Comprehensive state bill package regulates medical cannabis. No dispensaries allowed in Healdsburg
On Oct. 9, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the most comprehensive medical marijuana regulation legislation in the nation. The Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act is a three-bill package. Bills SB 643, AB 266 and AB 243 will change the face of a multi-billion dollar industry that has gone largely unregulated for almost 20 years, since Proposition 215 passed.
The new laws will govern cultivating, processing, transporting, testing and distributing medical cannabis to qualified patients. Assemblymember Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) authored AB 243 and Senator Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) authored SB 643.
There is a two-year rollout period for the three bills, and California will begin to see the new rules and regulations taking hold between Jan. 1, 2016 and Jan. 1, 2018.
“There are three things these bills are going to do: protect our communities, protect our environment and keep patients safe,” McGuire said. “These bills will help tame the Wild West and Sonoma County will be safer and stronger.”
McGuire represents the North Coast of California, where the majority of the nation’s marijuana is grown. He said the new laws cover every aspect of the commercial medical marijuana industry, which would be regulated and subject to licensure – both by the state and local authorities. “If you are to grow marijuana, sell marijuana or transport marijuana, you have to get a dual license. One from the city, or county if you operate in the county, and a statewide license,” McGuire said. He said that he doesn’t think the act will make it more challenging for people to grow, sell and transport marijuana, it will just regulate it, like every other agricultural crop.
The bills create a Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation under the Department of Consumer Affairs, led by a director who will be confirmed by the Senate. Cities and counties will be eligible for grants from the Marijuana Production and Environmental Mitigation Fund. These funds can be used for local law enforcement activities and environmental cleanup.
McGuire said the legislation includes penalties, fines, and revocations if individuals do not follow the rules.
Provisions in SB 643 will track and trace all marijuana products, and a provision will make medical marijuana officially an agricultural product in California. Cultivators will have to abide by the same rules and regulations as all other agriculture, including water use and discharge, pesticide and insecticide use and more. “The number one source of nutrient loads, pesticides and fertilizers in Northern California rivers is coming from rogue marijuana grows,” McGuire said. Another concern is runoff. “The number one source of sediment and dirt in California watersheds is also coming from rogue marijuana grows,” McGuire said.
According to McGuire’s office, there are also provisions governing indoor and outdoor cultivation standards for small, medium and large growers to ensure that best practices related to land conversion, grading and electricity usage are instituted. Standards for transportation will ensure that no marijuana is diverted out of state for illegal use.
Healdsburg City Council Member Gary Plass said it’s too early to see how the act is going to affect Healdsburg. “The state is finally taking some steps because they feel there will be an initiative on the ballot in November (2016) for legalizing recreational marijuana,” Plass said. “It’s time the federal government takes a look at what we are going to do with marijuana, are we going to make it legal or are we not? Technically, a federal law is not supposed to be circumvented by state law, but the federal government has ignored this issue and let states take the lead.”
The last time California passed marijuana legislature was in 1996, when Proposition 215 allowed the use of medical cannabis.
“Voters passed Proposition 215 nearly two decades ago and the legislature always promised to bring rules and regulations forward that would protect our communities and environment. That promise was never followed through upon. These three bills now create comprehensive regulation related to medical marijuana in the state of California,” McGuire said.
Since Prop 215 passed, cultivation and consumption of medical marijuana has exploded in California, McGuire said. “The medical marijuana industry is estimated to be worth billions of dollars on an annual basis and this is the largest industry in the state of California that has virtually no regulations or rules that govern it,” McGuire said.
Cloverdale, Healdsburg and Windsor all have moratoriums on medical marijuana dispensaries. This ban on dispensaries is indefinite, but could be lifted at any time by city councils. McGuire said if a city doesn’t allow for dispensaries, those laws still remain. If a city allows for dispensaries, a local license has to be executed and the state would have to execute a license as well.
Plass was on the Healdsburg City Council during the banning of medical marijuana dispensaries in 2007, as well as another ordinance in 2014 regulating the cultivation of marijuana in the city. “The community overwhelmingly said we don’t want marijuana dispensaries in the city of Healdsburg,” Plass said. “I don’t feel at this point that it (the new bill package) is going to affect either of the acts we’ve taken on marijuana.”
Other communities are grappling with regulation and its consequences. Sebastopol City Councilmember Robert Jacob, is the executive director of Peace in Medicine, a medical cannabis dispensary with locations in Sebastopol and Santa Rosa.
Jacob said that the bills are going to make it safer for local jurisdictions to implement policy that creates safe access.
When asked if he thinks the act will make it more difficult for medical cannabis growers and dispensaries, Jacob said there will be pros and cons. “We’re still trying to decipher what things means. In many cases, the act offers a guideline, and it won’t be until the state department of marijuana regulation is engaged and in full force that we will have answers to many of the detailed questions,” he said.
“I do have a concern that mom and pop growers and small growers will be pushed out of the system due to a high cost of entry … Therefore creating a negative impact on what we often refer to as small and medium sized business,” he added.
Jacob said that maneuvering a new system will be “treacherous” and take a lot of work, but “we have hope that when we come out on the other side, we will have a more clear system to bring access to patients.”
