Arizona residents may be able to vote on medical marijuana once again. The November 2010 ballot initiative, sponsored by the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project, recently reached 192,000 signatures, significantly more than the 150,000 required for placement.

If passed, the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act would allow seriously and terminally ill patients in Arizona who find relief from marijuana to use the drug with a doctor’s approval.

“There are thousands of patients that use marijuana under a doctor’s recommendation,” said Andrew Myers, the campaign manager for AMMPP. “We strongly believe that a patient should not go to jail because they are simply doing what their doctors told them to do.”

The initiative would permit patients and caregivers to purchase up to two-and-a-half ounces of usable marijuana from regulated clinics rather than the criminal market.

The regulated clinics, often known as dispensaries, will all operate as non-profit organizations. The initiative also would allow permitted patients or caregivers to cultivate their own marijuana for medical purposes if a regulated clinic is not located within 25 miles of the patient.

Arizona voters have passed medical marijuana initiatives in both 1996 and 1998. However, the 1996 act didn’t come to fruition because of a systematic error in the wording of the ballot, while the 1998 initiative was unable to pass because of conflicting federal laws.

Heather, a 29-year-old brain cancer patient and Arizona resident, said that smoking marijuana is the best way to cure her nausea from her chemotherapy. For legal reasons, Heather did not disclose her last name.

“The nausea medicine that my doctor prescribed just doesn’t work fast enough,” Heather said. “I would be suffering with horrible nausea from anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour.”

Heather was diagnosed with brain cancer in April 2007 when she began 30 radiation treatments coupled with chemotherapy. A relative first recommended trying marijuana to help relieve her nausea in August of the same year.

“When I smoked marijuana for the first time after my chemo appointment, the relief was instantaneous,” Heather said. “I automatically felt relief from my nausea; it was a comforting feeling. You don’t get the side effects when smoking marijuana that you do with the prescribed medicine.”

Dr. Sue Sisley, a private-practice physician and an assistant professor of inter-professional education at the University of Arizona and Arizona State University College of Medicine in Phoenix, believes that doctors should begin to become educated about the medical benefits of marijuana.

Sisley said that she has seen several patients with severe illnesses such as cancer and other chronic illnesses that would benefit from medical marijuana.

“Patients have told me that a low dose of medical marijuana has honestly been life changing for them,” Sisley said. “Doctors are prescribing high doses of highly addictive drugs like OxyContin and nobody is monitoring that with high scrutiny. Maybe medical marijuana is becoming one of the lesser problems.”

But while the medical community ponders the effects of medical marijuana, law enforcement will be a harder sell on legalization. The Phoenix division of the Drug Enforcement Administration said if the ballot initiative for medical marijuana does pass it will continue to warn the public about the dangers of marijuana.

“We will continue to provide our expertise about the use and dangers of marijuana,” said Kerry Brooks, a special agent DEA officer and division training coordinator.

Some of the dangers of smoking marijuana, according to Brooks, are that one marijuana cigarette causes four times more tar deposited to the lung than a tobacco cigarette, and that marijuana contains more than 400 chemicals. Brooks also mentioned that, according to a Harvard University research group, the risk of a heart attack is five times higher after the first hour of smoking marijuana.

Whatever the risks, students appear to be on the side of legalizing medical marijuana. Alan Procter, ASU student and president of Arizona State’s National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws chapter, registered to be a ballot petitioner because he believes that patients should not be punished for using marijuana.

“I fully support the medical marijuana act,” Procter said. “I feel that this is Arizona’s first step in getting things changed for marijuana laws.”

UA student Blaine Anderson signed the ballot initiative because she strongly believes that patients should have the right to choose their own form of medical treatment.

“There are people in Arizona that are suffering from serious illnesses that could benefit from the use of medical marijuana,” Anderson said. “Patients should have the right to choose what works best for them.”

For Heather, the ballot initiative is especially personal.

“I really hope that this will pass,” Heather said. “I shouldn’t have to be living my life in worry of being thrown into jail when I am just trying to survive.”