Legalization Of Marijuana In California A Strong Possibility

Cannabis marijuanaCome election time this November, voters in California may finally be looking at a ballot that includes a measure to legalize recreational marijuana in the state. While California was the first state in the U.S. to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, a subsequent proposition to legalize the drug for recreational purposes in 2010 fell short of the votes needed for passage.

The legislation currently being proposed, called the California Marijuana Legalization Initiative, will require 365,000 signatures to be placed on the November, 2016 ballot, and is being pushed for by ReformCA, a project of the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform, chaired by Dale Sky Jones.

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Jones and ReformCA have been hard at work promoting the initiative at the state level and have already garnered support from nearly 70,000 voters including members of congress, retired police officers and even the president of California’s NAACP.

Hezekiah Allen, executive director at Emerald Growers Association, an association of medical cannabis cultivators, business owners and patients, says she also believes legalization of recreational marijuana is likely in the near future. Allen says, however, that heavy regulation will come hand-in-hand with legal status.

“Cannabis will never be ‘legal’ the way a tomato is,” Allen says. “We already have a massive industry creating two to three hundred thousand jobs up and down the state, yet we have no regulation, no business licenses. I think there is a good chance an initiative allowing adults to consume cannabis will pass, but the real work comes after the regulations are developed and implemented.”

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Allen also says he thinks regulation in California will set a precedent for other states to follow.

“California has been the global leader in cannabis production for decades. It has a robust grower community, and we are more and more organized every day.”

Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, says she is also of the belief that some form of regulation will pass, and if it does, will provide major benefits for cultivators and regulatory entities alike.

“One of the benefits of moving toward regulated methods is that cultivators are incentivized to find more efficient ways to grow,” she says. “Many growers are doing this already. For example, being able to have a more transparent accounting of how water is being used in these systems allows the regulations to be stricter.”

Increased Interest From Other Sectors
With potential legalization approaching, West says she’s noted an increasing number of people involved in other types of horticulture who are interested in cannabis production.

“All different types of people who produce lighting, or anyone geared toward the commercial cultivation markets are moving toward this,” West says. “Profit margins so far have been fairly large, at least compared to some other commodity crops, and there is certainly a novelty factor. There’s a lot of attention around it.”

Because this is a relatively new commercial market, West says there are plenty of opportunities to create economies of scale, and even more opportunities to develop innovative production techniques that could potentially drive down costs.

Jones echoes this sentiment, and says she believes there might be some growers who either crossover to cannabis, or at the very least add it to their rotations.

“I do see some enhancements,” Jones says. “I don’t know that anyone is necessarily going to jump from almonds to cannabis, but I see the most obvious cannabis crossover would be hops. Because they are such closely related species, it’s an easy transition.”

Furthermore, Jones says that cannabis may provide key production benefits to growers of other crops, and mentions industrial hemp, marijuana’s close cousin, as a possible rotation option.

“Hemp is extremely unique because although it may require a lot of water, it does not deplete the land. Throughout history, many farmers actually used hemp as a crop rotation. It was vital to the soil’s nutrients. It’s also naturally antimicrobial and antibacterial, so it uses very few pesticides. It doesn’t need to be sprayed the way other plants do,” Jones explains.

The Drought Effect
As Jones mentioned, cannabis is a “thirsty” crop, and that angle may be tough to promote, considering the current water restrictions the drought has imposed on growers.

“That’s going to be the hardest part for some of these farmers — getting water rights when they’ve never had any before,” Jones says.

The silver lining however, is that with regulation, growers who may currently be diverting water illegally would then be policed.

“We will hold these licensed growers to the same exact standards of any regulated agriculture crop,” she says. “No more stealing water, diverting streams, killing wildlife and affecting people downstream. This approach hasn’t been working. Cannabis is the largest cash crop in California, so let’s try something new.”

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