http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4214526-181/mari... <h5> </h5><h5>BY JULIE JOHNSON THE PRESS DEMOCRAT </h5><h5>July 16, 2015, 1:05PM</h5> The march to bring marijuana legalization before California voters in 2016 ramped up Thursday with the announcement by a group of longtime Bay Area cannabis advocates that they have hired heavy-hitting Democratic political strategists and plan to release a draft of the proposed initiative in the coming weeks. Santa Rosa-based attorney Joe Rogoway is part of a team with the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform that is crafting an initiative under a project dubbed ReformCA, backed by California NORML - the state branch of the national marijuana reform group - that would create a framework for a “robust set of regulations†to legalize cannabis for use by adults while maintaining regulations already in place for medical use. “We're going to have strict licensing criteria, and we're going to be able to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the state based on the model we want to put in place,†said Rogoway, a lead attorney for the coalition. If filed, ReformCA's proposal could be the most ambitious and well-funded of the various pot legalization measures to make a run at the 2016 ballot. Seven proposed initiatives that seek to legalize marijuana already have been filed with the state Attorney General's Office. The crowded playing field has created mixed alliances. Santa Rosa attorney Omar Figueroa, who defends clients facing criminal charges involving marijuana, has given his support - in the form of a signature - to four of the initiatives. Another initiative drafted by the California NAACP is signed by its president, Alice Huffman, who is also on the board of directors with the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform and reportedly is also backing ReformCA. ReformCA's initiative, if filed, brings the number to eight; however, it is likely many will be abandoned as cannabis supporters combine efforts. David McCuan, political science professor at Sonoma State University, said that during this early phase of the initiative process, it is common to see many competing initiatives, especially ones dealing with major issues of the day. The cost of filing with the state is only $200. The more daunting task, and the next major challenge for many of the marijuana proposals, is the need to gather signatures in order to qualify for the ballot. A statewide proposal must secure 365,880 valid signatures, and McCuan said the signature- gathering process typically costs $2 million to $4 million. Still, California voters likely will face between 15 and 30 initiatives in November of next year and several of those are bound to involve legalizing marijuana, McCuan said. That showdown could sink them all, he suggested. “When voters are faced with multiple choices, they generally vote no and maintain the status quo,†McCuan said. ReformCA has hired political consultant and Fox News commentator Joe Trippi, who advised the campaigns of Gov. Jerry Brown and former presidential candidates Howard Dean and John Edwards. Trippi has been credited with creating the “digital army†concept of raising money through many small, individual donations while a consultant with Dean. ReformCA already has raised about $500,000 through its network of about 70,000 supporters in California, said Dale Sky Jones, coalition chairwoman and executive chancellor at Oaksterdam University, a school that prepares people for careers in the cannabis industry and doubles as a hub for cannabis activism. On a Thursday morning conference call, Jones announced that the coalition has hired Progressive Campaigns Inc. to gather signatures in support of the initiative, a process that is expected to begin this fall. Jones said that they plan to raise about $4 million through a base of individual donors during the campaign. In addition, Jones said they are hoping to announce larger sources of support and financing next week. She estimated the campaign will cost $10 million to $14 million. ReformCA also has brought on Jim Gonzalez, a political strategist who helped manage the 1996 Proposition 215 initiative that legalized medical marijuana in California. Gonzalez served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the 1980s. Hezekiah Allen, the executive director of the Emerald Growers Association, said that his members were not ready to endorse the ReformCA plan. Allen said he's waiting to see if other heavy-hitting organizations like the Drug Policy Alliance also launch their own effort to legalize marijuana. He said his members are particularly focused on protecting small growers and promoting sustainable environmental practices. “Ending the failed war on drugs is too important for politics as usual,†Allen said. “That's why we're waiting at this point. We absolutely will not be making an endorsement any time soon.†Most statewide law enforcement groups have not taken a stance on the pot legalization proposals. That could change if and when they qualify for the ballot. In 2010, all of the major state law enforcement groups opposed Proposition 19, the last, failed ballot-box effort to legalize recreational marijuana. Sarah Shrader, Sonoma County chairwoman for Americans for Safe Access, which advocates to safeguard medicinal cannabis use, said that although the group's members have consulted with ReformCA and others, they will not endorse a ballot measure to legalize marijuana for general use because their organization focuses on medicinal pot use. The group will push to ensure that any initiatives do not make it harder for people with illnesses to secure cannabis for medical purposes, Shrader said. “We're paying attention,†she said.
We need to start edging out the politicians and all such people that are against marijuana. Any elected official! We are the people and we seem to have the same officials forever so there is no new blood all of these people need to go. We need progress and they are stuck in 1902 !
And this article was published over a month ago, but yet ReformCA still hasn't released their initiative. They said that they were waiting for the release of the blue ribbon commission's report, but they still haven't unveiled their initiative even though the report has been released. I guess it's good that they're giving the initiative a lot of thought and hopefully it will be good, as long as it doesn't propose drastic changes to MMJ and make it extremely difficult and expensive to participate in the new regulated industry, because that's what a lot of people are concerned about and that could cause them to fail if they propose something like that. We could potentially have the same scenario Oregon had where they rejected measure 80 in 2012 because it was a poorly written initiative, but measure 91 was better written and they approved it. I heard that's one big reason why prop 19 failed was because it was a poorly written initiative, so if ReformCA's initiative is well written, it could have a significant chance of being approved.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/LegalizationNation/a... California Legislature: 'We're Regulating Medical Marijuana' By David Downs Today the California Senate Appropriations Committee advanced historic medical cannabis regulations with a last-minute twist: nothing was in the bill. Assembly Bill 266 was gutted and amended to read: “It is the intention of the state legislature to regulate medical marijuana.†But for the first time, the Governor's Office weighed in with language of its own that may become the text of a last-minute bill that passes the Senate by September 7, and makes it to Governor Jerry Brown's desk. Senate Appropriations voted 5-1 this afternoon to gut, amend, and advance AB 266, according to sources in the capital. We've looked at some of the governor's draft language, and it mirrors much of existing language in Sacramento calling for a fully functional, albeit highly regulated medical cannabis industry. Personal and caregiver medical marijuana rights go untouched, but everything else is considered commercial and requires one of about twelve different types of licenses. Californians would get tested products and organic certifications. Cities could ban pot activity. Licensees would need both local and then state approval for a license. Farms are capped at one acre, or 20,000 square-feet. Deliveries would be allowed, but only if tied to a physical dispensary. Farmers could process or extract, but can't retail pot. Retailers could extract or process their own products, but couldn't own the farm. Transporters would be separately licensed and independent. The governor's draft language deletes certain layers of bureaucracy and trims expenses. A General Fund loan would pay for the $20 million program's startup costs, and would be paid back through licensing and taxes. Capital watchers report a flurry of meetings to reconcile AB 266 with other medical cannabis regulation bills this legislative session. Lawmakers are under renewed pressure to craft basic, clear guidelines for the state medical cannabis system, with just 438 days before Californians are likely to return to the polls to vote on adult-use legalization.
http://www.canorml.org/news/Governor_Amends_AB266_... Governor Amends AB 266 / Cal NORML opposes AB 243 Posted August 29th, 2015 by canorml_admin SACRAMENTO August 28, 2015 - The newly amended AB 266 proposed by the Governor's Office appears to be an improvement on its predecessor. In particular, it allows deliveries everywhere except where specifically banned; the previous version required the government of the receiving locaity to authorize deliveries beforehand. While the new bill still has some problems, it may offer a workable first step towards legal regulation of medical cannabis in California (at least until we can pass a ballot measure in November 2016). To clarify one confusing item in David Downs' report, the bill caps outdoor farms at 44,000 square feet, indoor ones at 22,000 feet. PROP 215 ALERT - OPPOSE AB 243 TAX ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA Patient advocates are urged to tell the legislature to reject a proposed bill to tax medical marijuana cultivators (AB 243 - Wood). In a letter to the State Senate, Cal NORML wrote: "We wish to express our strong opposition to AB 243 (Wood), which would tax the cultivation of medical marijuana. It's wrong-headed to tax medical, but not recreational, marijuana. The perverse effect of this will be to discourage growers from participating in the legal medical market, and encourage illegal adult-use growing instead. "It is premature to tax marijuana until adult use is legalized. Taxation is a complicated issue that ought to be heard by relevant policy committees, not pushed through at the last-minute as a tax solely on medical users. AB 243 does not comport with pending proposals for a 2016 adult-use initiative. We urge the legislature to reject AB 243." Click here to send a message opposing AB 243 to your California Senator.
Just wanted to update this thread because I heard that AB 243 and AB 266 were both modified, with the latter pretty much being completely gutted. So who knows what will happen now. Still no word on a release date of ReformCA's initiative, but they did recently say early September. My guess is that they're waiting until next weekend because the state is supposed to have a hearing on these MMJ bills on September 11th. I think they're probably waiting until what happens with these bills before releasing the initiative.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/cap... Closed door meetings, written and pushed by multiple differing strong special interest groups... dear lord, I hope this bill fails. I hope it ends up that no agency wants to take on the regulations (that happened before), or they think it will end up "too costly".