AZ Prop 207: Possession Limits, Home Grow, and Penalties

Arizona’s Proposition 207, the Smart and Safe Arizona Act, lets adults 21 and older possess up to one ounce of marijuana, grow up to six plants at home, and buy from licensed dispensaries, but the Arizona Proposition 207 marijuana rules also keep firm limits on public use, driving, quantity, and anything that touches federal law. Legalization is not a blanket permission slip. The rules below are where people most often get caught out.

How Much You Can Possess and Buy

If you are at least 21, you can legally possess up to one ounce of marijuana. Within that ounce, no more than five grams can be marijuana concentrate, meaning products like wax, shatter, or vape cartridges.¹ Licensed dispensaries follow the same cap, so you cannot buy more than an ounce in a single transaction.

You can give marijuana to another adult who is at least 21, but only if no money or anything of value changes hands and the transfer is not advertised publicly. The gift limit tracks the possession limit: up to one ounce (with no more than five grams of concentrate), or up to six plants.¹ “Gifting” arrangements where you buy an overpriced sticker or T-shirt and receive “free” marijuana in return are not lawful transfers. If anything of value moves, it’s an unlicensed sale.

Where You Can and Cannot Use It

Smoking marijuana in any public place or open space is a petty offense.² Parks, sidewalks, restaurant patios, and bar areas all count. The Act also does not authorize public consumption in any form. Because the statute lists specific lawful activities and public consumption is not among them, edibles and vaping in public spaces lack legal protection either.¹

Schools, day care centers, health care facilities, and correctional facilities can prohibit possession and use on their property. So can employers on their premises. In practical terms, the only place recreational users can consistently consume legally is a private residence.

Renters have another layer to worry about. Your landlord can prohibit smoking, vaping, or growing marijuana on the property through the lease. That is a lease matter, not a criminal one, but violating it can lead to eviction. Federally subsidized housing is stricter, and that’s covered further down.

Growing Plants at Home

Adults 21 and older can grow up to six marijuana plants at their primary residence for personal use. If two or more adults 21 or older live in the same household, the cap is twelve plants total for the residence, not twelve per person.¹

Two security rules apply. Plants must be kept in a closet, room, greenhouse, or other enclosed area equipped with a lock or security device that prevents access by minors. And the plants cannot be visible from any public vantage point without binoculars, aircraft, or other optical aids. Violating either rule is a petty offense for a first violation and a class 3 misdemeanor for a second or subsequent violation.²

Any marijuana harvested beyond the one-ounce personal possession limit has to stay at the residence where the plants were grown. You cannot pack up the whole harvest and drive it somewhere else.

Driving After Using Marijuana

Proposition 207 did not touch Arizona’s DUI laws. It is illegal to drive or be in actual physical control of a vehicle while impaired to the slightest degree by any drug, marijuana included.³ That standard is about as low as it gets. An officer’s observations of impairment can be enough.

Arizona also has a separate provision making it illegal to drive with any drug or its metabolite in your body.³ THC metabolites can linger for weeks after use, long after impairment ends. Arizona’s Court of Appeals has held that since Proposition 207 legalized marijuana use, the metabolite provision cannot penalize unimpaired driving, so the driver must also be impaired to the slightest degree for a metabolite-based charge to hold up. This is still evolving. A DUI arrest after a blood draw showing THC metabolites remains a real risk, and the legal fight happens after the arrest.

Penalties When You Cross the Line

Most violations under Proposition 207 are low-level offenses rather than felonies, a significant change from Arizona’s earlier drug laws.

Possessing Over the Limit

Holding more than one ounce but no more than 2.5 ounces of marijuana (or more than five grams but no more than 12.5 grams of concentrate) is a petty offense, regardless of whether it’s a first violation.² Above 2.5 ounces, you leave the Proposition 207 framework and fall under the older statutes. Possessing less than two pounds of marijuana that is not for sale is a class 6 felony under those laws.⁴

Public Smoking

Smoking marijuana in any public place or open space is a petty offense.² Arizona’s Smoke-Free Arizona Act also prohibits smoking of any substance in most enclosed public places and workplaces.

Under-21 Possession

Someone under 21 who possesses one ounce or less of marijuana faces escalating consequences.² A first violation is a civil penalty of up to $100, with up to four hours of drug education or counseling at the court’s discretion. A second violation is a petty offense with up to eight hours of drug education or counseling. A third or subsequent violation is a class 1 misdemeanor.

Minors who use a fake ID to buy marijuana or ask someone else to buy for them face separate charges, starting as a petty offense and escalating on later violations.²

What Your Employer Can Still Do

Proposition 207 did not remove employers’ drug-testing authority. Employers can maintain drug-free workplace policies, test for marijuana, and discipline or fire an employee who tests positive, even for off-hours use. Employers are also not required to allow marijuana possession or consumption on the job or on company property.

Legalization protects you from criminal prosecution for personal use. It does not create a right to keep your job. Safety-sensitive positions, federal contracts, and CDL driving carry the highest risk, because federal workplace drug-testing rules still apply and marijuana is still federally illegal.

Where Federal Law Still Applies

Marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law, alongside heroin and LSD.⁵ Arizona’s law only controls state-level prosecution. Federal law operates on its own terms in a handful of situations that catch people off guard.

Firearms

Federal law prohibits any unlawful user of a controlled substance from possessing a firearm or ammunition.⁶ Because marijuana remains federally illegal, regular users fall into that prohibited category regardless of state law. ATF Form 4473, which you complete when buying from a licensed dealer, asks directly whether you are an unlawful user of marijuana or any other controlled substance, and it warns that federal law still bars marijuana use even in states that have legalized it.⁷ Answering yes disqualifies the sale. Answering no while being a regular user is a federal crime. A Supreme Court challenge to this restriction was pending as of early 2026, so this area could change, but the current law is clear.

Federally Subsidized Housing

If you live in public housing or receive Section 8 assistance, federal regulations require housing authorities to prohibit illegal drug use on the premises and allow eviction of tenants who use controlled substances.⁸ Because marijuana is federally illegal, a tenant can be evicted for use that is fully legal under Arizona law. Housing authorities must also deny admission to applicants they determine are currently using illegal drugs.

Federal Land and Interstate Travel

National parks, national forests, military bases, and other federal property in Arizona operate under federal jurisdiction. Possessing marijuana on those lands can lead to federal prosecution regardless of the amount. Carrying marijuana across state lines is also a federal offense, even between two states that have both legalized recreational use. Your Arizona dispensary purchase becomes contraband the moment you cross into New Mexico, Nevada, or anywhere else. This applies whether you drive, fly, take a bus, or mail it to yourself. TSA officers don’t specifically search for drugs, but they are required to report illegal substances they find during screening.

Clearing an Old Marijuana Conviction

Since July 12, 2021, anyone arrested, charged, or convicted for conduct that is now legal under Proposition 207 can petition a court to expunge those records.⁹

You can petition if your conviction involved possessing, using, or transporting 2.5 ounces or less of marijuana (including up to 12.5 grams of concentrate), growing six or fewer plants at your primary residence for personal use, or possessing, using, or transporting marijuana paraphernalia. The conduct must have happened before the Act took effect. Offenses involving larger amounts, distribution for profit, or other aggravating factors are not eligible.⁹

You file the petition in the court where your case was resolved, or in the superior court of the county where the arrest happened if you were never charged. Maricopa County charges no filing fee, and other counties generally follow the same approach.¹⁰ The court must grant the petition unless the prosecutor proves by clear and convincing evidence that you are not eligible.⁹ The burden is on the state, not on you.

Once granted, the records of arrest, charge, conviction, and sentence are sealed. Employer, landlord, and licensing-board background checks will not show the conviction. The legal effect is as though the arrest and conviction never happened, which removes barriers to jobs, housing, and professional licenses that a marijuana record may have blocked. The petition also restores civil rights, including firearm rights under state law, although the federal firearms restriction on current marijuana users still applies on its own.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 36-2852 – Allowable Possession and Personal Use of Marijuana, Marijuana Products and Marijuana Paraphernalia
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 36-2853 – Violations; Classification; Civil Penalty; Additional Fine
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 28-1381 – Driving or Actual Physical Control While Under the Influence
4
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-3405 – Possession, Use, Production, Sale or Transportation of Marijuana; Classification; Exceptions
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 21 USC 812 – Schedules of Controlled Substances
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
7
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF Form 4473 – Firearms Transaction Record
8
eCFR. 24 CFR Part 5 Subpart I – Preventing Crime in Federally Assisted Housing
9
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 36-2862 – Expungement; Petition; Appeal; Dismissal of Complaints; Rules
10
Maricopa County Superior Court. Criminal Petition to Expunge Marijuana Record Packet