Almost all cities in California banning cultivation and dispensaries

There's just about nothing you buy that's legally sold that's unregulated for human consumption.

 

Just about everything legally sold is regulated. I can't really think of much that isn't. The only things that have very little regulations aside from a basic tax and label are brand new products that enter the market, that almost always end up being more regulated. Point is almost everything that's legally bought and sold has some regulation attached to it. I brought up human consumption because our subject is more relative to that.



Your aloe vera, though legal for you to grow for personal consumption and no plant count limit, is still regulated by the FDA. Marijuana just has more regulations than aloe vera, and even more so than alcohol, even though it's being presented to the public that it's supposed to be regulated like alcohol. If you truly believe that marijuana will not be regulated like alcohol, that's your personal belief, but I believe that once it's federally legalization the demand will want a market for it that's similar to alcohol, and with that comes the personal garden. I think below this is where people draw the line on "watered down legalization". I understand because of federal law it may be hard to write an initiative like that, but many of the "stakeholders" writing these initiatives seem to be making them more restrictive for their own personal monetary gain, at the expense of everyone else, because they see an opportunity. Eventually, I don't see any reason that if the public wants it, that it won't have regulations at least on par with alcohol, with it being deemed less harmful than booze.

 

Why don't you think we'll lose our growing rights? That is the current trend lately. Either that or you have to go through the hoops with licensing to grow a few plants. The AUMA is still allowing cities to "regulate, but not completely ban" your 6 indoor plants, which means they can even restrict that right an inch away before a complete ban.
To keep semantics simple : Your aloe vera plant itself is regulated, just as all food crops are by classification, it just isn't subjected to stricter regulations where you label it and such until you start selling it. Depending where you live there are jurisdictions that will "overregulate" your garden and will harass you over growing certain plants /growing too many vegetables. There are minor codes and regulations on everything that people don't think about because there's one for almost everything. But most things, including alcohol, aren't being nearly subjected to the regulations that are being proposed for weed.


BTW, your pez candies that you purchased are also regulated, lol.

 

http://reformca.org/freedom/2016/01/10/run-away!-r...


RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! Why are MMRSA supporters now running for their lives?


by Mickey Martin
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJan 10, 2016



"It is just a harmless little bunny," they said.

I tried to tell them that the rabbit
they were negotiating with was the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered
rodent they had ever set eyes on... That the rabbit had a vicious streak
a mile wide, and was a killer! But none of them wanted to listen. They
were so bold in their miscalculated predictions that the Medical
Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act (MMRSA) was going to be great,
finally providing some structure to the cannabis industry in California.
They have wandered around for months since the passage of these three
laws patting themselves on the back for helping create this
"revolutionary” new regime of regulations that will govern the unique
cannabis industry here in California.

But apparently none of them, or the
lawmakers who voted on the damn thing, actually read the law in its
entirety or contemplated the repercussions of setting arbitrary
deadlines; and trying to create a whole new State government agency that
forces a dozen already established agencies to figure out how to all
work together in harmony to regulate an existing billion plus dollar
industry that has existed here for decades.

The most egregious issue that we see is
the decimating of patients" rights to cultivate their own cannabis in
the State due to the March 1st deadline put into the law,
apparently as a "mistake” (rolls eyes). The result was obviously not a
mistake to the League of Cities or CA Police chiefs Association who
immediately began encouraging municipalities across the State to
incorporate a ban on cultivation to get ahead of the looming deadline.
They even provided them with sample ordinance language to help them get
moving in that direction… and the results have been catastrophic.

What has resulted is cities and counties
across the State moving to ban cannabis cultivation altogether in an
effort to get something on the books before the erroneous deadline
passes. They are not banning "commercial cannabis activity.” No… They
are banning patients" right to cultivate their own cannabis, as well.
Tens of thousands of patients, often in remote areas with little options
for access, are now forced to be outlaws for growing a few plants for
their personal use. In an effort to comply with the new laws (which a
bunch of jackasses promised the community would be a positive thing),
what we are seeing is a sweeping effort to outright make cultivating all
cannabis illegal. Way to go.

It is humorous to see the people who
have been touting this as an amazing evolution for the cannabis
community now backpedal as patients, activists, and citizens sharpen
their pitchforks and light their torches. The likes of Nate Bradley with
the California Cannabis Industry Association who called the laws a
"significant victory for the industry” and who gave the Governor a
virtual reach around upon signing the laws is nowhere to be found as
these municipalities ban cultivation, which will ultimately limit
supply, increase prices, and create a vast new era of prohibition in the
State. His most current statements in the press have suddenly
acknowledged that there are "a lot of negatives” in the law, and now
refers to it as a "mixed bag.” Funny… It wasn"t such a mixed bag when
you were blowing smoke up everyone"s ass about how great it was, and how
your work was instrumental in its development. Good to know you have
seen CCIA paying membership numbers spike tenfold since the inception of
your lie and complicity in the destruction of the cannabis industry in
the State. You are a real hero.

Same goes for the self-inflated wannabe
cannabis superhero, Hezekiah Allen, of the Cannabis Growers Association
(formerly known as the Emerald growers Association). No sooner did the
Governor"s pen hit the paper, when Hezekiah rebranded the EGA and set
out on a statewide tour telling folks why they needed to give him money
if they wanted to be a part of the new program. Yawn. Never saw that
coming, player. I am never surprised when a slick-talking charlatan
walks into town and starts shaking down the locals for cash to save them
from themselves. The problem? The California Growers Association, and
their fearless leader "Hez” have ZERO pull at any level of Government…
Fed, State, or local. If anything, the lawmakers who they believe they
are convincing find their arrogance amusing, while they disregard the
approach completely and create laws to ban cannabis.

Good old Hezekiah has gone around for
months telling everyone why the MMRSA is the greatest thing since OG
Kush. He is quoted in the SF Chronicle after the Governor signed the
bills saying "This is the single best thing that could have happened.”
Yeah? Maybe you want to tell that to the gigantic part of the
population who has just been banned from growing their own medicine; but
I doubt it. Cowards never apologize for their mistakes, and it seems
that Allen continues to double down on his lies. He is now promising
that the "fixes” being put forth will right the wrongs. Fat chance, kid.
Is this your first day? Have you ever dealt with local government
outside of your little triangle? Once something is passed it is
incredibly hard to reverse. Local officials are not known for their
courage or willingness to spend political capital on weedheads. Don"t
worry. We will be waiting for your apology. Chances are a ban put in
today will stay a ban for years to come. But keep giving your hard
earned outlaw money to these CGA hucksters to "protect” you.

Americans for Safe Access, and their
California overlord, Don Duncan also touted the bills as "historic” and a
"positive step” for the cannabis community. They went as far as
stating, "ASA worked diligently with lawmakers for the last three years
to win important concessions for patients. ASA made sure that the rights
of individual patients to cultivate their own medicine without state
licensing, regulation, or taxation was preserved.” Yet now that they see
that their efforts in no way preserved the right of tens of thousands
of patients, and instead supported a law that has resulted in their loss
of rights to cultivate their own medicine, they still have yet to
apologize. While the March 1 deadline was a glaring issue in my
assessment of the laws, somehow the folks at ASA, and these other
groups, seemingly just missed the "typo?” How? Why? What were you
thinking? Now they want to cry that… "The deadline for local licensing
of commercial medical cannabis in March has caused some cities to
overreact,” Duncan said. "In some cases, local governments are even
banning marijuana cultivation by individual patients. That was never the
intent of the law, and it is unlikely that provision will remain in
state law.” Anyone who read that part of the law with a critical eye
could see that this would be the overwhelming result of the March 1st
deadline, yet all of these geniuses just somehow missed it? In fact, I
would go further to state that they even suggested it in an effort to
overcome local opposition, and attempt to open areas of the state where
lawmakers failed to act. It is certainly not an area that the League of
Cities would have brought forth, even though they have used it to their
strategic advantage by creating hysteria around it. The League of Cities
would NEVER have made the State the "sole licensing authority” if a
municipality failed to act by March 1.

But what you won"t see is any of these
folks taking any responsibility for the major fuck up. Nope. They will
continue to put lipstick on that pig until you get drunk enough to want
to bang it again. I will continue to pass. Thanks.

CA NORML, and their leader Dale
Gieringer also decided to support the MMRSA going as far as stating…
"MMRSA is a helpful first step in what will be a lengthy legalization
process.” Helpful how? To who? Here is another group who is supposed to
be fighting for the cannabis community"s rights, and somehow they just
"overlooked” the deadline mistake too. He is also hopeful that a
meaningless letter from Jim Wood, one of the bills authors, will somehow
"help cool down local officials who have been stampeding to restrict
cultivation without adequate consideration.” Keep dreaming, man. You
guys left the door wide open and are now surprised that public officials
have driven a truckload of cultivation bans through it? Who left you in
charge of anything again?

With friends like these….

The deadline that has not gotten as much
fanfare has come and gone too. January 1, 2016 was the deadline for
cannabis businesses to be in "good standing” with their local
jurisdictions to receive priority licensing. The problem is that NO ONE
on the production side of the industry is in good standing with shit. We
have been left out in the cold all of these years, and now have no
right to any priority over those who will certainly flock to the
industry when licensing fires up. Nope… You are just another number in a
sea of numbers. But when the other looming deadline of January 1, 2018
comes and there are not enough licensed producers to fill the shelves of
the dispensaries just remember we had this conversation.

So what else did they forget or
overlook? How many more "typos” are in these laws? How many times will
these fools eat crow on their decision to support this effort, and in
turn the overzealous regulatory regime they now want you to support in
the Sean Parker Adult Use of Marijuana Act? As we get further down the
rabbit hole and they begin to realize that they were accessories to this
crime that will destroy the cannabis industry for years, will they ever
apologize for their "mistakes?” No… No they will not. They will
continue to talk out of the side of their mouths about how they had to
make these concessions, and how the laws would have been so much worse
without their public support for them.

But what about the word, "NO.” Did you
ever think of that? The reason they even allowed certain
"representatives” of the cannabis community (and I use that term loosely
as none represent me, or any of the folks I work with) a seat at the
drafting table was because we indeed do have a lot of power. If those
who were charged with fighting for our rights actually grew a sack of
nuts and simply said, "NO. We will not support this bullshit,” maybe
there could have been a more sensible solution. But these folks, so
enamored with their 15 minutes of fame on the big legislative stage,
decided to roll over and play dead. They agreed to "do something” rather
than doing nothing, even if that "something” will prove to be
detrimental to most of those people they claim to represent. Don"t do me
any favors. Thanks. Sometimes the best deal is no deal; but the sense
of urgency to get something in place before the 2016 effort has proven
do nothing more than shoot ourselves in the foot; and has now developed
the framework for just as bad of a law for adult use as medical use. You
guys are geniuses.

So as the hellfire and brimstone reigns
down on the industry, and everyone wakes up to the fact that what they
helped to do was literally shut down 90% of the current cannabis
industry in favor of an overregulated mess that will severely limit who
can pay to play, just watch as they run further and further away from
their once full-throated support for this mess. The deed is done though.
Your impatience and inexperience in government relations has left you
wondering what the fuck happened and trying to figure out how to make
lemonade out of the huge pile of lemons you left us with. The "harmless
little bunny” just chewed your goddamn head off and all you have to say
is it must have been a typo and that you hope it gets fixed. It is like
playing cards with my sister"s kids. You folks are worse at this than
even I could have imagined, and now we all get to pay for it… So RUN
AWAY! RUN AWAY! Run far away and never come back…. Please. Thanks.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/california-marijuana-growers...


California marijuana growers face new crop of local bans

By LISA LEFF
5 hours ago


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - When
the California Legislature passed the state's first comprehensive
medical marijuana regulations in September, pot advocates hoped the move
heralded a new era of trust in their often-tumultuous relationship with
wary local officials and police.

So far, it hasn't turned out that way.



Facing what appears to be a rapidly closing window for action, dozens of
cities and counties from across California are racing to enact new bans
on marijuana-growing. Some apply only to commercial cultivation, both
indoor and outdoor, but many would also prohibit personal pot gardens
that have been legal - or at least overlooked - for 19 years.



"Any other industry that created four months of seasonal labor and hundreds
of thousands of jobs...we would be giving tax breaks to those
businesses," medical marijuana dispensary owner Robert Jacob, a member
of the Sebastopol City Council who has been fighting pot-growing bans
proposed in Sonoma County.



At issue is a paragraph in the 70-page framework approved in the closing
hours of the legislative session that would give the state alone
authority to license growers in jurisdictions that do not have laws on
the books by March 1 specifically authorizing or outlawing cultivation.



Lawmakers involved in crafting the package say the deadline ended up by mistake
in the final compromise regulations. Assemblyman Jim Wood, a Democrat
who represents California's prime pot-growing region, included it in
earlier versions as a way to free local governments from a
responsibility they might not want, spokeswoman Liz Snow said.



"It was a way to try to make it clearer in terms of, 'OK, local
jurisdictions. If you want to act, you should be thinking about it,
working on it now. Otherwise, we will all defer to the state,'" Snow
said.



Even before Gov. Jerry Brown signed the regulations, which create the first statewide licensing
and operating rules for California's sprawling medical marijuana
industry, Wood announced he would introduce an emergency bill this month
deleting the March 1 deadline.



The League of California Cities and the California Association of Police
Chiefs, while supporting the fix, nonetheless have advised their members
to enact cultivation bans ahead of the original cutoff date as a
precaution to preserve local control.



The two groups fought hard last year for provisions stating that to be
eligible for licenses the state expects to start issuing in about two
years, anyone involved in the commercial medical marijuana trade must
first obtain a local operating permit.



Tim Cromartie, a lobbyist with the League of California Cities, said the
guidance to ban all medical marijuana growing outright stemmed from the
conclusion that the short time frame did not give local officials enough
time to draft, debate and refine their own cultivation rules.



"Most cities, their staff have no clue how to begin writing one of these
ordinances. Their first thought is, 'Don't the feds prohibit this? How
can we do this?'" Cromartie said. "We know of jurisdictions that didn't
want to have to ban, but they did it under the point of a gun."



With new proposals being introduced and voted on almost daily, no one knows
yet how many of California's 58 counties and 482 cities have taken the
league's advice.



The California branch of the National Organization for the Repeal of
Marijuana Laws, or NORML, which has been monitoring what it's termed
"the banapalooza," said more than 160 jurisdictions either have passed
or introduced legislation to outlaw only commercial cultivation or both
commercial and personal growing.



The crackdown has been a source of frustration for veteran pot farmers who
hoped the new state regulations would bring clarity to their gray corner
of the medical marijuana industry and instead find themselves
"recriminalized," said Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the newly
formed California Growers Association.



Unless the local bans are lifted or modified, they would make medical
marijuana growers in those areas automatically ineligible for the
potentially lucrative and limited number of agriculture licenses the
state expects to start issuing in 2018.



"Certainly we have been disappointed with the League of Cities, how they have
chosen to proceed," Allen said. "A lot of the jurisdictions had a
predisposition to ban, and the March 1 deadline unfortunately gave them
cover to ban."

 

The Emerald Triangle isn't going to any "war". They are going to do what they've always done and this time just sell it to the black market. Cali Stoners who grow now in these banned areas are risking heavy fines / jail time. These bans were much less extreme with how far they enforced them legally before. The March 1st deadline has created even more chaos. I honestly cannot believe the AUMA text is modeled directly after this law without seeing how this is going to play out.