California voters to decide on legalizing recreational marijuana in November
UPDATE: 6:30 p.m.
Rima Vertucci’s made green since last fall, helping out many medical marijuana patients as a manager with Dr. Vapemens Delivery service.
“There’s so much more that people don’t know about marijuana,” Vertucci said. “It’s not just about a THC effect. It’s about helping people. It’s about people after war. It’s a lot about patients too who keep using those pharmaceutical drugs.”
Vertucci said she may be able to roll up more customers, with a proposition to legalize recreational use of marijuana in California getting enough signatures for the November ballot.
Known as the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), it would allow anyone in the Golden State to have up to one ounce of marijuana, and grow up to six plants for recreational purposes.
“It’s the name of it that scares people,” Vertucci said. “So if it’s legal, if it’s more comfortable in society, it would become more than just a recreational thing. It would be medicinal. It would become beneficial. It would become way more than just that.”
But others like Desert Hot Springs Police Chief Dale Mondary say the new measure could light up new problems, such as more arrests and substance abuse.
“Colorado has seen their DUI arrests increase exponentially, where people are recreationally getting stoned, getting behind the wheels of cars, and endangering the community,” Mondary said.
While both believe the measure will pass, Vertucci said the measure would provide more opportunity.
“It’s nothing to look down upon because so many patients are getting helped,” Vertucci said. “A lot of older patients [are] like lawyers [and] like retired lieutenants. More people don’t realize it. They just see the bad parts of it.”
While Chief Mondary said more clarity will come, if the measure is passed.
“Yes, there will be clean-up language in years to come,” Mondary said. “But that’s like closing the barn door after the horses get out. We need to be on top of this. We need to have a stronger voice so that, again, law enforcement can have their input to help keep the community safe.”
The measure’s main opposition is a coalition made up a groups including the California Police Chiefs Association, the California Hospital Association, and the California State Sheriffs’ Association, a similar coalition when the last legalization measure did not pass in 2010.
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California voters will decide in November whether to legalize recreational marijuana. On Wednesday, Zak Dahlheimer met with city officials and residents of the Coachella Valley to hear their thoughts about the proposal.
You can watch the full story on KESQ News Channel 3 at 5 p.m. and on CBS Local 2 at 6:30 p.m.
Secretary of State Alex Padilla said Tuesday that initiative proponents turned in more than the 366,000 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.
A successful vote in California would mean one in every six Americans lives in a state with legal marijuana sales, including the entire West Coast.
California one of eight states that will be voting to legalize marijuana this November
The measure asks voters to approve allowing people 21 and older to buy an ounce of marijuana and marijuana-infused products at licensed retail outlets and also grow up to six pot plants for personal recreational use.
State officials estimate the measure would raise as much as $1 billion per year in revenue and reduce public safety costs by tens of millions.
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