Arizona voters have approved a measure that will legalize medical marijuana in the state. Proposition 203 won by a tiny margin of just 4,341 votes out of more than 1.67 million votes counted. The measure started out losing by about 7,200 votes on Nov. 2 and the gap gradually narrowed in the following 10 days.
The measure began Friday losing by about 1,500 votes, then surged ahead by 4,421 votes.
Maricopa was the only Arizona county with ballots still outstanding on Saturday. The county finished counting all the remaining provisional and early ballots by late in the afternoon.
The final, unofficial count was 841,346 in favor of the measure and 837,005 opposed.
“Now begins the very hard work of implementing this program in the way it was envisioned, with very high standards,” said Andrew Myers, campaign manager for the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project. “We really believe that we have an opportunity to set an example to the rest of the country on what a good medical marijuana program looks like.”
Backers of Proposition 203 argued that thousands of patients faced “a terrible choice” of suffering with a serious or even terminal illness or going to the criminal market for pot. They collected more than 252,000 signatures to put the measure on the ballot -- nearly 100,000 more than required.
The measure will allow patients with diseases including cancer, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and any other “chronic or debilitating” disease that meets guidelines to buy 2 ounces of marijuana every two weeks or grow plants.
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