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By Noelle Skodzinski
The Blue Ribbon Commission, a group formed to prepare for likely marijuana legalization in California, released last week "The Pathways Report: Policy Options for Regulation Marijuana in California." The report provides recommendations for marijuana policy surrounding the likely event that an initiative for the regulation and taxation of marijuana makes it to the 2016 ballot and is voted into law. It draws from research and public forums held by the Commission, according to the group's website.
One of the report's primary findings is that marijuana legalization will not be a one-time event, should a law pass in an upcoming election; instead, it will be an ongoing process, requiring involvement by key stakeholders at the local and state levels.
According to the report, "the process the state would embark upon must be based on four macro-level strategies operating concurrently," including:
- Promote the public interest by ensuring that all legal and regulatory decisions around legalization are made with a focus on protecting California’s youth and promoting public health and safety.
- Reduce the size of the illicit market to the greatest extent possible. While it is not possible to eliminate the illicit market entirely, limiting its size will reduce some of the harms associated with the current illegal cultivation and sale of cannabis and is essential to creating a well-functioning regulated market that also generates tax revenue.
- Offer legal protection to responsible actors in the marijuana industry who strive to work within the law. The new system must reward cooperation and compliance by responsible actors in the industry as an incentive toward responsible behavior. It must move current actors, current supply and current demand from the unregulated to the regulated market. And the new market will need to out-compete the illicit market over time.
- Capture and invest tax revenue through a fair system of taxation and regulation, and direct that revenue to programs aligned with the goals and needed policy strategies for safe legalization.
The commission also recommends, in the report, nine goals (abbreviated here) for the state and its residents:
- Promote the health, safety and wellbeing of California's youth ...
- Public Safety
- Equity [among diverse populations ... and replacing criminalization with public health and economic development]
- Public Health: Protect public health, strengthen treatment programs for those who need help and educate the public ...
- Environment: Protect public lands ...
- Medicine: Ensure continued access to marijuana for medical and therapeutic purposes for patients.
- Consumer Protection: Provide protections for California consumers, including testing and labeling of cannabis products ...
- Workforce: Extend the same health, safety and labor protections to cannabis workers as other workers
- Market Access: Ensure that small and mid-size entities, especially responsible actors in the current market, have access to the new licensed market ...
California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom; Chair Prof. Keith Humphreys, Stanford University; and Abdi Soltani, ACLU of California, are among those on the Blue Ribbon Commission steering committee and authors of the report.
Read the full report here.
