California Legalization: 10 Things To Know

On November 8, voters registered in California will get a chance to end cannabis prohibition. Here’s the 10 Things You Need to Know:

1) Only registered voters in California can end cannabis prohibition. The deadline to register is October 24, 2016.

2) California legalization is called the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, and it’s going to be listed as Proposition 64.

3) Prop 64 fully legalizes carrying up to one ounce of cannabis flowers in public for adults 21 and over, as well as personal amounts of hash. You will be able to grow up to six plants at your house, which could yield enough each year to ensure you never have to pay for weed again.

4) California will make about $1 billion per year in cannabis taxes to pay for things like mental health care, and environmental restoration. That money comes from a 15% sales tax on retail marijuana, and a $9.25 per ounce tax on commercial cultivation of flowers.

5) California will save about $100 million in law enforcement costs related to ongoing prohibition.

6) Cannabis is not legal in California. About 20,000 people get arrested every year for pot in the Golden State, a disproportionate amount of whom are young male minorities.

7) Prop 64 includes provisions to expunge your record of old pot convictions, and allows for those currently incarcerated to petition for a re-sentencing based on modern cannabis law.

8) Prop 64 needs your donations. The campaign has raised $3.3 million from wealthy individual donors like WeedMaps’ Justin Hartfield, as well as professional reform groups like the Drug Policy Alliance and Marijuana Policy Project. It could take $20 million or more to legalize cannabis in California.

9) Legalization’s polling is strong but not great. America as a whole is more in favor of ending cannabis prohibition than Californians are. Contrary to many assumptions, Prop 64 is in no way a slam dunk.

10) Prop 64 faces powerful, entrenched opposition, including law enforcement officials, prisons managers, California Narcotics Officers Associations, and local and state politicians. In 2010, Californians rejected legalization by a vote of 46 to 54, with the state’s three biggest pot-growing counties voting to ‘No’. While the California Cannabis Industry Association supports Prop 64, its peer, the California Growers Association, is “neutral”. CGA growers are set to meet this Thursday to vote on a position.