Pot advocates settle on 2016 initiative
By Steven Greenhut, San Diego Union Tribune
SACRAMENTO — The Attorney General’s Office has been so inundated with marijuana legalization measures that it’s been hard to separate the wheat from the chaff – or the stems from the buds, to use a more appropriate analogy. It costs less than the average price of an ounce of the stuff to file a statewide initiative, so it’s been unclear which ones might emerge with enough financial backing to get on the ballot and maybe even win approval.
That has all changed. In November, former Facebook President Sean Parker backed something called the Adult Use of Marijuana Act. Parker is a billionaire who has said he will dedicate millions to the effort. The proposal also earned the backing of Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the 2018 gubernatorial candidate who headed the state’s blue-ribbon commission on marijuana.
The basics, per California NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws): “(1) allow adults 21 years and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and cultivate up to six plants for personal use; (2) regulate and tax the production, manufacture, and sale of marijuana for adult use; and (3) rewrite criminal penalties so as to reduce the most common marijuana felonies to misdemeanors and allow prior offenders to petition for reduced charges.”
South Lake Tahoe resident Steve Kubby, a Proposition 215 activist, recently stated in an email that he will “hold my nose and support this initiative” provided it eliminates the warrantless-search provision, a provision that treats open containers of marijuana in the same way that open containers of alcohol are treated, jail time for possessing more than an ounce of marijuana or more than six plans, and a requirement that those convicted of marijuana offenses register for five years as drug offenders.