In 2016 California voters approved Proposition 64, the California Marijuana Legalization Initiative. It would allow individuals who were 21 years of age or older to possess and use recreational marijuana in a private home or business licensed for onsite consumption; much like a bar serving alcohol.
This was after President Barrack Obama directed the Department of Justice to ignore violations of federal law in states that had approved the use of the drug, which to this day remains illegal at a federal level.
According to Ballotpedia, Proposition 64 “was designed to allocate revenue from the taxes to be spent on drug research, treatment, and enforcement, health and safety grants addressing marijuana, youth programs, and preventing environmental damage resulting from illegal marijuana production.”
It also allowed local jurisdictions to regulate (adopt taxes and fees) and permit cannabis operations within their political boundaries.
Santa Barbara County and the city of Lompoc were “all in” on this idea. On a split vote, the Lompoc City Council allowed an unlimited number of permits claiming that “the market will dictate how many the city can support.”
Voters seemed convinced that legalizing the use of this drug would lead to a “safer” product, and proponents claimed that legalization would eliminate illegal street sales.
While it’s true that cannabis purchased from a licensed dealer must be regularly tested by independent laboratories and found free of chemicals commonly found in illegal drugs, it certainly did not stop illegal sales or for that matter even slow them down.
What they didn’t tell you was that there are some serious side effects from using cannabis. According to the Food and Drug Administration cannabidiol (CBD), commonly thought to be safe, can cause liver injury, slow brain activity, cause damage to fertility in males or diarrhea and/or decreased appetite.
Smoking cannabis has its issues, too. According to the Yale School of Medicine: “cannabis may have harmful long- and short-term effects, such as paranoia and memory loss, and it can be addictive and disrupt a user’s life and relationships.”
But politicians, like those in Lompoc, were giddy at the thought that they could reap a windfall of tax revenue from the industry. But, along with being allowed to regulate locally came some costly requirements to license, monitor and inspect processing and retail sales facilities.
There is a prevailing belief that the vendors in Lompoc are for the most part following the law; no one really knows because you can’t validate what you don’t inspect, and the city doesn’t have sufficient resources to do it.
It also created an additional, and costly, burden on the police department to stop illegal street sales. But Sacramento politicians modified state law and basically gave all the illegal dealers a pass, thus the police departments had no power to arrest and/or district attorneys to prosecute offenders.
Initially, as the industry established its roots tax revenue flowed into local agency coffers, the Sheriff’s Department made numerous large seizures of illegal grows, impounded trunk loads of cash and destroyed millions of plants.
In Lompoc, enforcement activity was not as vigorous since there simply weren’t enough officers to both regulate legal operations and stop illegal sales; and once again the state Legislature had taken away any punitive action for illegal possession, use or sales.
And now after six years of experience, the reality has set in. There are few treatment programs, and as far as preventing environmental damage it depends on who you ask.
There are processing facilities in the city of Lompoc and large grows on the eastern edge of town.
Last year they produced a several months long period of an overwhelming stench that enveloped most of the city in a skunk-like odor all hours of the day and night. And although there are industry standards to control the odor, the county of Santa Barbara and specifically the Board of Supervisors refuses to require growers, at least those in northern Santa Barbara County, to contain odors on their property.
The city has odor control requirements and after several complaints last year they began serious monitoring of the situation. We’ll see how that works out this growing season.
As far as revenue, the initial surge produced a glut on the legal sales market and the inability of the state to create laws that punish illegal sales has resulted in a substantial reduction in tax revenue.
And many legal businesses have either surrendered their permit applications or closed retail shops because the illegal competition coupled with the burden of taxes and fees wrecked their profit margin.
In fact, some are reporting a 50 percent reduction in the value of their crops.
So, was Proposition 64 a good idea? While the thought may have been a good idea at the time, experience has demonstrated that it didn’t produce the desired results.
The political class in Sacramento and voters thought legalizing the drug would “help the people,” but didn’t think this through. Thus, the experiment seems to have failed, and some would argue made illegal sales and use worse.
H/T: www.noozhawk.com
