Proponents petition to legalize marijuana in California
Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced that proponents of a new initiative to legalize marijuana in California were cleared to begin collecting petition signatures on Tuesday.
According to the release, the Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions. When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponent and to the Secretary of State to begin circulating the initiative for signatures.
State officials said the proponents of the measure, Dave Hodges, John Lee, and Michael Grafton, must collect the signatures of 365,880 registered voters (five percent of the total votes cast for Governor in the November 2014 general election) in order to qualify it for the November 2016 ballot.
Here is the Attorney General’s official title and summary of the measure:
MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Legalizes marijuana under state law. Applies general retail sales taxes to non-medical marijuana. Permits Legislature to place additional excise tax on non-medical marijuana sales, up to 15% of retail price. Permits local governments to ban or limit the number of marijuana businesses within their boundaries if their voters approve. Requires State to create and fund diversion programs in each county exclusively for marijuana offenders. Requires Legislature to pass laws implementing the initiative. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Reduced costs ranging from tens of millions of dollars to potentially exceeding $100 million annually to state and local governments related to enforcing certain marijuana-related offenses, handling the related criminal cases in the court system, and incarcerating and supervising certain marijuana offenders. Net additional state and local tax revenues of potentially up to several hundred million dollars annually related to the production and sale of marijuana. (15-0119.)
According to the Secretary of State, the proponents have 180 days to circulate petitions for the measure, meaning the signatures must be submitted to county elections officials by August 22, 2016.
No phone number was listed for the proponents but you can reach them by emailing john@afpr.us.
Californians rejected a ballot measure that would have made their state the first to legalize marijuana for recreational use in 2010, with 53.5 percent of California voters voting “No” and 46.5 percent voting “Yes.” The measure also would have allowed local governments to regulate and tax the newly created cannabis market.
State-by-state look at marijuana laws
