Pubdate: Wed, 05 Jun 2013
Source: East Bay Express (CA)
Column: Legalization Nation
Copyright: 2013 East Bay Express
Contact: http://posting.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/SubmitLetter/Page
Website: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1131
Author: David Downs

A MARIJUANA LAWMAKING RECAP

Unfortunately, Cannabis Regulations Went Down in Defeat, but 
Thankfully, So Did a Bill That Would Have Made It Illegal to Drive 
Days or Weeks After Getting Stoned.

California medical marijuana regulations failed in the state 
legislature last week, but advocacy groups helped advance a bill to 
better protect collectives, and helped defeat a bill that would have 
criminalized driving while sober.

All bills in the legislature had until Friday, May 31 to pass through 
their houses of origin, and the day brought a stinging defeat for San 
Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's AB 473, which would have begun 
the process of regulating the state's estimated $1.3 billion medical 
cannabis industry. Assembly Bill 473 would have placed the entire 
medical cannabis supply chain under the California Department of 
Alcoholic Beverage Control. The bill failed 35-37, with a handful of 
Democratic lawmakers from Southern and Central California voting no 
and effectively stalling the bill.

That's very frustrating considering these are the same regions crying 
out for one statewide solution to regulating medical cannabis, said 
Don Duncan, a leading medical marijuana advocate and lobbyist based 
in Los Angeles.

Even as California's cops and councilmembers call out in the press 
for tighter regulations on medical marijuana, lobbyists for 
California's police chiefs, district attorneys, and narcotic officers 
- - as well as the League of California Cities - opposed such 
regulations. Some Assemblymembers who voted for AB 473 in committee 
voted against it on the floor.

Duncan said Southern and Central California lawmakers don't want the 
success or failure of medical cannabis regulations hung around their 
necks. "We're having a problem with getting folks in Southern 
California to cast a ballot that could be seen as affirmative of 
medical cannabis or be seen as facilitating dispensaries," he said.

The League of California Cities also succeeded in confusing 
lawmakers, said several advocates for cannabis regulations. "We think 
part of it is a misunderstanding of how AB 473 would affect cities' 
ability to control clinics and dispensaries," said Carlos Alcala, 
Ammiano's communications director.

The league lobbied for and received an amendment to AB 473 clarifying 
that cities could still ban dispensaries. But a spokesperson for the 
league told the Sacramento Bee that the league now wants to limit 
Californians' rights to obtain a physician's recommendation for 
cannabis. "Sometimes agreement is a moving target," Alcala noted.

The cops were joined in opposition to AB 473 by far-left marijuana 
advocates who felt AB 473 didn't protect patients enough. Such groups 
want to force dispensaries on cities like Concord that have banned 
them. "The support for 473 amongst medical marijuana folks was 
somewhat lukewarm," said Duncan. "We could have swayed six of those 
votes with grassroots enthusiasm, but I didn't feel it on this bill. 
Our community is looking for some very different forms of regulations 
than what they're finding."

While it seems Californians generally agree that regulations are 
important, they disagree widely on the details, he said. "We're going 
to have to compromise," Duncan said.

Ammiano hopes to somehow resurrect AB 473 this session, Alcala said.

But there were some victories as well: Senate President Pro Tem 
Darrell Steinberg's SB 439 - which clarifies that collectives are 
legal - cleared the Senate; Senator Lou Correa's sober DUI bill SB 
289 - which would have made it a crime to drive for days or weeks 
after smoking pot - died a quick death; and a largely symbolic hemp 
bill SB 566 also cleared the Senate.

Steinberg's SB 439 "clarifies that a cooperative, collective or other 
business entity that operates within the Attorney General's 
'Guidelines for the Security and Non-Diversion of Marijuana Grown for 
Medical Use' will not be subject to prosecution for marijuana 
possession or commerce, as specified."

The bill seeks to address the problem of cops in medical 
marijuana-unfriendly counties who still arrest lawful medical pot 
growers and raid lawful collectives, and of police in places like Los 
Angeles County who still argue that all dispensary sales are illegal. 
SB 439 clarifies that sales as well as distribution systems like 
storefront dispensaries are lawful. The bill cleared the Senate on 
May 20, and is in the Assembly this summer.

Advocates are watching out for amendments, said Dale Gieringer, 
director of the California chapter of the NORML. Opponents of the 
bill, like California's narcotics officers lobby, will try to water 
it down or poison it, he said. "There will be amendments, no doubt about that."

California cops also would like to send medical marijuana patients to 
prison for driving while sober, but they're going to have to try 
again a different time, after patients groups stopped Correa's SB 
289, which never made it out of committee this session. Groups like 
NORML and Americans for Safe Access orchestrated at least 3,600 
emails and phone calls to kill Correa's bill - which would have 
resulted in prison time for people with any trace of cannabis in 
their blood. "That bill was damned unpopular by the time it got 
heard," Gieringer said.

While pot's effects wane in a few hours, non-psychoactive byproducts 
of cannabis consumption can stay in the body for days or weeks. 
Police testing for such "metabolites" are already sending sober 
drivers to prison in Arizona, and Colorado just passed a similar 
bill. These unscientific "zero tolerance" or "per se DUI" bills are 
trendy nationwide, Gieringer said, and the victory for common sense 
in California may be short-lived. "SB 289 will come back," he said.

Lastly, Senator Mark Leno's hemp bill, SB 566, passed the Senate. The 
largely symbolic bill directs the state to plant industrial hemp when 
it's federally legal, even though hell may freeze over first. 
Governor Brown vetoed a similar bill last year, citing federal law.

Both houses take their summer recess on July 3. September 13 is the 
last day to pass bills this year.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom