There have been many disputes over what is legal and what is legal when it comes to marijuana, but now, twenty years later, the state legislature has passed bills that should bring a bit of order to these disputes. Jerry Brown, the Assembly, as well as the Senate, passed three bills on Friday at midnight. Governor Brown “signs the bills into law, the medical marijuana status quo, rife with ambiguities, contradictions, and gray areas, will be transformed into a robust, strictly regulated medical marijuana industry.”
The fights have not been as smooth as one would have liked for them to have gone. For instance, the bills were made to finally make it clear to law enforcement that licensed marijuana dispensaries and the owners of them “are not unlawful under state law and shall not be an offense subject to arrest, prosecution, or sanction under state law, or be subject to a civil fine or be a basis for seizure or forfeiture of assets under state law.”
The bills also make it clear that medicinal marijuana is an industry that may be used to profit. Medical marijuana operators have been trying to be charged by prosecutors and law enforcements under the basis that they make a profit. Not anymore. Those who are patients and producers have their Prop 215 rights to own and cultivate their own medicine, however, anybody who would like to grow a mass amount of marijuana will need a license to do so. The bills all give up to twelve types of licenses for different types of grows and to different types of growers: “manufacturers, testers, transporters, distributors, and dispensaries.”
Those who live in places that are still against medical marijuana may not be affected by this, though. The bills give cities and counties the ability to ban the activities if they would like to. Of course, there is still more work to be don; for example, potency standards need to be set, licensing structures need to bet set up, and various other issues need to be settled. However, it’s a good sign that California have taken steps in the right direction.
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