California Marijuana Legalization Measure Launches With Backing Of Tech Billionaire
STUDIO CITY (CBSLA.com/AP) — An initiative spearheaded by tech billionaire Sean Parker that seeks to legalize recreational marijuana use in California was submitted to state officials on Monday.
Although the Adult Use of Marijuana Act is one of at least a dozen marijuana legalization measures vying for a place on the November 2016 ballot, it has received support from key interest and advocacy groups and stands poised to secure significant financial backing.
The measure would allow adults 21 and over to buy and possess up to an ounce of marijuana at a time, as well as marijuana-infused products, at licensed retail outlets. They also would be allowed to grow up to six pot plants simultaneously for personal recreational use.
Both the new recreational market and the state's existing medical marijuana industry would be regulated through the California Department of Consumer Affairs with sales subject to the same 15 percent excise tax. Only recreational weed would be subject to state and local sales taxes.
Pot cultivation would be taxed as well. The initiative stipulates that all tax proceeds would go into a fund dedicated to marijuana oversight, including reports by the state auditor and by a public university on the implementation and effect of legalization.
Smoking weed would remain off-limits in places where tobacco use already is prohibited, including restaurants, bars and other enclosed public places places. It also would be barred within 1,000 feet of a school, day care center or youth center when children are present.
The ballot measure also contains language stating that using or carrying open containers of pot or pot-infused products would not be legal while driving or riding as a passenger in a car, boat or airplane.
Employers still would be allowed to require workers to be marijuana-free and to prohibit on-the-job use or possession of marijuana.
The measure also contains detailed packaging, dosing and labeling requirements for child-resistant containers, active ingredient listings and warnings about the ability of marijuana to impair driving.
Proponents are hoping to find more support from voters than they did when a previous legalization effort failed in 2010.
One person who appears unlikely to support the measure is Gov. Jerry Brown.
"How many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation?" he said last year on "Meet the Press." "I think we need to stay alert. If not 24 hours a day, more than some of the potheads might be able to put together."
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