By now, we think everybody figured out that the medical marijuana regulations in California are insane, to say the least. Future cannabis entrepreneurs have no idea which road to follow in order to open a marijuana dispensary that won’t be shut down the next day. The police are completely confused because the federal government has a problem with medical marijuana state laws, California’ specifically.
1996-2011
In 1996, California legalized medical marijuana and, by doing so, created a yearly stream of revenue that would make the Rothschild’s wonder how come they didn’t think of it sooner. $100 million per year is quite enough to make weed a lucrative business. So, when the stuff was legalized, it was considered to be the next gold rush and, naturally, everybody wanted in on it. People started opening dispensaries under very suspicious conditions because nobody could agree on what the regulations actually allow or disallow. In 2011, newly baked entrepreneurs were shut down because Obama’s administration decided it would be best to shut most of them down, since they don’t meet the regulations.
But lets not judge a book by its covers. It would be wrong to assume that the entire state of California completely disregarded the regulations and couldn’t care less about them. The shining examples of good regulation implementation are Oakland and Santa Cruz. Los Angeles, on the other hand, is a complete mess and is basically the best example on how not to regulate medical marijuana.
Bill AB 473
Just recently, a medical marijuana bill AB 473 has been approved. Its purpose is to properly regulate medical marijuana in a way that the Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control would be responsible for its implementation. Now, this is a billion dollar industry and nobody wants to see it fall into the wrong hands and that is perfectly reasonable. The state wants to prevent possible future dispensary crackdowns by removing any reasonable doubt that would be sufficient for taking such an action. This would also eliminate dispensaries that operate without a valid license and cultivators that grow weed wherever they see fit.
Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control
The bill itself does not present a new list of regulations that California must adhere to. Instead, it gives the power of regulation to the Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control. When we look to the future, its obvious that this is a good step towards legalizing marijuana for recreational use. An attempt to legalize medical marijuana happened in 2010, but it was way to early to go forward with it because of California’s ridiculous regulations. Plus, most communities believed recreational use cant really work without turning the entire state into one seriously addicted society. Even though it seems as if all this is being done because of the patients, money plays the most important role in this process. What do you think? Do you believe the battle for marijuana would continue if it weren’t for such a billion dollar industry?
