It’s official: Peterson won
Area writer has 1st novel
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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS................................ 4 Town draws no takers for park-related requests.
BUSINESS................. 19 New Gilbert business is wheely fun.
SPORTS...................... 23
High school playoff preview. COMMUNITY....................................... 14 BUSINESS............................................. 19 SPORTS....................................... 23 GETOUT.................................................26 PUZZLE....................................... 27 CLASSIFIED..........................................29
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
Sunday, November 29, 2020
New day dawns for pot users tomorrow BY JIM WALSH GSN Staff Writer
A
rizona’s new Proposition 207 likely will become law tomorrow, Nov. 30, enabling as many as three million residents to buy a small amount marijuana legally for the first time without a state-issued medical card and can get high in their home. The new law, scheduled to take effect when state officials certify the results of the Nov. 3 election, promises millions of dollars for teacher training, substance abuse treatment, suicide prevention and even enforcement of impaired driving laws. It also promises a host of challenges.
Police are preparing for more impaired drivers. The courts could see a deluge of requests for expungements of prior marijuana possession convictions. Prop 207 provides for neither defense. Prop 207 won a much larger victory – 1,946,440-1,302,458, or 60-40 percent, according to unofficial results – than President-elect Joe Biden did in the state. Although it legalizes possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, its full impact probably won’t hit home until April – when medical marijuana dispensaries will be able to sell weed to millions of new customers who won’t have to qualify for a medical marijuana card. Of course, it’s not as if those without a
card couldn’t find marijuana in Arizona, a border state known for illegal drug trafficking. However, voter approval of the medical marijuana proposition in 2010 gave birth to a thriving industry. Through October, 287,715 residents with cards bought 2,786,197 ounces of marijuana from dispensaries this year alone, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. Tom Dean, a defense attorney who specializes in marijuana cases, said he anticipates many people will not understand all the nuances in the new law.
see MARIJUANA page 10
Regal closing hits Gilbert strip mall hard
BY MADELEINE WILLIAMSON GSN Contributor
T
he show must go on but for business owners in Gilbert Town Square, there is uncertainty about their survival in the wake of Regal Gilbert Cinema’s closure. The movie house closed Oct. 8, and the flow of customers into the strip mall has been felt by its neighboring businesses. Regal Gilbert Cinemas is one of 536 multiplexes in the country that were closed temporarily by U.S. Cineworld Group Plc., the nation’s second-largest movie house chain, because of the pandemic. “In response to an increasingly challenging theatrical landscape and sustained key market closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Regal will be temporarily suspending
see REGAL page 6
Regal Gilbert Cinema has been dark for nearly two months, hurting businesses in the Gilbert Town Square that relied on the patrons its offerings would draw to the strip mall. (Pablo Robles/GSN Staff Photographer)