Pubdate: Sun, 26 Jul 2015
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2015 The Sacramento Bee
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/0n4cG7L1
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376

A HOW-TO GUIDE FOR LEGALIZING POT

A panel of academic, legal and law enforcement experts led by Lt. 
Gov. Gavin Newsom has produced a sensible set of recommendations on 
how California should legalize recreational marijuana, if that's the 
path we choose.

Unfortunately, there's no guarantee these smart policies will be 
built into any of the legalization initiatives possibly headed to the 
November 2016 ballot.

A new initiative reform, however, gives the Legislature the 
opportunity to work with advocacy groups to improve a marijuana 
ballot measure. In its report issued Wednesday after two years of 
study, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy gives 
legislators a helpful blueprint.

Rightly, the panel says that California should be cautious and stop 
the industry from becoming like tobacco and alcohol, dominated by a 
few large companies. The commission correctly prioritizes protecting 
children and promoting public health and safety over maximizing tax revenue.

Devising a fair and efficient system of taxation is particularly 
thorny. The commission doesn't recommend a tax rate, but does discuss 
the advantages of taxation at every level of cultivation, processing 
and sales. It also says that taxes can't be so high that it pushes 
customers into the illegal market, and that revenue should help pay 
for enforcing limits on sales to people under 21 and on growing pot 
on public lands.

Importantly, the report spotlights the importance of preventing 
environmental damage from cultivation and of recognizing the drought's impact.

We can learn some lessons from states that have already legalized 
recreational pot. For instance, the panel says that pot brownies and 
other edibles, which turned out to be a problem in Colorado, need to 
be tightly regulated.

But California is much larger than Colorado, Oregon and Washington 
state, and we're different. We have large cities and vast rural 
swaths, including state and national parks. We have a population that 
is ethnically diverse, with large numbers of youths and poor 
residents. As the panel says, we need "laws and regulations that are 
specifically tailored to California."

In its 93-page report, the panel doesn't try to settle every 
potential issue. It emphasizes that legalization would require 
successful implementation over many years.

What we don't want, however, is a repeat of Proposition 19, which 
some legalization proponents got on the 2010 ballot. It was badly 
flawed and went down to a deserved defeat.

Moving toward a potential proposition next year, this could be the 
first big test for the 2014 initiative reform law championed by 
Darrell Steinberg, the former Senate president pro tem. It is 
designed to change the "all or nothing" system in which initiative 
backers can't make even minor fixes once they start gathering signatures.

Under Senate Bill 1253, the Legislature can negotiate with initiative 
proponents, who can withdraw their measure if lawmakers help create a 
better product.

The operative word here is "can." Other than holding a public 
hearing, the Legislature isn't required to do anything. And given its 
frustrating inability to reach consensus on how to clean up the 
medical marijuana mess, there's reason to doubt its will to act.

Yet if California voters are going to get another chance to decide 
this issue, everyone's goal ought to be to present them the most 
well-drafted measure possible.

To make that happen, Newsom and other commissioners have done their 
part. Legislators will need to do theirs.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom