{"id":4340,"date":"2015-06-30T08:34:51","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T08:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=3474"},"modified":"2015-06-30T08:34:51","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T08:34:51","slug":"momentum-mounting-for-2016-california-marijuana-measure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/momentum-mounting-for-2016-california-marijuana-measure\/","title":{"rendered":"Momentum Mounting For 2016 California Marijuana Measure"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/momentum-mounting-for-2016-california-marijuana-measure\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>On June 14, more than 200 people gathered at the Sebastopol Grange for a fundraiser and organizing meeting of local pot growers, the Sonoma County Growers Association. They were being mentored by their northern neighbors from Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity counties, the Emerald Growers Association, which already has lobbyists in Sacramento and is in the middle of the effort to legalize weed in California next year. The Emerald Triangle is the largest marijuana growing area in the country\u2019s largest marijuana producing state.<\/p>\n<p>Two days later, more than a hundred people met in a conference room at the Oakland Marriot City Center to plot the intricacies of producing a statewide marijuana legalization initiative. For several hours, attendees &#8211; dispensary operators and employees, small growers, not-so-small growers, patients, consumers, interested citizens, even a nun &#8211; offered their input on a rapid-fire but seemingly endless array of issues related to legalization and how it should occur:<\/p>\n<p>Who can grow it? How much? Where? Who can grow it commercially? Should there be tiered licensing to ensure small operators have a chance? Who can sell it? Can cities and counties opt out? Who should regulate it? How should it be taxed and how much? Where should the revenues go? Should there be amnesties or expungements of records? Should employees be protected from being fired for smoking on their own time? Should there be protections from child welfare services or family courts? Does impaired driving need to be addressed? What about medical marijuana? Should existing businesses get a priority?<\/p>\n<p>The complexities of knitting together a legalization initiative that will satisfy the community\u2019s already well-developed interest groups become apparent. But the process is nearing its end, and, it is hoped, a repeat of the movement infighting that accompanied 2010\u2019s failed Prop 19 effort can be avoided.<\/p>\n<p>The Bay area events are nothing unusual in California this year. Pot politics is in the air. There is a lot at stake for the existing medical marijuana system as the legislature tries again to agree on a statewide regulation scheme, but beyond that, there\u2019s the whole issue of outright legalization, and that\u2019s going to come to a head in the months leading up to November 2016.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because Californians are extremely likely to have a chance to vote directly to approve legalization then and quite likely to do so. Polls this year are coming in with support for legalization above 50%, although not enough above for anyone to think it\u2019s going to be a slam dunk. Four legalization initiatives are already at the state attorney general\u2019s office awaiting circulating titles and summaries, while a fifth, and the one most likely to actually qualify for the ballot, is set to drop sometime this summer.<\/p>\n<p>Four states and the District of Columbia have already beaten California in the race to Promised Land of legal weed (much to the chagrin of California activists), but if and when the state goes green, that could be the death knell for pot prohibition. In one fell swoop, 15% of the entire country will have legalized it\u2013and that\u2019s not even counting other states also likely to legalize it the same day, including Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada. When the nation\u2019s most populous state does something, the rest of us take notice.<\/p>\n<p>Enforcing marijuana prohibition constitutes about half of all the resources\u2013state, local, and federal\u2013devoted to the war on drugs. When a state as large as California rejects pot prohibition, that begins to call into queston the entire drug war model, and the resources devoted to it. Legalizing in California will have ramification far beyond the state\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative everyone is waiting on is from the California Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform, the group that organized the Oakland meeting &#8211; and 13 others just like it among stakeholders in every corner of the state. The coalition, also known by its web address, ReformCA, is working with a number of state and national organizations to get a broadly-backed legalization initiative on the ballot.<\/p>\n<p>ReformCA\u2019s state supporters include California NORML, the California Cannabis Industry Association, the Emerald Growers Association, the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance, Oaksterdam University, and the state chapter of the NAACP. Its national allies include such deep-pocketed groups as the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and the Marijuana Policy Project, as well as Americans for Safe Access, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and the United Food &amp; Commercial Workers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re definitely working in coalition with a lot of organizations, including criminal justice and public health organizations,\u201d said Amanda Reiman, DPA\u2019s manager for marijuana law and policy. \u201cThey agree that legalization is the right step; that we need to regulate it. There seems to be a fair amount of unity there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ReformCA public forums were a deliberate way to \u201chear from the marijuana base,\u201d said Reiman. \u201cThey have ideas, and those come back to the coalition, but that is only a small piece of the puzzle. We\u2019ve also been meeting with people who don\u2019t come at it from a consumer or industry perspective &#8211; medical, law enforcement, public health. They have an interest in this, too; we all have a vested interest in a sound regulatory structure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>North Bay cannabis defense attorney Omar Figueroa has a hand in a couple of other initiatives that have already been filed, the California Craft Cannabis Initiative and the Marijuana Control, Legalization, and Revenue Act of 2016. Based in Sonoma County, just south of the Emerald Triangle, he\u2019s attuned to the interests of small growers, and both initiatives reflect that.<\/p>\n<p>Both have provisions for marijuana cultivation licensing schemes that would leave room for the area\u2019s traditionally family-sized operations, designated \u201ccraft growers\u201d in one and \u201cartisan cultivators\u201d in the other. Small-scale operations would be able to buy cultivation license for far less operations large enough to be designated \u201ccommercial.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whether the initiative campaigns end up folding themselves into the ReformCA campaign remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe craft cannabis initiative is there for discussion purposes; I\u2019m releasing the meme into the wild,\u201d said Figueroa. \u201cBut the other one actually has some funding behind it. It\u2019ll probably end up unifying with what ReformCA comes up with\u2014if it\u2019s palatable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Figueroa has his druthers and he has his bottom line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d prefer that medical marijuana be untaxed or less taxed, and I\u2019d prefer that regulation be done by a transparent elected body like a cannabis commission,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it would be nice if existing growers got priority licensing or some sort of head start, but at a minimum would be recognizing appellations. California has world famous cannabis appellations. No one\u2019s ever heard of Denver or Boulder bud; it doesn\u2019t have that branding that Humboldt or Mendocino does.<\/p>\n<p>But in the end, he\u2019s looking for an initiative that is \u201ccreate no new crimes and legalizes personal cultivation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ReformCA and the other initiative proponents aren\u2019t even the only game in town when it comes to marijuana policy reform. Their efforts are going on parallel to the work of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Cannabis Policy, led by pro-legalization Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and the ACLU of Northern California, which will issue a much-anticipated report on July 7.<\/p>\n<p>While not explicitly pro-legalization itself, the commission was formed out of the expectation that legalization is coming and in an effort to and is identifying policy issues and solutions related to dealing with it. Its membership consists of policymakers, public health experts, and academics, and its report will include input from important groups not necessarily friendly to change, such as the California Police Chiefs Association.<\/p>\n<p>Waiting for the commission report is one of two things slowing the completion of the ReformCA initiative, sound Dale Gieringer, longtime head of Cal NORML, as well as a spokesman for the coalition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe biggest one is whether the legislature will implement a comprehensive medical marijuana regulation system this year or not, and what it would look like,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it looks like they will pass Assembly Bill 266, which is basically a multi-agency approach. I think we now have a good idea of where the legislature is headed and a solution to the problem of regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The other thing is the Blue Ribbon Commission report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI suspect we\u2019ll see a draft shortly thereafter, but I can\u2019t guarantee that. It may take another four to six weeks of working out,\u201d Gieringer said. \u201cSeveral drafts have been circulated, and we\u2019re waiting for something from the Drug Policy Alliance, with the advice of a bunch of other people who\u2019ve been consulted. But nothing has been finalized.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The clock is ticking, but the only real hard deadline facing initiatives is, ironically enough, April 20. That\u2019s when signatures have to be in if they want to make the 2016 ballot.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the sooner the better. Initiatives need 585,000 valid voter signatures to qualify for the ballot, which means they better have a minimum of 800,000 or even more to account for the inevitable disqualified signatures. It also means initiatives don\u2019t manage to get on the ballot without a paid signature-gathering campaign, and the less time they have, the more they have to pay. Budget $1 or $2 million just to get those signatures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe could file as late as November or December,\u201d said Gieringer. \u201cIt just costs more. If we were ready now or even next month, that would give us maximum time to do everything, but it looks like it\u2019s going to be a rush.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Funding will appear, supporters said, but they are going to need a lot. The 2010 Prop 19 initiative campaign raised and spent $5 million for advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts, and that wasn\u2019t enough. California is a huge and expensive series of media markets, and organizers are thinkng they will need to spend somewhere between $10 and $20 million to ensure victory.<\/p>\n<p>The traditional deep pocketed sources of drug reform funding &#8211; the Drug Policy Alliance and its PACs, the Marijuana Policy Project and its PACs, the Peter Lewis estate &#8211; have not yet committed serious money, but they are watching with great interest.<\/p>\n<p>DPA\u2019s Reiman would say little about funding, except that \u201cthe money is out there, and we\u2019re just going to have to see. Right now, we\u2019re doing our due diligence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m confident we can get the money, there are large pledges sitting on the sidelines ready to get in once signature collection starts,\u201d Gieringer said. \u201cAnd there are some promising leads, although the industry itself has been very disappointing. They\u2019re quick to suggest things to make it more profitable, but not so quick to put up the money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One exception is a dispensary-locater app*. The Orange Count company announced in April that it had donated $1 million to a campaign committee called Californians for Sensible Reform, which will support what it thinks is the strongest legalization measure on the ballot. The app makers* also throwing another million bucks into a PAC of the same name that will spend it supporting weed-friendly candidates.<\/p>\n<p>California is a large, complicated state. Even its marijuana movement is large and complicated, not to mention factoring in the interests of the much, much larger non-marijuana community. Whether all the moving parts can fit together in a measure that can win at the ballot box next year is an unanswered question, but Reiman sounds confident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cComing up with the details is where the difficulty is, and there\u2019s always something to disagree about, but we\u2019re coming at this with such strong support, we\u2019ve got the Blue Ribbon Commission, that\u2019s more academic and political weight behind this than ever before.\u201d *edit<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/gallery\/data\/1412\/1106.jpeg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>News Moderator: Jacob Redmond <a href=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a><br \/>\nFull Article: <a href=\"http:\/\/sandiegofreepress.org\/2015\/06\/momentum-mounting-for-2016-california-marijuana-measure\/\" target=\"_blank\">Momentum Mounting for 2016 California Marijuana Measure<\/a><br \/>\nAuthor: Phillip Smith<br \/>\nContact: <a href=\"mailto:Contact@SanDiegoFreePress.org\">Contact@SanDiegoFreePress.org<\/a><br \/>\nPhoto Credit: Frank Meir<br \/>\nWebsite: <a href=\"http:\/\/sandiegofreepress.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">San Diego Free Press ? Grassroots News &amp; Progressive Views<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On June 14, more than 200 people gathered at the Sebastopol Grange for a fundraiser and organizing meeting of local&#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/2015\/06\/momentum-mounting-for-2016-california-marijuana-measure\/\" class=\"read-more\">[Read More]<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1597,9,1,3],"tags":[4165],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}