Pubdate: Thu, 12 May 2016
Source: Sacramento News & Review (CA)
Column: The 420
Copyright: 2016 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://newsreview.com/sacto/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/540
Author: Ngaio Bealum

BABY STEPS

Is the Adult Use of Marijuana Act gonna be on the ballot or what?

- -Reggie Stird-Votairs

Probably. Last week, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and a bunch of other 
movers, shakers and moneymakers stood on a stage and announced that 
they had gathered more than enough signatures to place AUMA on the 
2016 ballot. (They have 600,000 and they only need 385,000, so even 
if 36 percent of the signatures are thrown out, they still have 
enough.) Let the yelling and name-calling begin.

If AUMA passes, adults older than 21 will be allowed to possess up to 
an ounce of marijuana and grow six plants.

That's the cool part. The rest is kinda the same old, same old: The 
state will create a regulatory agency; counties and cities can still 
ban grows and collectives; people can still be fired for testing 
positive for marijuana without proof of impairment; yada yada. 
According to AUMA, the medical marijuana laws would remain unchanged, 
although AUMA's public consumption rules (no public consumption) 
clash with the rules of Prop 215 (qualified patients may smoke 
wherever cigarette smoking is allowed, but not in moving motor 
vehicles). There are a bunch of different things in the AUMA-it's 62 
pages long, for crying out loud! Dale Gieringer from California NORML 
has a pretty good breakdown of the new rules here: 
http://tinyurl.com/AUMAbreakdown. If AUMA passes, the Legislature and 
the courts will have to do a ton of work to create a harmonious 
recreational-medical balance.

Listen, AUMA has money and connections. The pro-AUMA coalition is 
broad, diverse and well-connected. Anytime you can get Reagan 
Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Alice A. Huffman, president of 
the California NAACP, to support an initiative, you are doing something right.

Many hardcore activists don't like AUMA, but have come to a sort of 
grudging acceptance that money and power always win the day in politics.

Omar Figueroa (he helped to write the California Craft Cannabis 
Initiative) sent me this text: "AUMA is to legalization as military 
music is to music." However, he also sent me: "In the final analysis, 
AUMA is the lesser evil compared to current prohibition, and baby 
steps are better than no progress."

However people feel, I'm not sure this initiative will pass. All the 
growers I know hate this measure.

Hate. (By the way, I didn't see one grower or cannabis activist 
onstage at the press conference. Maybe they were hiding in the back.) 
This initiative has many of the same problems that Proposition 19 
had: It does nothing to help the folks that need it most. I may be 
overstating a bit, but you get my point. There is no reason for a 
grower in Fresno or Calaveras or any city that has cannabis 
cultivation in place to support this measure. Without the support of 
the growers and the hardcore activists, AUMA proponents will have to 
appeal to the squares, and there is no guarantee that the squares, 
er, people who don't use cannabis, will support a legalization 
initiative. People forget how conservative most of California really is.

Whatever happens, this will be an interesting election season. 
Everyone stay calm and do your best to be civil.

Smoke a bowl before you post that Facebook flame-screed. Don't take 
anything personally. Get involved.

Have fun.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom