Pubdate: Fri, 02 Jan 2015
Source: Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA)
Copyright: 2015 The Press-Enterprise Company
Contact: http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/letters_form.html
Website: http://www.pe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/830

MARIJUANA: WILL 2016 BE THE YEAR OF LEGALIZATION?

The Drive to Legalize

Marijuana legalization advocates have submitted at least 18 ballot 
measures to the California secretary of state in an effort to let 
voters decide whether to allow recreation use of the drug next year.

The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act -- Activists 
are trying to unify around this measure, which has the support of Lt. 
Gov. Gavin Newsom and billionaire entrepreneur Sean Parker. The act 
would allow marijuana use by those 21 and older and would impose a 15 
percent tax on retail sales.

What Comes Next -- The measure needs an official title and summary 
from the secretary of state's office. Once that happens, supporters 
will have 180 days to gather roughly 366,000 voter signatures to 
qualify the measure for the November 2016 ballot.

Supporters of legal marijuana in California might be closer than ever 
to their goal.

Next year, the Golden State could join the District of Columbia, 
Colorado, Oregon, Washington state and Alaska in allowing 
recreational use of marijuana under certain conditions. At least 18 
legalization ballot measures have been submitted to the California 
secretary of state.

And that's the problem for supporters. If more than one measure 
qualifies, it could confuse voters and hurt a grassroots effort 
that's gained momentum in recent years.

To that end, legalization advocates are rallying around a measure 
backed by billionaire entrepreneur and former Facebook president Sean 
Parker. The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act, or 
AUMA, has the backing of pro-marijuana activists and Lt. Gov. Gavin 
Newsom, who has said the initiative closely follows the 
recommendations of a blue-ribbon panel he formed to develop 
guidelines for marijuana sale and cultivation in California.

The use of marijuana for medicinal purposes has been legal in 
California since voters approved Prop. 215 in 1996, and state 
lawmakers recently passed a new regulatory scheme for medical 
marijuana. But the push to decriminalize it suffered a setback when 
voters rejected Prop. 19 in 2010.

The prospects for legalization are favorable in 2016, said Jack 
Pitney, a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College. A 
Public Policy Institute of California poll conducted in March showed 
support for legalization at its highest point -- 53 percent -- since 
the poll started asking about the topic in 2010, although a more 
recent poll found that legalization was not a top concern for many.

Voters in 2016 will likely be more liberal and Democratic than in 
2014, which boosts the chances for a legalization ballot measure, Pitney said.

"But having more than one measure on the ballot could be a problem, 
especially if either is legally flawed or vulnerable to attack," he 
said. "Voters might just say no to all of them, just to be safe."

"SO MANY EGOS"

AUMA is seen as having the best shot of getting on the ballot because 
of Parker's financial backing. Once it gets an official title and 
summary from the attorney general's office, backers will have 180 
days to gather roughly 366,000 valid signatures from California 
voters to qualify the measure for the November 2016 ballot.

AUMAs main rival appears to be the Control, Regulate and Tax Cannabis 
Act of 2016, submitted by the California Coalition for Cannabis 
Policy Reform, also known as ReformCA. But according to published 
reports, a majority of coalition board members have thrown their 
support behind AUMA.

"There are so many different legalization initiatives because there 
are so many egos involved in getting a marijuana legalization 
initiative passed in California," said Lanny Swerdlow, a 
pro-marijuana activist from the Riverside County desert community of 
Whitewater.

"Efforts to bring everyone to the table to find common ground and 
draft a single initiative failed as the proponents of all but one of 
the initiatives refused to attend," he said.

'WE SHOULD WIN IT'

To satisfy skeptics, AUMA supporters recently changed the measure to 
prevent the marketing of marijuana to children and block big business 
from monopolizing the marijuana market.

"This measure now includes even more protections for children, 
workers, small business, and local governments while ensuring strict 
prohibitions on marketing to kids and monopoly practices," proponent 
Donald Lyman told The San Francisco Chronicle.

Swerdlow said that while the Parker-backed initiative isn't perfect, 
he'll most likely support whatever gets on the ballot. It's important 
for the Democratic Party to back a ballot measure and not stand on 
the sidelines like it did with Prop. 19, said Swerdlow, who founded 
the Brownie Mary Democratic Club of Riverside County.

"It is our election to lose," he said. "We should win it. But if we 
don't do it right, we will lose it."

Paul Chabot, a Republican congressional candidate from Rancho 
Cucamonga, is confident voters will reject any measure to legalize marijuana.

The reason Colorado and Washington state legalized marijuana is 
because there was no organized opposition, said Chabot, founder of 
the Coalition for a Drug Free California.

"Here in California, we've been organized for well over a decade," he said.

The fate of a legalization ballot measure could depend on how 
well-funded and organized the opposition is, Pitney said.

"All things being equal, it is easier to beat a ballot measure than 
to pass it," he said. "If foes can find a reasonable hook for 
creating doubt, and if they can drive home their message in ads, then 
they could drive down support."

15 PERCENT TAX

As currently written, AUMA would permit recreational marijuana use by 
those 21 and older. Marijuana users of legal age could possess up to 
28.5 grams of marijuana and grow up to six marijuana plants in their homes.

Retail marijuana sales would be taxed at a 15 percent rate, with the 
money going to a special fund to pay for substance abuse treatment, 
drug abuse prevention programs and other specified aims.

A state legislative analysis estimated the act could reduce law 
enforcement costs by tens of millions to more than $100 million a 
year while providing hundreds of millions to more than $1 billion a 
year in tax revenue.

The act imposes a number of limits on where marijuana can be smoked 
and who can sell it. For example, marijuana businesses cannot be 
within 600 feet of schools and places where children gather, and 
merchants who sell alcohol and tobacco cannot sell marijuana as well.

The act allows for those convicted of offenses that would not have 
been crimes if the act were in place to be eligible for resentencing. 
Penalties for driving a car while impaired by marijuana would remain in effect.

Local governments would have the power to regulate non-medical 
marijuana businesses. And localities could ban non-medical marijuana 
businesses if a majority of residents vote to do so.

With the exception of a handful of cities in the Coachella Valley, 
medical marijuana dispensaries are not allowed in Riverside County's 
cities. In a case that started in Riverside, the California Supreme 
Court in 2013 upheld the right of cities to ban dispensaries, and 
Riverside voters in June rejected a measure that would have allowed 
up to 10 dispensaries in commercial and industrial zones.

Earlier this year, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors enacted 
new regulations to crack down on large-scale marijuana grows in 
unincorporated communities. Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, who 
spearheaded the new rules, wonders what will happen to neighborhoods 
if recreational marijuana is legalized.

"There's a lot of little complexities out there that are going to 
have to be ironed out," he said. "I really hope they don't throw 
something out there that's going to be a disaster for California and 
take years to figure out."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom