Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
With the state Legislature possibly facing three distinct medical marijuana regulatory bills for a floor vote before the end of its session next month, the authors - including the two North Coast representatives - are working on a tight deadline to narrow down the regulations into an integrated legislative package.
“This is not about politics or personalities,” 2nd District Sen. Mike McGuire said. “Our number one goal is about advancing good policy.”
The three bills - Assembly Bill 243 (Assemblyman Jim Wood), Senate Bill 643 (McGuire) and Assembly Bill 266 (Assemblyman Rob Bonta) - are all unified in that they would seek to tax and regulate medical marijuana operations statewide through licensing and use tax revenues to fund regulatory agencies. But AB 266 and SB 643 overlap in many ways as they are much more broad in scope than the more environmentally minded AB 243.
With the bills only one committee hearing away from a possible floor vote, North Coast Assemblyman Wood (D-Healdsburg) said that a collaborative effort is now underway to potentially combine the two broader bills into one and modify AB 243 to work in tandem with the final legislative product.
“The goal being that the bills would merge from appropriations committees and move to the floor for a vote,” Wood said. “That is indeed going on. I know our staff will be working on this through the weekend. It is a truly yeoman’s effort.”
With both AB 266 and SB 643 set to go before their respective appropriations committee hearings next Wednesday, the authors are working on a tight deadline to ensure the bills integrate well enough to gain the committee’s approval.
The authors have been meeting for the past four weeks on the proposal and will continue to work until the committee hearing.
“The next two or three days are absolutely critical,” Wood said. “If we don’t work out enough of the substantive details, the bills could be left in appropriations. It essentially means they would have to be continued to be worked on in the next calender year, and nobody wants that.”
This push led to the scheduled Thursday and Friday meetings between the AB 266 authors and Humboldt County Supervisors Ryan Sundberg and board Chairwoman Estelle Fennell to be cancelled last minute.
With the board having several concerns on recent amendments to AB 266, Sundberg said that he is waiting until next week to see what comes out of the lawmakers’ efforts.
“Everything is in completely in flux right now and they’re changing quite rapidly,” he said Thursday afternoon.
AB 266 and SB 643 both propose statewide licensing systems and regulations on medical marijuana operations from dispensaries, to transport, to edible quality as well as using licensing fees and fines for enforcement of the bill. Both would authorize local jurisdictions to impose taxes on medical marijuana establishments as well.
However, the bills differ in many ways.
In its current form, AB 266 - written by Bay Area Assemblyman Bonta (D-Alameda) along with Central Valley and Southern California legislators - would create a statewide licensing system for medical marijuana businesses, which would be overseen by a newly created Governor’s Office of Medical Cannabis Regulation along with aid from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the Department of Public Health, and the Board of Equalization.
In McGuire’s SB 643, the licensing and regulations would be overseen by an Office of Medical Marijuana Regulation within the Department of Consumer Affairs’ Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency. A chief of the Office of Medical Marijuana Regulation would oversee the new office under McGuire’s bill.
Sundberg and local medical marijuana industry representatives have expressed concern on a number of provisions and amendments to AB 266.
Under the current draft bill, existing medical marijuana business operators would be able to apply for a provisional license that would allow it to operate until the state comes up with a finalized statewide licensing system.
However, a recent amendment would only give priority for these provisional licenses to businesses that were in compliance with local medical marijuana ordinances before July 1 - a month and a half ago.
Humboldt County adopted a partially completed medical marijuana dispensary ordinance on Tuesday. Sundberg said that this provision would allow larger medical marijuana businesses to gain a hold on the market.
“So it basically locks out any new ones for Humboldt County,” he said. “... No one would be able to open up and it would allow the big ones to go wherever they wanted to go.”
As a business manager of a medical marijuana clone dispensary that would be affected by AB 266, Wonderland Nursery’s Luke Bruner - also the legislative chair for the California Cannabis Industry Association - provided a statement on the ongoing negotiations.
“One thing has become clear in Sacramento - the answers and solutions are going to be found in the North Coast and in Humboldt,” he said.
Sundberg said AB 266 would also allow for vertical integration in which a single company would be able to control the production, distribution and retail sale of the product.
Despite the differences, McGuire said that the effort is to bring forward what he said was “desperately needed rules” on the medical marijuana industry since the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996.
“We want to advance good policy and want it to be equitable on both the Senate and Assembly,” he said.
In its most recently amended form, Wood’s AB 243 takes a more environmental approach and also includes an excise tax on medical marijuana products at the time of distribution.
The tax revenue would be divided up in set percentages to state and local agencies that monitor the plants and combat environmental damage caused by illegal marijuana grows.
The bill would also permanently establish a current state partnership between the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the State Water Resources Control Board, which works to combat and prevent environmental impacts of illegal marijuana grows.
While Wood said he is working to ensure that his bill remains separate as it addresses more specific issues, he said that it has to work as a package with the proposed combined bill to avoid any conflicts.
“Each day that these bills remain active is a watershed moment because there is clearly a lot of interest in actually getting something done that is substantive and helpful for everyone going forward,” Wood said.
If AB 266 is combined with SB 643, it will be the second time two medical marijuana bills have merged this year. AB 266 and AB 34 merged in June.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: State legislators seek to combine medical marijuana bills
Author: Will Houston
Contact: whouston@times-standard.com
Photo Credit: LostCoast Output
Website: Eureka Times-Standard: Breaking News, Sports, Business, Entertainment & Eureka News
“This is not about politics or personalities,” 2nd District Sen. Mike McGuire said. “Our number one goal is about advancing good policy.”
The three bills - Assembly Bill 243 (Assemblyman Jim Wood), Senate Bill 643 (McGuire) and Assembly Bill 266 (Assemblyman Rob Bonta) - are all unified in that they would seek to tax and regulate medical marijuana operations statewide through licensing and use tax revenues to fund regulatory agencies. But AB 266 and SB 643 overlap in many ways as they are much more broad in scope than the more environmentally minded AB 243.
With the bills only one committee hearing away from a possible floor vote, North Coast Assemblyman Wood (D-Healdsburg) said that a collaborative effort is now underway to potentially combine the two broader bills into one and modify AB 243 to work in tandem with the final legislative product.
“The goal being that the bills would merge from appropriations committees and move to the floor for a vote,” Wood said. “That is indeed going on. I know our staff will be working on this through the weekend. It is a truly yeoman’s effort.”
With both AB 266 and SB 643 set to go before their respective appropriations committee hearings next Wednesday, the authors are working on a tight deadline to ensure the bills integrate well enough to gain the committee’s approval.
The authors have been meeting for the past four weeks on the proposal and will continue to work until the committee hearing.
“The next two or three days are absolutely critical,” Wood said. “If we don’t work out enough of the substantive details, the bills could be left in appropriations. It essentially means they would have to be continued to be worked on in the next calender year, and nobody wants that.”
This push led to the scheduled Thursday and Friday meetings between the AB 266 authors and Humboldt County Supervisors Ryan Sundberg and board Chairwoman Estelle Fennell to be cancelled last minute.
With the board having several concerns on recent amendments to AB 266, Sundberg said that he is waiting until next week to see what comes out of the lawmakers’ efforts.
“Everything is in completely in flux right now and they’re changing quite rapidly,” he said Thursday afternoon.
AB 266 and SB 643 both propose statewide licensing systems and regulations on medical marijuana operations from dispensaries, to transport, to edible quality as well as using licensing fees and fines for enforcement of the bill. Both would authorize local jurisdictions to impose taxes on medical marijuana establishments as well.
However, the bills differ in many ways.
In its current form, AB 266 - written by Bay Area Assemblyman Bonta (D-Alameda) along with Central Valley and Southern California legislators - would create a statewide licensing system for medical marijuana businesses, which would be overseen by a newly created Governor’s Office of Medical Cannabis Regulation along with aid from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the Department of Public Health, and the Board of Equalization.
In McGuire’s SB 643, the licensing and regulations would be overseen by an Office of Medical Marijuana Regulation within the Department of Consumer Affairs’ Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency. A chief of the Office of Medical Marijuana Regulation would oversee the new office under McGuire’s bill.
Sundberg and local medical marijuana industry representatives have expressed concern on a number of provisions and amendments to AB 266.
Under the current draft bill, existing medical marijuana business operators would be able to apply for a provisional license that would allow it to operate until the state comes up with a finalized statewide licensing system.
However, a recent amendment would only give priority for these provisional licenses to businesses that were in compliance with local medical marijuana ordinances before July 1 - a month and a half ago.
Humboldt County adopted a partially completed medical marijuana dispensary ordinance on Tuesday. Sundberg said that this provision would allow larger medical marijuana businesses to gain a hold on the market.
“So it basically locks out any new ones for Humboldt County,” he said. “... No one would be able to open up and it would allow the big ones to go wherever they wanted to go.”
As a business manager of a medical marijuana clone dispensary that would be affected by AB 266, Wonderland Nursery’s Luke Bruner - also the legislative chair for the California Cannabis Industry Association - provided a statement on the ongoing negotiations.
“One thing has become clear in Sacramento - the answers and solutions are going to be found in the North Coast and in Humboldt,” he said.
Sundberg said AB 266 would also allow for vertical integration in which a single company would be able to control the production, distribution and retail sale of the product.
Despite the differences, McGuire said that the effort is to bring forward what he said was “desperately needed rules” on the medical marijuana industry since the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996.
“We want to advance good policy and want it to be equitable on both the Senate and Assembly,” he said.
In its most recently amended form, Wood’s AB 243 takes a more environmental approach and also includes an excise tax on medical marijuana products at the time of distribution.
The tax revenue would be divided up in set percentages to state and local agencies that monitor the plants and combat environmental damage caused by illegal marijuana grows.
The bill would also permanently establish a current state partnership between the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the State Water Resources Control Board, which works to combat and prevent environmental impacts of illegal marijuana grows.
While Wood said he is working to ensure that his bill remains separate as it addresses more specific issues, he said that it has to work as a package with the proposed combined bill to avoid any conflicts.
“Each day that these bills remain active is a watershed moment because there is clearly a lot of interest in actually getting something done that is substantive and helpful for everyone going forward,” Wood said.
If AB 266 is combined with SB 643, it will be the second time two medical marijuana bills have merged this year. AB 266 and AB 34 merged in June.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: State legislators seek to combine medical marijuana bills
Author: Will Houston
Contact: whouston@times-standard.com
Photo Credit: LostCoast Output
Website: Eureka Times-Standard: Breaking News, Sports, Business, Entertainment & Eureka News
