Supervisor: Too Soon to Tell What Impact Marijuana Bills May Have

A legislative package signed into law Friday by the governor establishes a regulatory framework for the statewide cultivation, transportation and sale of medical marijuana, providing exemptions and sanctions that Riverside County officials were busy analyzing to determine their impact.

“The Office of County Counsel has all the content, and we’re waiting to hear back from them on what this could mean,” Supervisor Kevin Jeffries told City News Service. “I have felt for a number of years that the state Legislature failed to address significant issues concerning medical marijuana across California. It might be a good thing to establish a framework that all counties can work within.”

Gov. Jerry Brown put his signature to Senate Bill 643 and its companion measures, Assembly Bills 243 and 266, implementing an extensive set of regulations aimed at ensuring that all pot growers are licensed and all medical marijuana prescribers play by the rules.

Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, authored SB 643, saying that with the bill’s activation on Jan. 1, “from seed to sale, for the first time in our state’s history, medical marijuana will now be regulated across California.”

“This is a historic day for our state, and generations of Californians will benefit from these sweeping rules and regulations that will protect our neighborhoods, our environment and the safety of patients,” McGuire said.

At the heart of the legislation is the addition of a new regulatory body within the Department of Consumer Affairs -- the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation.

The new agency will be responsible for issuing licenses connected with the transportation, sale, storage and distribution of medicinal cannabis.

Under the new law, commercial growers will have to abide by strict record-keeping rules, making it possible for the state to track where all medical marijuana products are going at any given time.

The legislation stipulates that growers and sellers of medicinal pot will have to demonstrate sound business practices, including inventory and quality control measures that facilitate regulation.

SB 643 bars convicted felons from obtaining a license and creates enforcement mechanisms intended to crack down on individuals who violate any provision of the law.

All physicians who write prescriptions for medical marijuana will have to be licensed by the bureau. Doctors who over-write prescriptions, provide medical cannabis without performing required patient exams, or commit similar transgressions will face license revocation and other penalties.

The legislative package prohibits local jurisdictions from interfering with the licensed sale, transportation and cultivation of medical marijuana, unless there are appropriate legal grounds.

In June, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors implemented Ordinance No. 925, which lays out conditions under which medicinal cannabis may be grown.

Spearheaded by Jeffries, the measure frees “registered” medical marijuana patients and their caregivers to cultivate up to 24 cannabis plants, as long as they are grown at least 1,000 feet from schools, parks and other areas where children gather and a minimum of 10 feet from a public right of way so as not to be a nuisance.

Jeffries pursued Ordinance 925 in part to stifle the propagation of illegal grows, which he and his staff at one point guessed to be upward of 250 in his district, dotting areas of Good Hope, Meadowbrook and Mead Valley.

“I don’t know what the consequences or unintended consequences of the new state law will be at this point. I’m hoping it will do some good at the local government level in helping protect communities,” the supervisor told CNS.

SB 643 grants counties the authority to impose taxes on commercial medical marijuana operations, but Jeffries said he didn’t know “whether that’s something I’m going to be interested in or not.”

According to McGuire, one of the motivations for pushing the legislation was to deter so-called “trespass grows,” or unauthorized cultivation sites on private and public lands.

SB 643 emphasized the need for the state Water Resources Control Board, Fish & Wildlife Service, Department of Pesticide Regulation and other agencies to be actively involved in regulating medicinal pot grows.

Under the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996, also known as Proposition 215, the possession and cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes is legal. The Medical Marijuana Program of 2003 provided a loose set of guidelines for registering medicinal marijuana recipients, followed by a 2008 advisory opinion from the California Attorney General’s Office.

Critics complained that the assorted, uncoordinated findings often left more questions than answers regarding medical marijuana regulation.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration still views marijuana as a Schedule 1 narcotic prohibited under the federal Controlled Substances Act.

--City News Service, photo via Shutterstock