CA: Everything To Know About Marijuana Measure On November Ballot

[Katelyn Baker]

Los Angeles, CA - The recreational use of marijuana and hemp would become legal, with sales taxes imposed upon them, under an initiative going before California voters on Nov. 8.

Proposition 64 would also establish packaging, labeling, advertising and marketing standards and restrictions for marijuana products, including prohibiting marketing and advertising marijuana to minors.

The initiative also authorizes re-sentencing and destruction of records for prior marijuana convictions.

The measure would impose a state excise tax on retail sales of marijuana equal to 15 percent of the sales price and state cultivation taxes on marijuana of $9.25 per ounce of flowers and $2.75 per ounce of leaves.

The initiative allows for local regulation and taxation of marijuana and exempts medical marijuana from some taxation.

Passage of the initiative would result in net reduced costs ranging from tens of millions of dollars to potentially exceeding $100 million annually to state and local governments related to enforcing certain marijuana-related offenses, handling the related criminal cases in the court system and incarcerating and supervising certain marijuana offenders, according to an analysis conducted by the Legislative Analyst's Office and Department of Finance.

The analysis also found passage would result in net additional state and local tax revenues potentially ranging from the high hundreds of millions of dollars to more than $1 billion annually related to the production and sale of marijuana. Most of these funds would be required to be spent for specific purposes such as substance use disorder education, prevention and treatment.

Hemp is a variety of the cannabis plant that is grown specifically for the industrial uses of its products. It can be refined into a variety of commercial items including paper, textiles, clothing, biodegradable plastics, paint, insulation, biofuel, food and animal feed.

Opponents - including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. - argue that legalizing marijuana will lead to a sharp increase highway fatalities and impaired driving, noting there is no current standard for determining if a driver is "impaired" by marijuana. They also argue the measure would permit marijuana farms near schools and public parks and will lead to a proliferation of "pot shops," particularly in inner-city communities.

Detractors also contend the measure would allow prime-time television advertisements for marijuana, exposing children to the drug. Backers of the measure flatly deny that the proposition includes any such provision and includes strict requirements to prevent marketing or sale of marijuana to children.

News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Everything To Know About Marijuana Measure On November Ballot
Author: Staff
Contact: Malibu Patch
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Website: Malibu Patch

 

[Icemud]

I encourage all of the California Cannabis supporters to vote NO on prop 64!!!


This legislation will ruin the cannabis industry as we know it, allowing only those with millions of dollars to invest to take part legally. None of the tax money will go to K-12 schools, state infrastructure, or the general fund and a huge portion of taxes will go to California Highway patrol, research on DUIs and detection technology, and driving limits, drug education, rehab programs... pretty much the major recipients of tax money will be the ones that have persecuted cannabis users for years... none of the fancy little summaries explain this...

$2 million per year to the UC San Diego Center for Medical Cannabis Research to study medical marijuana.
$10 million per year for 11 years for public California universities to research and evaluate the implementation and impact of Proposition 64. Researchers would make policy-change recommendations to the California Legislature and California Governor.
$3 million annually for five years to the Department of the California Highway Patrol for developing protocols to determine whether a vehicle driver is impaired due to marijuana consumption.
$10 million, increasing each year by $10 million until settling at $50 million in 2022, for grants to local health departments and community-based nonprofits supporting "job placement, mental health treatment, substance use disorder treatment, system navigation services, legal services to address barriers to reentry, and linkages to medical care for communities disproportionately affected by past federal and state drug policies."

The remaining revenue would be distributed as follows:[1]

60 percent for youth programs, including drug education, prevention, and treatment.
20 percent to prevent and alleviate environmental damage from illegal marijuana producers.
20 percent for programs designed to reduce driving under the influence of marijuana and a grant program designed to reduce negative impacts on health or safety resulting from the proposition.
Click to expand...
Prop 64 gives too much power to local city and county governments, and about 95% of California cities have now banned any commercial cannabis business, dispensaries, deliveries, everything!

Prop 64 will allow you to grow 6 plants, but also allows cities, such as San Clemente can require you to purchase a license to grow your 6 plants... ???what?? so we vote to make it legal, and now we have to pay our city, put our name on a list? who can access this information? your insurance, Child protective services, home loan financing companies, banks, jobs??? its not written into legislation on where that information goes if your required to get a city permit for your LEGAL 6 plants...

Prop 64 will require medical users to go to a primary care physician to get their medical license, but there is no protection for the doctors... how many doctors will prescribe cannabis when they are required by law to only prescribe FDA approved medications... hmmm sounds like BS to me, how many doctors are really going to risk giving everything up to prescribe cannabis with no protections?

Prop 64 will require medical patients to register with the state... so now your information is in a government database.. Yep, no 2nd amendment for you, also the legislation states that you will be notified if someone requests your MMJ information, but there is no provisions written that you can deny the request...

With the passing of MMRSA early in 2016, and now MCRSA, approximately 95% of the California cities have banned all commercial cannabis business, and many cities, especially in socal have banned even medical growing. So now there are only about 10-15 cities out of 490 something cities in California allowing for commercial cultivation permits... and these cities only have small zones allowing it... therefore the little bit of real estate that is in these cities, in these zones has skyrocketed in price, I mean millions of dollars for an acre? so who can afford to even get into the business??? only millionaires, established brands, big corporate money...YUP!

Prop 64 will allow cities and counties to BAN outdoor growing, forcing those with land to bring their grows indoors, not only cutting down on the size they can grow and limited by plant counts, but also will put even more stress on our electrical grid and raise the carbon footprint.

Prop 64 does away with the ability to give promotional "free" products away... no more First time patient deals, no more going to trade shows or cannabis cups and getting free seeds, or products...

Prop 64 offers no protection against CPS taking away your kids.

Prop 64 in many ways stiffens the penalties, and still includes offenses that will result in heavy fines, drug programs and even prison time.

Prop 64 now requires all "legal" cannabis businesses to obtain a license... but there is no mention of costs of these licenses yet... so what happens when they say, oh you want a 22,000 foot warehouse... well that will cost you $100,000 per year.. plus the tax per square foot of your canopy..

Prop 64 also will control pricing to make sure that businesses can not undercut each other...which is great for large cultivation facilities who can operate and produce product at extremely cheap prices... but how with the small guys, or the medium size growers do? how will they profit trying to keep up with large scale production operating with much more profit?

Prop 64 requires superior record keeping, seed to sale tracking, and also if you are a license holder, guess what, your 4th amendment also gets removed, as being a licensed cannabusiness allows for government inspections anytime without notice during normal business hours, records can be inspected, and pretty much if 1 record is misplaced or improperly logged, huge tens of thousands of dollars fines you will be slapped with...

The cost of cannabis will go up, as not only a 15% state tax is slapped on, but almost $10 per oz on top of that, plus allows for local cities and counties to add their own tax... therefore that $60 1/8 now may cost $70-84 or more. Eventually the prices will come down slightly.. but who is going to buy cannabis legally if black market is cheaper... same thing that is going on in Colorado, and its hurting the legit businesses as they have to pay such high taxes, payrolls, leases..etc...

Prop 64 limits personal grows to 6 plants per household...not per person..

Prop 64 contradicts itself withing the text, in some places saying its legal to possess 8 grams of concentrate, and in other sections saying only 4 grams.

Prop 64 will require anyone over 18 who is caught with over an ounce or 4 grams of concentrate, will receive either or both a $500 fine and/or up to 6 months in jail (this is legalization?)

Prop 64 will include penalties of up to 6 months in jail, and/or $500 fine for growing over 6 plants.




Overall Prop 64 will be ONLY good for big money corporations, investors, and tax recipients, but will not be good for small business, patients, the public or anyone else... VOTE NO on PROP 64!!!!