Pubdate: Sun, 27 Mar 2016 Source: Union, The (Grass Valley, CA) Copyright: 2016 The Union Contact: http://www.theunion.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/957 Author: Jason Kolb Note: Jason Kolb lives in Nevada City. MEASURE W WILL KILL JOBS, MUNICIPAL REVENUES I have been reading many things in the paper the past few months pertaining to marijuana growing, how marijuana affects the quality of life in this county, and Measure W. The one thing that has been missing in all of these discussions is commercial cannabis activity being completely banned by Measure W. Here are a few facts behind commercial cannabis activity according to California Assembly Bill 266 and Senate Bill 643: 1. Cannabis will be tracked from seed to sale. Each plant will have a unique ID zip tie at the base with a state ID number. This number will be used to track the plant and all its products through all channels until its sold to patients. 2. New cannabis channels will be created and regulated by BOS and other state agencies. Growers will be required to send all cannabis to a distributor. The distributor will be responsible for QA testing and labeling. A testing lab will be responsible for testing the cannabis before the distributor can deliver the cannabis to the dispensary. 3. Cultivators' licenses will vary by size and scope and will be distributed and priced by county officials. There are three sizes of regulated cultivation for indoor, outdoor, and mixed-light. Nurseries will not have any size constraints and will not be able to cultivate. Cultivators cannot be felons, have firearms, nor be a renter. 4. Law enforcement will now have black and white instructions not to arrest or prosecute compliant state license holders, patient or caregiver rights under prop 215, or interfere with licensed cannabis activity. 5. A transporter will move all cannabis through the new channels. Growers are no longer able to transport their cannabis to a dispensary. Now a transporter is required to move cannabis from grower to distributor then distributor to testing lab and then to dispensary. No county nor city can ban transporters from utilizing public roads and highways. 6. All cannabis must be tested and labeled before it can be delivered to a dispensary. A certified testing lab is responsible for batch testing and QA of all cannabis before it can be delivered to dispensaries. Each batch sample will be tested for the following: THC, TCHA, CBD, CBDA, terpenes, CBG, CBN, other compounds from the plant, and contaminants such as residual solvents, pesticides, and mold. 7. Dispensaries will not be able to sell unlicensed cannabis and cannabis products. All products will be tracked and traced from the moment it enters the building to the point of sale. They will be forced to use outside security firms to vet patients, provide security duties, and uphold public loitering regulations. 8. Collectives are no more. Only a dispensary with three locations or less can deliver. However, local jurisdiction cannot outlaw delivers driving through and can add a delivery tax if they deem fit. 9. Doctors that specialize in medical cannabis recommendations may not give or take money from a licensed medical cannabis business. They can not give recommendations over Skype and the Medical Board is charged with working on qualification guidelines. Doctors will not be able to price advertise to mislead the public. "$75 to be legal. Everyone qualifies!" is an example of a banned advertisement. 10. Local jurisdiction is in charge, not the state. They can create taxes, issue/deny permits, allocate municipal revenues, and control all commercial cannabis activity. Measure W is much more then just a law that prohibits outdoor marijuana growing in Nevada County. It takes away the potential for jobs and free enterprise. Jobs are scarce in this community and these new channels bring several new job opportunities to our community: printing and designing labels, full-time processing, lab technicians, transporters, nursery employees, data-entry specialist, State regulators, cannabis specific insurance firms and CPAs, and security firms. All these are new taxable opportunities to better our roads, provide better school supplies and transportation for students, better our digital infrastructure, and provide better solutions to eradicate our opiate epidemic. I agree that this is a quality of life issue, but I disagree that a smell three months out of the year precedes jobs, patients' ability to grow their medicine, and to provide needed municipal revenues. It's absurd to think that a smell is more important than epileptic children and cancer patients quality of life. It's absurd to not embrace a new regulated market and to watch Placer, Yuba, and Sacramento counties absorb these new revenues. What we need is more dialogue and debate to help maximize the potential for new jobs and municipal revenues. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom