Marijuana Legalization Proposition Filed Today!

Today, The Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform filed a proposition to legalize and tax marijuana in California. All the information on the propsition is on their website, Reform CA. The full text of the initiative is here.

The new law would make the following behaviors legal:

(a) To personally possess, process, share, or transport not more than one ounce of cannabis or cannabis products, solely for personal use, and not for sale. 

(b) To consume cannabis or cannabis products that are obtained and possessed in compliance with this Act when such consumption occurs at a private residence or such other location as permitted under this Act. Nothing in this section shall alter current law regarding the rights of a property owner or landlord to regulate or prohibit smoking on their property. 

(c) To cultivate homegrown cannabis in an area not to exceed one hundred (100) square feet; to possess the living and harvested plants and results of any lawfully harvested homegrown cannabis pursuant to this Article; and to transport homegrown cannabis between a lawful cultivation site and the cultivator’s residence. 

The new law also eliminates the penumbral legal implications of marijuana:

26012. (a) No person shall be prosecuted for child endangerment pursuant to Section 273(a) of the Penal Code, or any similar or successor statutes, for an action taken that is in compliance with the provisions of this Act, unless it is determined that there exists an immediate and actual threat to the health and welfare of a child. 

(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an action taken that is in compliance with the provisions of this Act, by itself, shall not be sufficient evidence of parental unfitness, or child abuse, or otherwise be used to restrict or abridge custodial or parental rights to minor children, and shall not be the basis of a criminal act nor the basis to diminish parental rights or remove a child from his or her home, unless it is determined that there exists an immediate and actual threat to the health and welfare of a child. 

The law also sets up an office that will steer policy, manage interstate issues, and determine impairment standards, among other things, and a fund for the tax revenue (5% plants, 10% edibles). The money will go toward environmental restoration of damages resulting from cannabis industry.

Still defined as a criminal offense are supplying to a minor and involving people under 21 in cultivation enterprises; and there are still duties imposed on public employees to be sober during the performance of their duties.