SN&R’s pot columnist explains Senate Bill 1262

Can you explain why people are so upset about the bill that would create top-down regulations for California’s medical-marijuana industry?

—Dude

Seriously, Dude, I’m not sure. It’s not great, but people are losing their minds. Let’s take a look.

Senate Bill 1262 would create a comprehensive statewide set of regulations for the growing and dispensing of medical marijuana. This bill has gone through multiple changes and was recently amended last week.

As it currently stands, S.B. 1262 would create a “Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation” under the aegis of the Department of Consumer Affairs. This bureau would then be in charge of regulating all the growers and sellers in California. Prospective growers or dispensary owners would pay up to $8,000 for a license and be subject to inspection. The bill allows for medical patients to grow small amounts, but the days of the huge home grow or the giant collective garden would be over.

This bill also protects (and further regulates) people transporting large amounts of cannabis from grower to seller, and from dispensary to dispensary. S.B. 1262 also leaves enforcement of regulations up to individual cities and counties. There are some other things in there about doctor’s responsibilities, yada yada, but you get the gist.

Americans for Safe Access in on board with this bill so far. It has worked hard to lobby for many changes (the original bill was too strict on doctors) and feels that this is the best deal we can get in California right now.

The Drug Policy Alliance opposes the bill, mostly because it still allows individual cities and counties to ban medical-cannabis dispensaries.

California NORML also opposes the bill. The majority of patients and advocates and dispensary operators I have talked to really, really don’t like this bill. I can see their point. S.B. 1262 doesn’t really do anything but set up another bureaucracy with no enforcement teeth. It doesn’t allow for dispensaries statewide, meaning that patients all over California, but especially in the Central Valley, would have to travel very long distances for their medicine.

My biggest gripe is that it really doesn’t do anything to help any of the outdoor growers in the Emerald Triangle. To me, those folks are a gigantic part of why we have some of the best marijuana in the country, and any legislation that doesn’t take the growers into account is doomed to be unworkable. First of all, those folks are already scofflaws, so good luck getting them to sign up for inspections. Secondly, if you take a longer view toward legalization in 2016, you would be preemptively shutting down one of our biggest assets.

I can see why everyone is upset. I am also a little upset. I just ask that we keep the discussion civil. That being said, while I disagree with Americans for Safe Access about S.B. 1262, as it is currently written, I will still be appearing at the Occasional Cannabis Comedy Fest on Monday, September 15, at Harlow’s Restaurant & Nightclub in Midtown. It’s a benefit for ASA. See you there.