California looking to legalize recreational marijuana

Jacob Preal Writer Intern

California may be legalizing recreational marijuana with a Nov. 8 ballot. The “Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act” received more than 600,000 signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot. Although this number has yet to be verified by elections officials, the coalition received almost double the required 365,880 signatures for it to make the ballot.

If passed, this act will legalize marijuana for recreational use for those aged 21 and older, as well as impose a 15 percent retail tax on sales of the drug. The drug will also be available for cultivation for as many as six plants per individual.

The coalition gained momentum after former Facebook president Sean Parker donated over $1 million to the initiative. This marijuana proposal dwarfed rival campaigns that eventually conceded to the Adult Use of Marijuana Act’s massive amount of support and financial backing. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has chaired a blue-ribbon commission to establish a regulatory recreational marijuana system that protects children, has also endorsed the initiative.

Previous marijuana initiatives have failed before implementation since 1996 when California became the first state to legalize medicinal marijuana. A 2010 vote saw pot legalization fail 53.5 percent to 46.5 percent under the rejected Proposition 19. Since then, public approval for the drug has gone up with 55 percent of those polled by the Public Policy Institute of California in 2015 supporting recreational use. If the public follows this recent trend, California will join Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington with legalized recreational marijuana.

Proponents of the initiative feel that legalizing pot will allow for more effective regulation of drug use. The California Medical Association stated that it disagrees with the current “ineffective prohibition” and instead believes that “the most effective way to protect the public health is to tightly control, track and regulate marijuana and to comprehensively research and educate the public on its health impacts.”

The “Adult Use of Marijuana Act” will be used to impair the black market and keep marijuana from children who can obtain drugs as easily as adults under the illegalized system. California will also be able to capitalize on tax dollars with this legalization act.

According to the official language of the act, the tax on marijuana sales in the state can generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue. These dollars will be put toward public health programs to educate the youth in order to prevent future drug abuse and invest in communities to create job opportunities. The revenue generated here will also provide for environmental cleanup and restoration of public lands destroyed by illegal cultivation.

There are those, however, that oppose the measure. Many are still working to keep recreational pot illegal and prevent private cultivation by utilizing government-run medical marijuana dispensaries. With legalization, growers in the cannabis industry are afraid for the future. Hezekiah Allen of the California Growers Association fears the establishment of monopolistic, powerful marijuana companies would oust small, local growers.

Still, the initiative remains well-funded and equipped for the ballot. If the 600,000 signatures are verified, California voters will have the option of legalizing marijuana within its borders.