SACRAMENTO >> With California voters likely to consider
legalizing recreational marijuana use next year, lawmakers appeared
poised to regulate and rein in the state’s free-wheeling medical
marijuana industry ahead of a legislative deadline.
The Legislature was expected to finish voting Friday on a package of bills that would create the first statewide licensing and operating rules for pot growers and retail weed outlets since the state became the first to legalize medical marijuana in 1996.
“After 20 years, we have an agreement on a comprehensive regulatory regime and that is historic,” said Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, the lead author of the main Assembly bill. “We knew it had to be done this year.”
The framework seeks to manage medical marijuana from seed to smoke, calling for 17 separate license categories, detailed labeling requirements and a product tracking system complete with bar codes and shipping manifests.
If enacted as drafted, it would not only impose strict controls on an industry that never has had to comply with any but provide a template for how recreational marijuana might be treated if it is legalized.
Another major piece of legislation awaiting legislative action Friday included a landmark climate change bill that Gov. Jerry Brown and Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon were forced to scale back this week, and dozens of other bills.
Among the laws that made it to the governor’s desk on the Legislature’s last day of business was a bill that would allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives. The measure faces an uncertain future with Gov. Jerry Brown, a former Jesuit seminarian who has not said whether he will sign it.
Also Friday, a bipartisan group of 47 state Assembly members delivered a letter to Brown asking him to declare a special session to tackle problems related to California’s ongoing drought.
Racing to meet a deadline for passing the marijuana plan hashed out late Thursday, senators on Friday night approved two of the three bills comprising the regulatory structure.
One, AB266 by Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, establishes a Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation to oversee licensing and operating rules for pot growers, marijuana product producers and retail shops. It passed on a 30-9 vote.
The other bill, AB243 by Assemblyman Jim Wood of Healdsburg, authorizes the state to use licensing fees to carry out the framework and a fund for helping local governments address environmental problems associated with marijuana cultivation.
It passed 30-8.
A third bill, SB643 by Democratic Sen. Mike McGuire of Healdsburg, was pending in the Assembly. That bill would crack down on clinics that specialize in issuing medical marijuana recommendations to residents without valid health needs and create pesticide standards for pot plants and labeling requirements for edible marijuana products.
Whatever emerges would not have an immediate impact on the existing medical marijuana landscape because the licensing provisions would not take effect until 2018, said Nate Bradley, executive director of the California Cannabis Industry Association.
Pot dispensaries already licensed by local governments would eventually have to comply with the product tracking, advertising, criminal background check and job training provisions required for a state license, but they could continue to operate and buy marijuana from unlicensed farmers until then, Bradley said.
The near-certainty that one or more initiatives to legalize recreational marijuana will be on the 2016 ballot has put pressure on lawmakers to get the state’s medical marijuana house in order before then. The U.S. Department of Justice has said it does not plan to raid medical marijuana sites or interfere in recreational pot sales as long as states have solid regulatory schemes in place.
The authors of legislation that had been stalled in the Senate and Assembly in the closing days of the legislative session said the package now under consideration would charge the new medical marijuana bureau with overseeing every aspect of the industry, from pot farms and medical clinics to product safety labs and retail distribution.
The office charged with overseeing the new standards will be housed within the California Department of Consumer Affairs. But the Department of Food and Agriculture and the Department of Public Health will have prominent roles in their implementation and enforcement.
The governor has expressed skepticism over the wisdom of legalizing recreational marijuana use, but his office has been involved in crafting a compromise on medical marijuana he would be willing to sign since late August.
The Legislature was expected to finish voting Friday on a package of bills that would create the first statewide licensing and operating rules for pot growers and retail weed outlets since the state became the first to legalize medical marijuana in 1996.
“After 20 years, we have an agreement on a comprehensive regulatory regime and that is historic,” said Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, the lead author of the main Assembly bill. “We knew it had to be done this year.”
The framework seeks to manage medical marijuana from seed to smoke, calling for 17 separate license categories, detailed labeling requirements and a product tracking system complete with bar codes and shipping manifests.
If enacted as drafted, it would not only impose strict controls on an industry that never has had to comply with any but provide a template for how recreational marijuana might be treated if it is legalized.
Another major piece of legislation awaiting legislative action Friday included a landmark climate change bill that Gov. Jerry Brown and Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon were forced to scale back this week, and dozens of other bills.
Among the laws that made it to the governor’s desk on the Legislature’s last day of business was a bill that would allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives. The measure faces an uncertain future with Gov. Jerry Brown, a former Jesuit seminarian who has not said whether he will sign it.
Also Friday, a bipartisan group of 47 state Assembly members delivered a letter to Brown asking him to declare a special session to tackle problems related to California’s ongoing drought.
Racing to meet a deadline for passing the marijuana plan hashed out late Thursday, senators on Friday night approved two of the three bills comprising the regulatory structure.
One, AB266 by Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, establishes a Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation to oversee licensing and operating rules for pot growers, marijuana product producers and retail shops. It passed on a 30-9 vote.
The other bill, AB243 by Assemblyman Jim Wood of Healdsburg, authorizes the state to use licensing fees to carry out the framework and a fund for helping local governments address environmental problems associated with marijuana cultivation.
It passed 30-8.
A third bill, SB643 by Democratic Sen. Mike McGuire of Healdsburg, was pending in the Assembly. That bill would crack down on clinics that specialize in issuing medical marijuana recommendations to residents without valid health needs and create pesticide standards for pot plants and labeling requirements for edible marijuana products.
All three bills must pass for any of them to reach the governor’s desk.
Whatever emerges would not have an immediate impact on the existing medical marijuana landscape because the licensing provisions would not take effect until 2018, said Nate Bradley, executive director of the California Cannabis Industry Association.
Pot dispensaries already licensed by local governments would eventually have to comply with the product tracking, advertising, criminal background check and job training provisions required for a state license, but they could continue to operate and buy marijuana from unlicensed farmers until then, Bradley said.
The near-certainty that one or more initiatives to legalize recreational marijuana will be on the 2016 ballot has put pressure on lawmakers to get the state’s medical marijuana house in order before then. The U.S. Department of Justice has said it does not plan to raid medical marijuana sites or interfere in recreational pot sales as long as states have solid regulatory schemes in place.
The authors of legislation that had been stalled in the Senate and Assembly in the closing days of the legislative session said the package now under consideration would charge the new medical marijuana bureau with overseeing every aspect of the industry, from pot farms and medical clinics to product safety labs and retail distribution.
The office charged with overseeing the new standards will be housed within the California Department of Consumer Affairs. But the Department of Food and Agriculture and the Department of Public Health will have prominent roles in their implementation and enforcement.
The governor has expressed skepticism over the wisdom of legalizing recreational marijuana use, but his office has been involved in crafting a compromise on medical marijuana he would be willing to sign since late August.
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