Critics say Arizona social equity marijuana program did 'opposite' of intention

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

59% : Although the state once touted its social equity program as a national model, marijuana industry experts say this isn't the outcome Arizona voters wanted when they approved recreational cannabis in 2020.
59% : Voters legalized recreational marijuana through Prop. 207, also known as the "Smart and Safe Arizona Act," in 2020.
54% : Among the criteria: earn an annual income less than 400% of the federal poverty level, be affected by the enforcement of previous marijuana laws or related to someone who had, or live in a ZIP code that experienced a disproportionate effect from previous marijuana law enforcement.
50% : Prop. 207 was supposed to help address decades-long inequities, especially those associated with the war on drugs.
46% : But it's also the Voter Protection Act that, a little bit, prevents them from improving upon it.
42% : "The Legislature would love to do away with it, and it's the Voter Protection Act that prevents them from doing away with it.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.