Politics The latest in cannabis legalization including laws and policies legislators views election coverage and more. Politics California Just Legalized Cannabis! Now Comes the Hard Part Ben Adlin November 8 2016 California let it sink in. No matter your feelings on Proposition 64s convoluted details tonight you legalized cannabis in a state where nearly 1 in 8 Americans live. You removed criminal penalties and laid the foundation for a legal regulated market that could set the global standard. Tomorrows headlines might herald the fact that almost a quarter of the US population now lives in legal adult-use states. But recognize: Half of that was you. So what happens next? Whats legaland when? According to the California Constitution Art. II Sec. 10(a)approved ballot measures take effect the day after the election unless otherwise specified by the measure. So Prop. 64 becomes law onWednesday Nov. 9. But if you think your nearest medical dispensary will start selling you cannabis without a doctors recommendation anytime soon not so fast. Some changes happen immediately. According to the lawyer who wrote Prop. 64 heres what will be legal for adults 21 and older as California wakes up on Wednesday: Possession of up to 28.5 grams (about an ounce) of cannabis flower and up to 8 grams of cannabis concentrate Consumption of cannabis in a private home Growing up to six cannabis plants and keeping the harvested product in a private home Giving away to another adult up to 28.5 grams of flower and up to 8 grams of concentrate When will retail cannabis stores open? Itll be at least early 2018. RELATED STORY Live Cannabis Legalization Coverage amp; Results: Election 2016 The long complicated process of creating the state regulatory infrastructurewhich will result in those storesis just beginning. No commercial cannabis licenses of any type can be issued until Jan. 1 2018 and all products have to be tested and labeled before theyre sold. Theres also that issue of actually growing the plants which wont be allowed for commercial purposes until licenses are issued. And remember it takes about eight weeks for a cannabis clone to mature into a flowering plant ready for harvest. So whenever the first commercial adult-use grow licenses are issued: Figure the first product may be ready about two months later. All that could slow the systems actual rollout as it sometimes has in otherstates. In Washington for instance it took months for all licensed growers to come online which resulted in product scarcity and high prices during the first year retail shops were open. Keep in mind that the full text of Proposition 64 is long and unwieldy. Sixty-twopages long in fact. You can read it beginning on page 178 of this gargantuan PDF(or skim the in-depth summary on page 90). But even if you read the whole thingas I didand you shouldyoull be left with a lot of questions. Please remain calm and avoid wild speculation. RELATED STORY 13 Things You Might Not Know About Californias Prop. 64 Heres what will frustrate many in the coming years: Even at 62 pages the law doesnt have answers to everything. Some things we know right now. Others despite the measures agonizingly detailed language we wont know for sure until further rules are hammered out by state agencies or local governments. Other questions wont be answered until theyre matters decided in court. California is an expansive state diverse politically and culturally. There will be many disagreements over the new law. If you have much at stake or plan on starting a business you probably should talk to a lawyer. What do I need to know as a consumer? Possession use at home and cultivation are legal for adults 21 and over on Nov. 9 as long as you stay within the laws limits. Local governments can ban outdoor cultivation but Prop. 64 specifically allows up to six plants inside a home everywhere in the state. You can still receive a fine for consuming in public and your employer can still fire you for testing positive for cannabis at work. Criminal penalties have been removed adjusted orin a few casesheightened by the laws passage. In general most minor criminal penalties are removed for adults 21 or older. The same goes for minors under 18 whose criminal punishments would be replaced by tax-funded drug education. For adults 18 to 20 years old some penalties get stiffer. While possession of less than an ounce would remain a $100 infraction possession of any more could bring a sentence of up to six months in jail. And any adult 18 or over who shares cannabis with someone under 21 can be hit with up to a six-month sentence and a $500 fine. Critics worry this could cause problems at colleges where joints are passed casually among underage adult friends. RELATED STORY Growing Organic Cannabis at Home What about the industry? The first retail shops wont open until at least 2018. There are various commercial licenses none of which can be issued before Jan. 1 2018 the same day the states new medical cannabis regulatory system goes online. Prop. 64s licensing scheme comprises cultivation manufacturing testing retail distribution and entities referred to as microbusinesses which must cultivate cannabis in an area smaller than 10000 square feet but can also act as manufacturers retailers and/or distributors. For all the talk of big business in the cannabis industry some of the most innovative newcomers to the market could be tiny. As for bigger operations licenses for the largest-scale grows wont be issued until 2023 which is in many ways an experiment. The five-year head start is intended to give smaller growers a foothold in the market while the mere existence of large-scale grows is predicted to drive down prices by increasing scale. Nobodys quite sure how the system will fare especially in light of the fact that the measures licensing scheme allows for vertical integration in which the operator of a business can hold multiple licenses enabling a grower to also obtain for example manufacturing and retail licenses. RELATED STORY Whats So Special About Humboldt County Cannabis? Taxes will depend on a few factors. All commercial cultivation medical and adult-use will be subject to a new state tax of $9.25 per ounce of dried flower and $2.75 per ounce of dried leaves. A new state excise tax will subject both medical and non-medical customers to an additional 15 percent of a products retail price. Adult-use sales will also be subject to sales tax while registered medical patients will be exempt. Local governments can impose additional taxes. Whos in charge of all this? Do I even want to know? First let me explain why I think you should want to know. As weve seen in nearly every legal state whether medical or adult use most problems crop up during implementation where a law people all thought they understood becomes real-life practice. Consider: Most people think patients should have access to medical marijuana but they disagree on the best ways to provide access. Most people agree legal cannabis should be tested for pesticides; the question becomes how its done. Yes lets get some plants growing alreadybut what about the water situation? Below is a table of the main state agencies charged with regulating certain areas of adult-use cannabis. Its particularly ugly because its taken from the states voter information guide. (Its page 91. If youre actively interested in these things and if youve gotten this far you should really consider taking a look.) Californias legal cannabis market will be overseen by a number of state agencies. (Official Voting Guide California Secretary of States Office) This sounds really complicated. It does seem complicated and heres a big reason why: Legalization measures in other states have been deceivingly simple. Prop. 64s full text runs 62 pages. Nevadas legalization measure Question 2 is just 12. Simplicity might seem appealing on the surface but it can contain all sorts of ambiguities. Californias 1996 measure Prop. 215 allowed patients with doctors recommendations to get out of criminal charges in court but by itself did little more than that. State lawmakers failed to fill in the holes or establish a system for distribution and until the past few years nobody quite knew whether dispensaries were even legal. Local governments industry and patient advocates had been battling it out in court for decades. RELATED STORY Why Do the Feds Keep Targeting California? Prop. 64 tries to avoid these problems by providing a detailed skeleton of how the system will function. Its up to state agencies and local governments to finish the framework. This is a big part of why the textis so damn longin many places it lists specifications for future policies while the development of actual procedures is left to the state agencies that will have a hand in enforcing them. In theory this limits the measures uncertainty. Prop. 64s authors ostensibly have learned from other states experience. But the detailed prescriptions could also create a heap of bureaucracy. Heres one bright spot: Because theres so much left to do there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in helping to define what legal cannabis looks like. Get involved! The hard work starts now. adult-useCaliforniaElection 2016legalization Ben Adlin Ben is an associate editor at Leafly specializing in politics. Cannabis in California 13 Things You Might Not Know About Californias Prop. 64 Cannabis Regulation in the Wild West: What We Can Learn From San Jose Behind the Big Ban: Why California Towns Are Scrambling to Oust Dispensaries If Youre Pro-Cannabis Why Would You Not Vote for Prop. 64? Why Is California Running a Cannabis Campaign Without the Cannabis? Related News Politics Obama: Prohibition Could Be 'Untenable' After Tuesday Science amp; Tech Why Legalization Doesnt Lead to Higher Teen Use Rates Cannabis 101 Costs of Cannabis: Growing vs. Buying at a Dispensary Cannabis 101 Pesticides 101: Questions and Answers for Cannabis Patients and Consumers The post California Just Legalized Cannabis! Now Comes the Hard Part appeared first on Leafly. by Ben Adlin at Leafly