Dismal season concludes / P. 19
Mobile escape room / P. 16
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
New day dawns for pot users tomorrow
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS .........................
BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
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Mesa funeral home offers Lights of Love.
COMMUNITY .........
Sunday, November 29, 2020
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | TheMesaTribune.com
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Care Closet aids Red Mountain students.
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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 �irst time without a state-issued medical card and can get high in their home. The new law, scheduled to take effect when state of�icials 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 re-
quests 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 unof�icial results – than Presidentelect 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 �ind marijuana in Arizona, a border state known for illegal drug traf�icking. However, voter approval of the medical marijuana proposition in 2010 gave birth to a
$2M expansion planned
OPINION ................ 18
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Virus surge puts MPS board in familiar hot seat BY PAUL MARYNIAK Tribune Executive Editor
What he was thankful for this year.
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GET OUT .................. 21 A short but dynamic season planned. COMMUNITY ............................... 13 BUSINESS ..................................... 16 OPINION ....................................... 18 SPORTS ....................................... 19 GET OUT ....................................... 21 PUZZLES ...................................... 22 CLASSIFIED ................................. 25 Zone 1
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. He said people may mistakenly believe they can buy recreational marijuana now. They can’t because no dispensary is authorized to sell it and likely won’t be until April and Dean thinks some people “are going to say, ‘screw that, I’m going to buy it from someone willing to sell it to me.’’
The City of Mesa plans a $2 million expansion of its famed cemetery, but the money won't come out of taxpayers' pockets. For a report on why the expansion is needed and who pays, see the report on page 4.b(Pablo Robles/Tribune Staff Photographer)
ine months after the COVID-19 pandemic hit Arizona and nearly a month into a surge in the virus, Mesa Public Schools Board members last week found themselves in an all-too-familiar hot seat – hearing teachers demand at-home instruction for all students and begging parents to stop risky conduct that threatens to send their children there. Pointing to a social media invitation to students to attend a winter dance, Superintendent Dr. Andi Fourlis heightened board members’ anxiety over the latter. “We have seen through social media that
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