Not in my backyard: Californians eager to tax marijuana sales

Californians are eager to tax medical marijuana, but they want limits on who can grow it and sell it.

That’s the message from Tuesday’s voting, as backers of nearly two dozen local medical marijuana-related measures tallied the ballots from Encinitas in San Diego County to Butte and Lake counties in the far north.

Desert Hot Springs voters passed two ballot measures that will allow the city to tax the producers of marijuana and tax those who buy it.

Measures to allow dispensaries in Encinitas and La Mesa, also in San Diego County, failed.

Voters also rejected bids to loosen medical marijuana cultivation rules in four counties.

And voters choosing between dueling measures chose more restrictive regulations in Orange County’s Santa Ana.

An exit poll Tuesday for The Associated Press and television networks showed 54 percent of California voters think recreational marijuana use should be legal.

Supporters hope to put that issue on California’s 2016 ballot.