CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 2016, OR THEREAFTER
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 2016, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“AD FOR STATE POT CZAR: NEW FORM OF REEFER MADNESS?”
It surely looked like reefer madness
was back the other day, when the state began advertising for a new medical
marijuana czar. The timing of the listing, coming while a dozen proposed
ballot initiatives to legalize recreational pot are pending, appeared to
suggest an assumption by Gov. Jerry Brown and his administration that at least
one will pass.
The new pot czar, to be paid between
$115,000 and $128,000 annually, would actually only be in charge of medical
marijuana – to start with. (Two more putative ballot measures now authorized to
seek voter signatures would make refinements to the 1996 Proposition 215, which
legalized medipot.) The wide presumption is that if and when recreational
marijuana is legalized, it will be regulated by the same czar as medipot,
working under the state’s Department of Consumer Affairs.
So even while the marijuana industry
and its millions of customers can’t seem to decide which measure to back, the
choice of their future chief regulator is almost upon us.
That person will supposedly be hired
by the end of January, and then get one year to organize a new agency that will
label all medical marijuana products, license growers and dispensaries around
the state and weed out mavericks who refuse to comply with the state’s new
regulations, passed by legislators last summer and then signed into law by
Brown.
“What we’re seeing is a dramatic shift
in professionalism within the cannabis industry and a major component is more vigorous,
resilient and intelligent regulation,” said Paul Warshaw, head of GreenRush, a
medipot business with 125 associated dispensaries offering 5,000 pot-related
products.
Colleague Seth Yakatan, CEO of
Kalytera, a company now developing marijuana-derived cannabidiol products it
hopes will be used against osteoporosis and other health problems, sees a major
shift in mindset.
“California’s medical marijuana
industry has gained a reputation as being loosely regulated, often to the
detriment of patients and business owners,” he said. “If this budding industry
is to be taken seriously, California’s new Bureau of Medical Marijuana
Regulation will need to be properly…managed.”
But establishment of that agency also
implies the Brown administration wants to be ready for full legalization, which
could come as early as one year from now, depending on which, if any, currently
proposed ballot measure should pass.
“Whoever takes the job will probably
have a target on their head,” predicted Dale Sky Jones, president of Oakland’s
Oaksterdam University, to a reporter. A leading source of information on pot,
Oaksterdam also advises the states of Washington and Colorado, which already
have legalized recreational pot.
The new medipot boss will have to be
careful never to even imply that he or she would like to see recreational
marijuana legalized in California. That would bring ire from cannabis
opponents, who cite federal studies indicating the weed can demotivate youthful
users, in addition to damaging the brains of some young people.
While polls indicate opponents now
number only about 40 percent in California, that figure will no doubt grow if
pot critics mount a serious campaign against whatever initiative eventually
qualifies for next fall’s ballot.
So it might be best if Brown and his
aides make it clear their job posting is merely a requirement of new laws
already on the books, and not an anticipation or endorsement of any or all of
the putative pot initiatives.
One thing for sure: Given the fact
that medical marijuana is already an almost $4 billion business in California,
and rates as the state’s most lucrative crop by a margin of more than $1
billion over second-place grapes, legalizing random pot growing and use will
likely make pot a dominant product, perhaps producing as much revenue as all
other crops combined.
This would be an enormous change,
possibly causing some present growers of everything from grapes to nuts, citrus
and cotton to change signals and plant marijuana instead. The impact of that on
American diets and food prices could be enormous.
So it behooves Brown to avoid reefer
madness and stay as far from endorsing a pot proposition as he can.
-30-
Email
Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough,
The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch
It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias
columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
No comments:
Post a Comment