Lawmakers to uphold Prop. 64 despite DOJ view
Even with unease of numerous elected officials about the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, Proposition 64, many local jurisdictions will allow for its provisions.
California Prop. 64 passed with 56 percent approval in the November election. But Trump Administration Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has reviled marijuana as comparable to heroin and linked it to increases in violence, has not kept his promise since coming to office by altering existing policy set by former Obama Administration, according to the Associated Press.
Sessions who convened the Task Force on Crime and Public Safety in April to study the issue, has adopted no new policy. The Task Force stated officials should assess whether to maintain, revise or rescind the Obama era memos that allowed states to legalize marijuana, as long as officials act to keep it from migrating to areas where it is still outlawed and out of the hands of criminal cartels and children.
Imperial County District One Supervisor John Renison noted that as of January, they will follow the mandate. “Prop. 64, absolutely, it’s the law people of the state voted for,” he said. “So Prop. 64 is the way it is. We’re proactive not reactive. We’re not waiting for the state to come in and tell us what to do.”
The measure provided counties as well as cities to pass ordinances regulating its usage. At the start of the month, District Four Supervisor Ryan Kelley noted the Board directed staff to draft an ordinance regulating cultivation, processing and delivery that could be permitted in the unincorporated areas of the county that are in properly zoned (away from schools, playgrounds, recreation centers) and still conform to Prop. 64 regulations.
The Board also proposed levying taxes to support county services that result from having medical or recreational marijuana businesses in the unincorporated areas. The proposal includes: an 8 percent tax on retail sales of marijuana, a five percent tax on gross revenue in manufacturing and a three level land tax for cultivation facilities to be $15 per square feet starting January 1. The tax then would rise to $20 by 2020 and $25 by 2022. But the taxes must be approved by a voter referendum on the ballot for June 2018.
The important thing to remember noted Kelley, by passing Prop. 64, it is legal for residents to have limited quantities of marijuana for medical and recreational use.
“If new business development and employment opportunities arrive from the implementation of Prop. 64, then our county by ordinance will set the conditions for that type of operation,” he said. “Because if we didn’t do anything, the state law would apply. So the state law is still there, but we’ve added our own conditions. My personal desire, if we address the issue in the unincorporated areas, there is less pressure for the cities to enact ordinances allowing dispensaries.”
For the fifth anniversary of the legalization of marijuana in Washington, Washington’s Office of Financial Management produced a PowerPoint presentation titled: “Monitoring Impacts of Recreational Marijuana Legalization.” The Huffington Post then published a four-part report. In part one, Huffington examined the impact of children accidently ingesting confections with marijuana. Data showed since legalization, the Washington Poison Center showed marijuana related calls increased by 70 percent. But they added, they do not know how many calls during pre-legalization labeled food poisoning or unknown sources were actually marijuana related. Also, since legalization, there has been a 13 percent drop of 15 to 19 year olds who entered substance abuse disorder treatments, which reversed the trend of a 4 percent increase since 2006.
In part two, effects on school suspensions was examined. In 2015/16, four percent of Washington’s public school students were suspended or expelled. Of that amount, only 9 percent were for marijuana.
For part three the study looked at the effect on motorists. Results for 2015 showed 32.8 percent of DUI cases tested positive for THC. But that is positive for any amount of THC. Impaired driving sets the limit as 5.0 nanograms of THC per milliliter as evidence of guilt. For that standard only about a third of the 32.8 percent were DUI. Part four looked at the tax revenue earned. According to Washington’s Office of Financial Management, under the 25 percent excise tax, the state earned $26 million per month on sales of $113 million per month as of September 2016.
Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Mason Tvert stated in he was very hopeful Sessions will not interfere as states continue to liberalize their marijuana laws yet cautioned it is uncertain this early into the new administration. “A lot of comments Sessions made during the confirmation process are the same as his predecessors,” he said.