New rules wouldn’t be implemented until 2018
By Joseph Tully
In October, California Governor Jerry Brown signed three bills into law that impose regulations and bureaucracy upon the state’s medical marijuana sector. These laws create spools of red tape with no new protection for patients. Medical cannabis has been legal in California since 1996, but there have only been vague laws with even more vague interpretations to protect the rights of patients, growers and dispensers of medical cannabis for the last 19 years.
However, these new bills give California a large and complex body of laws governing medical marijuana, with lots of new regulation and regulatory agencies.
The past absence of state governance allowed medical marijuana providers and patients room to operate and to obtain medicine, but offered no shield against federal or local law enforcement. The Compassionate Use Act from 1996 (Proposition 214) created an affirmative defense for trial, but left patients exposed to arrest and jail time for activities, even if they were legal according to state law. Of course, the federal government still claims cannabis doesn’t have any medical benefits and keeps it classified as an illegal, Schedule I drug, lumped in with the worst of the worst.
The newly-signed California Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act (MMRSA) is comprised of three bills — Assembly Bill 266, Assembly Bill 243 and Senate Bill 643. Together, they are 55 pages of red tape that inject the state into private medical marijuana operations and facilitate agencies in managing the meddling.
The laws create a new bureaucracy — the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation (BMMR) — which will be part of the state Department of Consumer Affairs. In addition to the BMMR, other state agencies empowered by the new laws to regulate aspects of medical marijuana are: the Department of Food and Agriculture, Board of Equalization, Department of Pesticide Regulation, Department of Fish and Wildlife, Water Resources Control Board, Department of Public Health, California Medical Board and the Department of Justice. Further, the new laws force medical marijuana licensees to work with organized labor unions and assigns the state the responsibility of establishing its own “organic certified” standard to compete with existing standards.
A matrix of 17 different medical marijuana license types has been created. Every aspect of the cannabis industry is touched by these licensing laws, from soil and water, to seeds and plants, harvesting, testing, packaging, labeling, tracking, distribution, delivery, medical recommendations, sale, taxation and security.
What is not addressed in the new laws are the rights of patients and caregivers to grow and use legal medicine. Commercial medical marijuana operations are enabled by these bills, but the current system of non-profit provider-patient relationships are not addressed. In my opinion, it’s clear that the state Legislature is opening the door for its corporate friends — Big Agriculture and Big Pharma.
Federal laws will still apply, and patients will still be subject to arrest by federal law enforcement. Additionally, local approval will be required for each applicant before a state license is granted. Local governments will be able to impose their own taxes and regulations, or completely ban marijuana growing or other activity within their jurisdictions.
Such a tangle of new laws will need time to sort out. By 2018, when these laws go into effect, there will no doubt be more detail and enhancement provided by lawmakers. Also, there will be ambiguities, loopholes and technicalities after the laws are implemented that will be invoked by law enforcement agencies to further crack down on legal cannabis in California. Let’s hope there’s still enough bite left in Prop 215 and State Bill 420 to allow medical marijuana providers to continue to serving sick patients.
There is a glimmer of hope in the form of statewide propositions to legalize recreational marijuana. California state laws allow citizens to put issues to a vote that would empower the will of the people over Sacramento’s vested interests. There are currently at least three competing propositions aimed for the 2016 ballot.
At this time, we can only hope that a citizen-initiated proposition will legalize recreational marijuana for adults in the state, and get rid of this morass of red tape before the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act takes effect.
Joseph Tully is a criminal defense attorney based in Northern California. His firm (www.tully-weiss.com) has successful experience defending marijuana providers and patients in felony trials around California.