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Voting on Marijuana
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A California Medical Marijuana Regulation, Control and Taxation Initiative (#11-0098) has been approved for circulation in California as an initiated state statute. To earn a spot on the state's 2012 ballot, sponsors of the initiative must collect 504,760 signatures.

If the initiative qualifies for the ballot and the state's voters approve it, it will:

• Establish a new government agency that will regulate medical marijuana cultivation, manufacture, distribution, testing, and sale.
• Impose agency fees and a 2.5% tax on medical marijuana retail sales.
• Allocate the new revenues to agency administration, with any remaining funds going primarily to medical marijuana research and grants.
• Preempt local regulation of medical marijuana, except for zoning of medical marijuana dispensaries.
• Require one dispensary per 50,000 residents unless limited or banned by local initiative.
• Bar state and local assistance to federal enforcement against medical marijuana.
• Reduce criminal penalties for marijuana possession, cultivation, transport, or sale.

The initiative's sponsors are Americans for Safe Access, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5 and the state chapter of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML).^[1]

Similar initiatives

The "Medical Marijuana Regulation, Control and Taxation Act" initiative is not the only marijuana-related initiative vying for a spot on California's November 6, 2012 statewide ballot. The others are:

• The Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Initiative. Sponsors of this initiative did not file signatures by their March 26, 2012 filing deadline.
• The Reduced Marijuana Penalties Initiative. Sponsors of this initiative did not file signatures by their April 5, 2012 filing deadline.
• The Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act. This initiative, according to the Los Angeles Times, is "the one apparently with the most vocal support within the movement."^[1]
• The Cannabis Hemp and Health Initiative.

Because multiple marijuana-related initiatives are in circulation in California, they are all experiencing difficulty raising the funds necessary to qualify for the ballot. Steve Collett, who supports the Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Initiative, says, "We're all chasing the same dollars".^[1]

A group of people closely associated with the Proposition 19 effort, including Richard Lee, had also indicated that they might attempt to qualify a marijuana legalization initiative for the 2012 ballot.^[2] However, in September 2011, Lee told a group at the International Cannabis and Hemp Expo in Oakland that this effort was falling apart: "It’s pretty much dead. The funders didn’t come through."^[3]

Ballot language

See also: Ballot titles, summaries and fiscal statements for California's 2012 ballot propositions

Ballot title:

Marijuana. Regulation and Taxation of Medical Use Industry. Reduced Criminal Penalties. Inititative Statute.

Official summary:

"Establishes new government agency to regulate medical marijuana cultivation, manufacture, distribution, testing, and sale. Imposes agency fees, and 2.5% tax on medical marijuana retail sales. Allocates new revenues to agency administration, any remainder primarily to medical marijuana research and grants. Preempts local regulation of medical marijuana, except for zoning of medical marijuana dispensaries. Requires one dispensary per 50,000 residents unless limited or banned by local initiative. Bars state and local assistance to federal enforcement against medical marijuana. Reduces criminal penalties for marijuana possession, cultivation, transport, or sale."

Fiscal impact estimate:

"Savings potentially up to several tens of millions of dollars annually to state and local governments from reductions in various criminal justice costs related to enforcing marijuana crimes. Additional state tax revenues in the low tens of millions of dollars annually from a new supplemental tax on medical marijuana sales, used for various regulatory, research, education, and health care purposes generally related to medical marijuana. Increased costs to regulate medical marijuana potentially in the tens of millions of dollars annually, offset by fees and/or taxes authorized by the measure."

Path to the ballot

See also: California signature requirements

• Don Duncan and Ron Lind submitted a letter requesting a ballot title on December 20, 2011.
• The ballot title and ballot summary were issued by the Attorney General of California's office on February 14, 2012.
• 504,760 valid signatures are required for qualification purposes.
• The 150-day circulation deadline for #11-0098 is July 13, 2012.
• However, to qualify for the November 6, 2012 ballot, signatures must be submitted earlier than the initiative's 150-day deadline. If the number of signatures submitted is such that the full-check verification method must be deployed, the signatures would have had to be turned in by March 2, 2012. For the random sampling method, signatures would have to be submitted by late April.

External links

• Letter requesting a ballot title for Initiative 11-0098

References

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