Industry Events
ReformCA Closes Roadshow in Oakland
The meeting was conducted as a brainstorming session with the group leaders asking those in attendance what they would like to see in terms of cannabis legalization in California.
ReformCA, one of several groups gearing up to present an adult-use cannabis initiative to 2016 voters in the Golden State, closed its series of townhall meetings across California in Oakland yesterday.
Also known as the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform, ReformCA is made up of organizers from several groups including the Drug Policy Alliance, the Marijuana Policy Project and the Emerald Growers Association. ReformCA believes in seven core principals for change including the possession of cannabis for adults in limited amounts as well as the designation of cannabis as an agricultural product and the allowance for personal cultivation.
The organization formed in the wake of California’s failed 2010 legalization initiative, Prop 19, and has embarked on a listening tour across the state in advance of drafting an initiative. Several other organizations are also at work on initiatives to bring adult-use cannabis to California next year.
During the meeting, organizers pulled from a series of talking points, including preservation of medical patients’ rights, collective grows, taxation and the governing body that could regulate a legal cannabis marketplace. Attendees were welcome to express their views, which were then displayed on large paper panels at the front of the room.
The townhall meetings began in Oakland at the beginning of the year and traveled to areas such as Santa Cruz, Humboldt County, Los Angeles and San Diego. While ReformCA chair Dale Sky Jones acknowledged there had been some contentious meetings along the way, the overall tone of the Oakland gathering was positive and productive.
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