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Proposition 64 has divided the medical marijuana community, with many planning to vote 'no' to legalizing recreational use
Come November, medical pot dispensary operator Lanette Davies won’t be joining others in her industry in voting for Proposition 64, a measure that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana.
The initiative could create a flood of new customers for Davies’ nonprofit Canna Care pot shop, which is located in the back of an industrial park on the outskirts of Sacramento. But Davies fears the Nov. 8 ballot measure will result in big corporations driving out small operators, and the government setting steep taxes and fees on cannabis that will put it out of reach for many of her mostly low-income customers.
“Because of the double taxation and the permit fees, you are not going to have affordable medication,” Davies predicted as her customer bought a $33 bag of Jedi Kush marijuana. “The people who are going to suffer are those who are disabled, who are on low incomes. They are not going to be able to get life-saving medicine.”
She is not the only one concerned. Proposition 64 has split the medical cannabis community, with some seeing new opportunity and others fearing it will wreck a system that is working for nearly 800,000 medical pot card holders.
<aside class="trb_ar_sponsoredmod trb_barker_mediaconductor" data-adloader-networktype="mediaconductor" data-role="delayload delayload_item" data-screen-size="desktop" data-withinviewport-options="bottomOffset=100" data-load-method="trb.vendor.mediaconductor.init" data-load-type="method" data-vendor-mc=""></aside>The division was exposed recently when the California Growers Assn. conducted a survey of 770 industry members, mostly marijuana growers and activists, according to Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the group.
He said 31% of those who responded — some 238 industry members — opposed the ballot measure, while 31% supported it and 38% were undecided. With hundreds of its members in opposition, the growers association decided to stay neutral on Proposition 64.
“We are totally divided,” Allen said. “We have strongly mixed opinions.”
Many growers, dispensary operators and customers of the existing medical cannabis market oppose the measure, arguing it undermines the intent of the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, which allowed marijuana to be used for medical purposes.
Dennis Peron, coauthor of the proposition behind that law, opposes Proposition 64 because he thinks current state laws allow for medicinal use of cannabis with little meddling by the government.
“We don’t need it,” Peron said of the initiative. “Why are there so many restrictions that they insist on as if [pot] were super dangerous?”
Proposition 64, whose major backers include former Facebook President Sean Parker and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, would allow adults 21 and older to possess, transport and use up to an ounce of marijuana for recreational purposes and allow individuals to grow as many as six plants.
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Come November, medical pot dispensary operator Lanette Davies won’t be joining others in her industry in voting for Proposition 64, a measure that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana.
The initiative could create a flood of new customers for Davies’ nonprofit Canna Care pot shop, which is located in the back of an industrial park on the outskirts of Sacramento. But Davies fears the Nov. 8 ballot measure will result in big corporations driving out small operators, and the government setting steep taxes and fees on cannabis that will put it out of reach for many of her mostly low-income customers.
“Because of the double taxation and the permit fees, you are not going to have affordable medication,” Davies predicted as her customer bought a $33 bag of Jedi Kush marijuana. “The people who are going to suffer are those who are disabled, who are on low incomes. They are not going to be able to get life-saving medicine.”
She is not the only one concerned. Proposition 64 has split the medical cannabis community, with some seeing new opportunity and others fearing it will wreck a system that is working for nearly 800,000 medical pot card holders.
<aside class="trb_ar_sponsoredmod trb_barker_mediaconductor" data-adloader-networktype="mediaconductor" data-role="delayload delayload_item" data-screen-size="desktop" data-withinviewport-options="bottomOffset=100" data-load-method="trb.vendor.mediaconductor.init" data-load-type="method" data-vendor-mc=""></aside>The division was exposed recently when the California Growers Assn. conducted a survey of 770 industry members, mostly marijuana growers and activists, according to Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the group.
He said 31% of those who responded — some 238 industry members — opposed the ballot measure, while 31% supported it and 38% were undecided. With hundreds of its members in opposition, the growers association decided to stay neutral on Proposition 64.
“We are totally divided,” Allen said. “We have strongly mixed opinions.”
Many growers, dispensary operators and customers of the existing medical cannabis market oppose the measure, arguing it undermines the intent of the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, which allowed marijuana to be used for medical purposes.
Dennis Peron, coauthor of the proposition behind that law, opposes Proposition 64 because he thinks current state laws allow for medicinal use of cannabis with little meddling by the government.
“We don’t need it,” Peron said of the initiative. “Why are there so many restrictions that they insist on as if [pot] were super dangerous?”
Proposition 64, whose major backers include former Facebook President Sean Parker and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, would allow adults 21 and older to possess, transport and use up to an ounce of marijuana for recreational purposes and allow individuals to grow as many as six plants.
ReadtheRest
