Since the failure of Proposition 19, a voter
initiative to “legalize” marijuana in California in 2010, the grassroots have
worked very hard to bring the community and industry together. The goal has been to draft workable
guidelines that the cannabis community could get behind and voters would
accept. Prop. 19 mainly failed
because it created NEW criminal penalties and this was not acceptable to enough
voters that the effort was gladly defeated.
As the 2016 election cycle drew closer and
grassroots proponents of cannabis community supported legalization initiatives
began their signature gathering efforts, rumblings began that someone with VERY
BIG MONEY would throw in their initiative and derail the efforts of authentic
cannabis activists and cannabis industry leaders.
Interestingly, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin
Newsom abandoned his Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy soon before the
passage of the California legislature’s Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety
Act (MMRSA) in September 2015, in support of a gun control measure. Almost immediately after the passage of
MMRSA, Napster founder and billionaire Sean Parker, a good friend of Newsom,
announced his support for an initiative of which no one in the legalization
movement had heard, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), a 62-page legal mess.
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| Gavin Newson and Sean Parker |
By this point all the grassroots efforts had
websites where their initiatives were posted for review and input. Multiple groups had already hosted
panels and debates to demonstrate the differences and similarities between the
initiatives. What was demonstrated
is that all the grassroots initiatives work together and not against each
other. The ‘Craft Cannabis’
initiative protects genetics and boutique growers; the ‘Jack Herer’ initiative
releases prisoners and offers a broad and unrestrictive approach to
legalization; and the Marijuana Control, Legalization and Revenue Act was
referred to as the ‘comprehensive piece’ providing Sacramento with specific
directives as to regulation, enforcement and taxation.
Most importantly, what these proponents agreed
upon is that their initiatives were not in competition with each other, but
complimented one other. Just as
MMRSA was comprehensively made of three legislative bills, these voter initiatives
could all pass and together legalize cannabis in California and protect the
existing industry. A gentlemen’s
agreement was reached and for the most part the grassroots efforts were working
along side each other.
Then in walks Sean Parker, backed by George Soros,
Monsanto and others that have no in-state interest in the cannabis industry,
but the ability to completely take it over and destroy California’s unique
cannabis heritage. Despite all of
the open statewide debate and conversation for the last 3+ years, the Parker
camp never participated or asked for feedback or input. AUMA is a hostile attempt by the
Billionaire Boys’ Club to steal California’s cannabis industry.
This is just the short-list of what is bad about
the AUMA:
It decimates Proposition 215 by absorbing medical
marijuana into the initiative’s ‘non-medical’ scheme and does away with the
newly formed Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation;
It creates new criminal penalties that mostly affect
people under 21 and establishes a number of new punishable provisions (Growing
more than 6 plants? = $250 fine, 3 years in jail – Get caught making a ‘Rick
Simpson’ type oil? = up to a $50,000 fine, 7 years in jail - Get caught smoking
in public? = $100 fine - If near a
campus or children can smell it? = $250 – $500 fine, 10 days in jail);
It taxes both cultivation and sales including a
15% excise tax, a use tax and sales tax, and places an additional tax per pound
on all dried flowers and leaves;
None of the money raised through AUMA: taxes, fees
or fines, benefits Californians – all funds go directly to enforcement and its
bureaucracy’s salaries and pensions.
AUMA has gathered a little over 600,000 signatures
that are being verified as of the writing of this post. Soon it will have a proposition number
and Patient Advocacy Network will have voter education materials prepared. Currently, all of the other
legalization efforts are on hold and working together to defeat AUMA just as we
defeated Prop. 19, because California deserves better! NO on AUMA.
