The ballot over The Adult Use of Marijuana Act on November 8 is firmly back on track, with Southern California alone providing more than the 365,880 signatures necessary to get the measure to the vote. This is not to say the initiative is bound to succeed. If it does – and we are cautiously optimistic – California will enter a new era twenty years after the use of medical cannabis became legal. Key aspects of the program would then be:
– Californians aged over twenty-one could possess up to 8 grams of concentrated cannabis, up to an ounce of marijuana, and up to six plants.
– Individuals may not consume in public, drive while under influence or provide marijuana to persons under twenty-one.
– Administratively, there would be strict control over the supply chain, which a 15% sales tax, plus growers’ tax would fund.
AUMA was ecstatic about the success, quoting Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom saying, ‘Today, the largest coalition ever formed to support marijuana reform has filed the signatures to qualify the most thoughtful marijuana policy in the nation – with the strictest child protections and billions in new revenue for important programs such as public safety.’
Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) was also firmly onside when he commented, ‘As a Republican who believes in individual freedom, limited government and states’ rights, I believe that it’s time for California to lead the nation and create a safe, legal system for the responsible adult use of marijuana.’
Brook Edwards Staggs, writing in the Orange County Register was less ecstatic about the possibility of the ensuing ballot succeeding. She thinks the 550 members of the California Growers Association are ‘nowhere near’ a unified position at the level of detail provided in the sixty-two page Adult Use of Marijuana Act. Some fear marijuana patients and micro businesses could be ‘swallowed up’ in a newer, more businesslike industry.
The opposition to the Act has been upping the ante too, with healthy financial contributions from health lobbies and law enforcement groups that successfully opposed legalization in 2010. President Doug Villars of the California Association of Highway Patrolmen went public claiming legalization ‘will make California’s highways and roads more dangerous.’
We are inclined to take these claims with a pinch of salt. Marijuana consumption is not going to increase radically if the bill passes. All that is going to happen is the law will finally catch with public opinion. Even Bernie Sanders commented on his presidential campaign trail that ‘he would vote for the initiative if he could.’