Arizona Marijuana Legalization Backers Want Equal Treatment from State Official Who Forwarded Anti-Marijuana Email

DES Director Timothy Jeffries came under fire Wednesday for forwarding an email he received from a leader of Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy with a link to their claims about marijuana and alcohol; today, a leader of the Yes on 205 campaign emailed Jeffries a link to its information about marijuana and alcohol and asked him to forward it to the same email list

PHOENIX, AZ Arizona Department of Economic Security Director Tim Jeffries came under fireWednesday for using his public email account to widely distribute an email from a leader of a committee formed to oppose Prop. 205.

The email, written by Seth Leibsohn of Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, included the subject line, Alcohol safer than marijuana, and featured a link to information about marijuana and alcohol.

On Thursday, the chairman of the committee formed to support Prop. 205, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMLA), sent the following email to Jeffries to request equal treatment.

Subject: Marijuana safer than alcohol

Director Jeffries

We appreciate your interest in Proposition 205 and your desire to provide information to your subordinates about the measure. In order to ensure that you are not attempting to influence the outcome of the election, we hope you agree it is appropriate to distribute to that same email list the information that we have compiled on the same topic covered in the email you forwarded from Seth Leibsohn of Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy. To be fair, we have made the subject of this email similar to Mr. Leibsohns so that you can simply forward it in a similar manner. Thank you in advance for providing equal treatment to both sides in this debate.

Here is a link to information we have compiled about the relative harms of marijuana and alcohol:

http://www.Marijuana-vs-Alcohol.org

Sincerely,

J.P. Holyoak
Chairman, Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol

In July 2015, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich issued an opinion in which he concluded that it is impermissible to use public resources for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election.

As noted in that opinion, Influencing the outcomes of elections means supporting or opposing a ballot ...