlos Alfaro and I’m the new co-director of the Marijuana Policy Project of Arizona. Thank you for reaching out and sharing your thoughts on the initiative.

Most importantly, I want to make sure you’re aware that the initiative has NOT been finalized yet. It will not be final until it is submitted to the Secretary of State, which has not yet occurred.

We agree that adults should be allowed to grow marijuana in their homes, just as they are allowed to brew beer. That is why we included it in the Colorado and Alaska ballot initiatives that we backed in 2012 and 2014, respectively. In Arizona, however, it is much less clear whether the voters agree. So it is not a question of what MPP supports — we support home cultivation. Rather, it is a question of what Arizonans support and whether including home cultivation could hurt the chances of ending marijuana prohibition in 2016. We have considered several options, ranging from allowing growing, to significantly reducing the penalty for growing, to not changing the current policy regarding growing. We are still gathering and analyzing data to inform our final decision.

MPP owes much of its success to activists and reform supporters like you, who share our goal of ending marijuana prohibition and making it a legal, acceptable product for adults to use responsibly. The only reason we are able to do what we do is because there are a couple hundred thousand people out there who believe we will do everything we can to pass the best possible laws, and that is what we are doing in this case. We have spent many months drafting what we hope will be the best AND most viable policy.

As soon as the initiative is finalized, I will reach out to you again to let you know what the final decision is with regard to including home-growing. It is my hope that we’ll be able to work together in support of whatever initiative ends up moving forward.

I look forward to remaining in touch.

Best,

Carlos Alfaro
Arizona Political Director
Marijuana Policy Project
480-270-0001
www.mpp.org


Are you 100% sure growers rights are on the mmp bill? Why did he not email blast an update To tell us? Where is the text of the new bill, can you paste it here?

 

[_MrBelvedere_]

By John Schroyer

The Marijuana Policy Project’s executive director is threatening to spend thousands of dollars to disrupt a pair of Arizona dispensaries, saying a key staffer of the businesses who also headed up MPP’s campaign to legalize recreational cannabis in the state will “pay a price” if she spearheads a competing measure.

The friction leaves the future of rec cannabis in Arizona up in the air, pitting a key cannabis lobbying organization against a dispensary executive and many of her peers in the state’s MMJ industry who have a different vision of legalization.

The dispute stems from disagreements between MPP and reportedly several dozen Arizona medical marijuana dispensaries over language in a proposed ballot measure for 2016 that would legalize recreational cannabis.

After negotiations between the two sides apparently fell apart last week, Gina Berman – who at the time served as chairwoman of MPP’s Arizona campaign and is the medical director of The Giving Tree Wellness Center dispensaries – filed paperwork with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office on Friday to create a new campaign committee called Arizonans for Responsible Legalization (ARL).

Berman is planning a separate measure that would essentially compete with the one MPP is crafting, and filing with the secretary of state was her first official act in that vein.

In retaliation, MPP head Rob Kampia (pictured) penned a furious email to Berman on Sunday.

“If you file a competing initiative with the Secretary of State anyway, we will specifically launch a series of actions to harm your business,” Kampia wrote in the email, which was obtained by Marijuana Business Daily.

“I’m already budgeting $10,000 (as of Friday) to pay people for 1,000 hours of time to distribute literature outside of your front door, and the literature will not portray you in a kind way. We will not target any other dispensaries; we will only target you,” Kampia wrote.

The email also indicated that MPP would replace Berman this week as head of its Arizona campaign, which Kampia confirmed was done on Tuesday.

There were at least two central differences that brought the situation to a head.

While MPP wants either a large or unlimited number of recreational shop licenses allowed in the ballot measure language, Berman and ARL supporters want a cap on the number of licenses. And while MPP wants a ballot measure that would allow for any resident to cultivate recreational marijuana at home, Berman contended in an email response to Kampia that such “dramatic deregulation” isn’t politically feasible.

On Tuesday, Kampia defended his position to Marijuana Business Daily, saying that Berman’s move to spearhead a competing measure threatens to undercut the chances that either camp will be able to succeed in legalizing marijuana in the state next year.

“She’s threatening the freedom of literally thousands of Arizonans. If I can take out one business as a way of keeping lots of people out of prison, then by God, I’m going to do that,” Kampia said. “I felt really quite shocked when the chair of our committee blindsided us with this nonsense on Friday. She’s going to pay a price for that.”

Kampia further asserted that Berman lied in an email disseminated to Arizona dispensary owners and employees when she claimed that MPP had refused to negotiate on the terms of the ballot measure.

“(MPP) has steadfastly refused to agree to reasonable compromises,” Berman wrote in that email. “All language put forth by the MPP would ultimately jeopardize the investments you’ve made to make Arizona a responsible cannabis state.”

That statement is patently false, Kampia said.

“We actually compromised on by far the two biggest issues, plus a couple dozen other issues, and we only had five left, and we were waiting to hear back from them,” Kampia said.

Kampia said he was “waiting by the phone, and the next thing I see is that Gina’s in the news filing her own campaign committee” on Friday.

Berman did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but a spokesman shared a letter she wrote to Kampia on Tuesday. In the response, Berman said that if Kampia makes good on his threat to interfere with The Giving Tree’s business, then she and ARL may file a civil lawsuit against both him and MPP under tort law.

“If you carry through on these threats, it is very likely that both MPP as an organization and you as an individual will be liable for tortuously [sic] interfering with business expectancies,” Berman wrote to Kampia.

Berman would be well within her rights to file such a claim, said Seattle cannabis attorney Ryan Agnew. And, he suggested, Kampia could be jeopardizing his job as executive director.

“I would assume (MPP) would have at least one attorney…that would say, ‘Don’t you dare think about doing any of these things,'” Agnew said. “What they’re proposing if they follow through sounds more like tortious interference with a business relationship, and that is illegal. I think that if Rob took one step in that direction, MPP’s board lets him go and then they wash their hands of it.”

Agnew suggested a court judgment against Kampia – and MPP – could be far more costly than the $10,000 he threatened to spend against Berman.

Berman also wrote to Kampia that MPP, as a 501(c)4, would be prohibited under federal law from using financial resources “to pursue a personal vendetta,” and said she would report such actions to the Internal Revenue Service.

MPP board member James Slatic said on Tuesday that it is “certainly not our policy” to threaten businesses.

“That would be behavior that wouldn’t be sanctioned or authorized by the board, which ultimately employs the executive director,” Slatic said. “Our next board meeting is in April, in a few weeks, in Washington DC… I’ll be bringing this call to their attention.”

Another Arizona industry insider who requested anonymity said Kampia’s actions have damaged MPP’s reputation.

“It’s out there that MPP is trying to control every state, and if they don’t get their way, they’re willing to destroy people personally,” the person said.

As things stand, both MPP and ARL are in the process of finalizing language for their own respective legalization ballot measures. And that, said Agnew, is the “worst-case scenario.”

“Either they both fail to qualify (for the 2016 ballot) or they consume so much resources that should have been dedicated to one initiative, and Arizona doesn’t get to join the list of states that are taking the next step,” Agnew said.

 

[AZgreenthumb]

AzgreeNthumb when I protested two weeks based on your alert, I told them that growers rights must be secured. A week later MPP responded and said:


My name is Carlos Alfaro and I’m the new co-director of the Marijuana Policy Project of Arizona. Thank you for reaching out and sharing your thoughts on the initiative.

Most importantly, I want to make sure you’re aware that the initiative has NOT been finalized yet. It will not be final until it is submitted to the Secretary of State, which has not yet occurred.

We agree that adults should be allowed to grow marijuana in their homes, just as they are allowed to brew beer. That is why we included it in the Colorado and Alaska ballot initiatives that we backed in 2012 and 2014, respectively. In Arizona, however, it is much less clear whether the voters agree. So it is not a question of what MPP supports — we support home cultivation. Rather, it is a question of what Arizonans support and whether including home cultivation could hurt the chances of ending marijuana prohibition in 2016. We have considered several options, ranging from allowing growing, to significantly reducing the penalty for growing, to not changing the current policy regarding growing. We are still gathering and analyzing data to inform our final decision.

MPP owes much of its success to activists and reform supporters like you, who share our goal of ending marijuana prohibition and making it a legal, acceptable product for adults to use responsibly. The only reason we are able to do what we do is because there are a couple hundred thousand people out there who believe we will do everything we can to pass the best possible laws, and that is what we are doing in this case. We have spent many months drafting what we hope will be the best AND most viable policy.

As soon as the initiative is finalized, I will reach out to you again to let you know what the final decision is with regard to including home-growing. It is my hope that we’ll be able to work together in support of whatever initiative ends up moving forward.

I look forward to remaining in touch.

Best,

Carlos Alfaro
Arizona Political Director
Marijuana Policy Project
480-270-0001
www.mpp.org


Are you 100% sure growers rights are on the mmp bill? Why did he not email blast an update To tell us? Where is the text of the new bill, can you paste it here?

They have not officially changed anything but they did try to negotiate for grow rights which is what caused the other group to split off and form there own initiative they want to keep the current dispensary monopoly alive but hopefully MPP will make good on there threat. Im already jamming giving tree Wellness Facebook page with protest messages!!

 

[azcaregiver]

Someone needs to start burning down these bad dispensaries.

 

[AZgreenthumb]

Someone needs to start burning down these bad dispensaries.

I could not agree more I hope somebody does burn them down with the owners inside there are two dispensarys that are especially bad. In the greater Phoenix area. The Giving Tree Wellness Center and The Monarch Dispensary Help spread the word if you can we need to hit them in the wallet! where it hurts that's all these people understand!