California marijuana industry, legislators and law enforcement can’t yet agree on how to regulate medical cannabis

Grab your medicated popcorn. August is going to be an action-packed month in California pot politics.

A bill to regulate the state’s vast $1.8 billion medical-cannabis industry is speeding through Sacramento on a tight, end-of-August deadline.

But it has been difficult to keep up with the numerous changes to Senate Bill 1262—which is all the more disconcerting, according to cannabis advocates, because law-enforcement lobbyists are in the driver’s seat.

“It’s a little unsettling, given how important this is and how little time we have,” said Don Duncan, California director for the 30,000-strong advocacy group Americans for Safe Access.

The bill is scheduled to be taken up by the Assembly Appropriations Committee in August, and has to be approved by the entire Assembly by the end of the month.

Broadly speaking, the bill is intended to foster a long-overdue development: the creation of a statewide regulatory system for medical cannabis.

Under the most recent version of the bill, personal medical-marijuana cultivation would still be allowed, but commercial growers, processors and dispensaries would need an operating license from a new state agency. They’d have to pass background checks and uphold basic safety and health standards, including employing security guards at dispensaries and conducting mold tests on pot.

Advocacy groups such as ASA, the Drug Policy Alliance, California NORML and the Emerald Growers Association have been having closed-door meetings with the police chiefs in Sacramento this summer in an attempt to iron out their differences.

As of press time, the most recent version of the bill is still supported by the police chiefs and ASA. But California NORML, the Drug Policy Alliance and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition oppose it unless it’s amended.

The DPA argues that the current version of the bill would make things worse for Californians. For one, anybody with a past drug felony would be disqualified from getting an industry license.

In addition, many of the industry’s biggest and best actors wouldn’t qualify for a license, for technical reasons, such as an outstanding federal case or the lack of official city permission to grow (which is pretty much every urban farmer in California).

The bill also provides statewide approval of controversial new city bans on medical-pot dispensaries.

“The issues are extremely glaring, and, frankly, I’m not sure they can be resolved,” said Amanda Reiman, DPA’s California policy manager. “The police chiefs think medical marijuana is a sham and look at this as an opportunity to stifle the progression of medical-marijuana policy.”

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco was once a co-sponsor of the bill, but then dropped his support for it because of recent amendments.

ASA held a citizens’ lobbying event at the Capitol on Monday, August 4, with hundreds of patients sitting down for short meetings with their Assembly members and urging them to support sensible rules in California.