It Appears That Only One Flavor of Legalization Will Make the CA Ballot This November

[n2doc]

East Bay Express (06 Apr 2016)

It Appears That Only One Flavor of Legalization Will Make the Ballot This November, and It Might Have a Strange Ally.

For those wondering what's going to happen with the crowded field of proposals to legalize cannabis in California this year, look no further than an independent source of information with boots on the ground: paid signature-gatherers. Thousands of these mercenaries have fanned out across the Golden State this April, earning an estimated $2.50 per signature to help place pot legalization on the ballot.

I ran into a man named Alan, a paid signature-gatherer from Vallejo, in the BART's Embarcadero Station last week. Alan said voters are ready to legalize it.

He didn't want to give me his last name because he didn't have his employer's permission to speak to the press, but the self-described veteran signature-gatherer of eight years - four California election cycles - had plenty of insight into how voters will lean this November.

Despite twenty-three different legalization proposals on file with the state, paid gatherers in California are now working on one initiative - the Adult Use of Marijuana Act ( AUMA ). It's almost certain that the initiatives sponsors will file enough signatures to qualify it for the ballot by the state's final deadline, April 26.

more
http://www.mapinc.org/newscfdp/v16/n220/a04.html

[ghostsinthemachine]

1. Will NOT pass

Too much in the initiative. Every word in an iniative makes them less likely to pass, and this one is 60 pages long.Even then, so much will have to be settled in the courts because things are not addressed in the iniative.
Best do like Colorado, and mandate the legislature to create a workable set of regulations.

[SHRED]

2. You mean this?

http://www.thecannabist.co/2015/10/09/california-medical-marijuana-regulations-governor-jerry-brown/42105/

[ghostsinthemachine]

3. Well, no. That legislation took 20 years

To come about. Let's hope 20 years isn't the case....

[Mz Pip]

4. I wonder about that, too.

Ohio had a ballot initiative that failed because the bill gave control of legal cannabis to some corporate interests. At least that's how I remember it.

The devil is in the details. I will be interest to see what the final initiative actually contains. I suppose one way to make sure something fails is to make it so convoluted it's impossible to support.

We've had Medical marijuana for 20 years here. Would be bizarre to not see it legalized outright after all these years.

[ghostsinthemachine]

5. It is such a complex issue in so many ways

We have a pot economy now. Do we want to flip it to a different economy, and cut the people who have been making money all along out? What about edibles? Ballgames? Concerts? How about extracts? What type of facility is proper? The backyard growers that give their stash away or sell it to supplement their lives? What about a company that buys 10 acres, plants it, hires professional growers to tend to it, then opens a few retail outlets. What becomes the trim? Making butter or oils for edibles? Facility?

That's just a teeny off my head thoughts.I can think of hundreds of other issues.

[ghostsinthemachine]

6. Some interestingness here.

https://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/baby-steps/content?oid=20880234

SNIP

better than no progress.”

However people feel, I’m not sure this initiative will pass. All the growers I know hate this measure. Hate. (By the way, I didn’t see one grower or cannabis activist onstage at the press conference. Maybe they were hiding in the back.) This initiative has many of the same problems that Proposition 19 had: It does nothing to help the folks that need it most. I may be overstating a bit, but you get my point. There is no reason for a grower in Fresno or Calaveras or any city that has cannabis cultivation in place to support this measure. Without the support of the growers and the hardcore activists, AUMA proponents will have to appeal to the squares, and there is no guarantee that the squares, er, people who don’t use cannabis, will support a legalization initiative. People forget how conservative most of California really is.

Whatever happens, this will be an interesting election season. Everyone stay calm and do your best to be civil. Smoke a bowl before you post that Facebook flame-screed. Don’t take anything personally. Get involved. Have fun.