Signature gathering was underway for an initiative that would ban all privately owned medical marijuana cultivation sites and dispensaries and create a state-owned and operated medical marijuana cultivation site and dispensaries.
What authors Roger D. Morgan, Scott Chapman, Carla Lowe and the Rev. Ron Allen have dubbed “The California Safe and Drug-Free Community Act” would also allow local governments to ban or restrict the number and location of state-owned dispensaries, and establishes packaging, lab testing and potency standards for medical marijuana.
The initiative also sets 21 as the minimum age for medical marijuana use; requires adoption of strict standards to govern physician medical marijuana recommendations for their patients; and specifies marijuana blood- content levels that establish driving under the influence.
The initiative would retain the prohibition on recreational use of marijuana.
Passage of the initiative would result in an unknown change in state and local revenues related to sales of medical marijuana depending on how the measure is implemented by the state, according to an analysis prepared by the Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor and Director of Finance Michael Cohen.
The initiative would result in increased state costs of millions to tens of millions of dollars annually to implement a program to educate students in kindergarten through 12th grade and their teachers regarding marijuana use, the analysis found.
Backers of the initiative must submit petitions with valid signatures from 365,880 registered voters — 5 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2014 general election — by May 23 to qualify it for the November 2016 ballot, according to Secretary of State Alex Padilla.
There are three other initiatives in circulation related to medical marijuana and 10 to legalize recreational marijuana.
—Staff and wire reports