It's On! Californians to Decide on Legalizing Recreational Marijuana Use

It's official. Californians will soon get to decide if recreational marijuana use should be legal in the Golden State.

As of Tuesday, enough signatures had been gathered in support of the initiative to legalize marijuana and hemp under state law.

"An initiative can qualify via random sampling of petition signatures if the sampling projects a number of valid signatures greater than 110 percent of the required number," the Secretary of State's office said Tuesday. "The initiative needed at least 402,468 projected valid signatures to qualify by random sampling, and it exceeded that threshold today."

That means in just two short days, Secretary of State Alex Padilla will certify the initiative as qualified for the November ballot.

“Today marks a fresh start for California, as we prepare to replace the costly, harmful and ineffective system of prohibition with a safe, legal and responsible adult-use marijuana system that gets it right and completely pays for itself,” said Jason Kinney, spokesperson for the so-called Adult Use of Marijuana Act.

Some of the notable and vocal backers of the initiative are Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the ACLU of California and former Facebook President Sean Parker.

SEE ALSO: State Democrats Back Marijuana Legalization Measure

The main opposition to the proposal is led by the Coalition for Responsible Drug Policies, the Los Angeles Times reports. The California Republican Party also opposes.

If the proposed measure is approved, California will join Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska in allowing recreational use of pot.

The Adult Use of Marijuana Act calls for:

• Legalization of marijuana and hemp under state law.
• 15 percent state excise tax on retail sales of marijuana; state cultivation tax of $9.25 per ounce of flowers and $2.75 per ounce of leaves.
• Exemption of medical marijuana from "some taxation."
• Establishment of packaging, labeling, advertising and marketing standards and restrictions for marijuana products.
• Local regulation and taxation of marijuana.
• Prohibition of marketing and advertising marijuana to minors.
• Re-sentencing and destruction of records for prior marijuana convictions.

The writers of the act also say its passage would lead to up to more than $100 million in annual savings for the 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," as well as additional state and local tax revenues of up to $1 billion.

>> Read the full text of the Adult Use of Marijuana Act Here.

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