Fearing Proposition 64: What happens to medical pot if recreational is legalized in California?
SANTA ANA, Calif. As she battles symptoms of lupus and depression, Alexandra Rice says she depends on easy access to medical marijuana to control widespread pain and to improve her mood.
The 21-year-old resident of Grand Terrace, near Riverside, has pictures of cannabis flowers on her Twitter profile and friends whose livelihoods depend on the pot industry. Shes also an unlikely opponent of a November ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana for all adults in California.
If it is legalized, more people who dont respect it and just want to get high are going to take advantage of that, Rice said. And people who genuinely need it as medicine will be misplaced and thrown to the side.
When it comes to permitting recreational cannabis use, reaction from the medical marijuana community ranges from enthusiastic advocacy to passionate opposition with many left somewhere in the middle, confused and torn.
Im completely on the fence about it, said Robert Taft, a longtime medical marijuana advocate who owns 420 Central licensed medical marijuana dispensary in Santa Ana.
Some medical cannabis users fear themeasure, Proposition 64, would impose stricter regulations that would affect where they could consume marijuana and how much marijuana they could grow.
Those concerns have persisted even as Prop. 64 backers and experts argue that the language of the ballot measure doesnt affect the rights of medical marijuana patients established when Californians passed the Compassionate Use Act in 1996.
Indeed, the language of the initiative supports the view that properly credentialed medical patients would still be permitted to smoke the drug most places tobacco smoking is allowed. And, while recreational consumers would be limited to growing six plants at a time, medical marijuana patients would continue to be allowed to cultivate up to 100 square feet of pot plants.
It preserves the existing regulatory scheme that we worked for so hard for in California, said Don Duncan, California director of Americans for Safe Access, an organization that fights for medical marijuana rights but stays neutral on recreational cannabis legalization. I dont see any huge landmines for patients.
The initiatives backers argue legalization will actually broaden access and rights for the states estimated 1 million medical marijuana users.
The sky is not going to fall, said Matt Kumin, a San Francisco attorney whos represented medical marijuana clients for two decades. I think this is actually a new day for medical cannabis patients.
Still, anxiety is widespread over how the measure would impact the price of medical marijuana and what would become of the states 20-year-old market in the shadow of a far larger recreational marijuana industry that would be sure to attract a flood of new players.
Theres a lot of concern about that, said Dale Gieringer, California director of the legalization advocacy group NORML. There is not a lot of enthusiasm Ive seen in the activist community in general.
HOW IT WOULD WORK
Californias massive medical marijuana economy will change dramatically over the next several years, no matter the outcome of the November vote on Prop. 64.
State regulators are rolling out a comprehensive new system to regulate cannabis growth, manufacturing and sales. Those regulations the result of legislation approved last year are expected to rein in underground retailers and make cannabis safer while at least marginally increasing the price of medical marijuana.
The proposed ballot initiative would largely extend the same regulatory framework to recreational marijuana production, testing and sales.
Some predict that post-legalization, many California dispensaries would simply have two lines: one for patients and one for recreational consumers.
In Colorado, which legalized cannabis in 2012, recreational sales are 60 percent to 70 percent of the market. But both sectors keep expanding, with $486 million in total sales in the first five months of 2016.
Thats why many of Californias medical marijuana businesses welcome legalization: It offers potential to significantly grow their markets.
And if Colorado is a guide, there could be longer-term economic advantages for the medical marijuana sector should the initiative pass.
Recreational prices recently plummeted in the Rocky Mountain state thanks to a glut in supply, but medical prices have held steady. In addition, the California ballot measure would exempt cannabis patients from paying sales taxes, which would help keep consumer costs down.
A lot of how Prop. 64 plays out here would depend on how cities and counties react, Gieringer said, since theyd control what types, if any, of marijuana businesses could operate within their boundaries. They also could impose additional local taxes, which some local governments are already gearing up to do.
We could have a lot of communities in California where they will allow medical dispensaries and not adult use, Gieringer said. In that scenario, medical will have a stronger future.
BENEFITS FOR PATIENTS
For Californians who dont have major medical problems such as those who nibble an edible rather than swallow sleeping pills to doze off legalization means theyd no longer have to spend time and money getting a doctors recommendation to use marijuana.
The average patient who doesnt have really special needs in cannabis is probably better off, Gieringer said.
Distinguishing casual users from people with more serious medical conditions might also offer patients some of the legitimacy theyve long struggled to get.
Here are other protections Prop. 64 offers for medical marijuana patients:
It lowers penalties for many marijuana-related crimes, with those changes applied retroactively, which potentially means resentencing and clearing records for those whove long worked in and benefited from the medical marijuana industry.
It says marijuana use alone cant be used to restrict custody rights for patients complying with state law.
It caps fees at $100 to get optional ID cards confirming their status as patients. Many counties now charge $150 to $175. The measure ...
