Prop 19 would make California the first state in the nation to move beyond just permitting some access to medical marijuana to full-scale and potentially profitable legalization. Other obvious benefits, like a decline in organized crime and moving billions of dollars from the underground economy to the public economy, would naturally follow.

If Prop 19 passed this November, in simplified terms it will mean:

Possessing, cultivating and consuming cannabis for medicine will remain legal.

Cannabis for “personal consumption” has also become legal (including personal cultivation).

But “personal consumption” does not include consuming in the presence of minors, public consumption or driving under the influence, etc. So, the category of newly-lawful conduct does not extend to consuming in the presence of minors, public consumption, etc.

It also requires municipalities to tax and regulate newly lawful, non-medical cannabis. Under Prop 215, municipalities already regulate and tax medical marijuana.

All cannabis related business, medical and recreational, will remain illegal under federal law.

According to the Yes on 19 website, the proposition intends to:

  • Control cannabis like alcohol, allowing adults 21 and over in California to possess up to one ounce of cannabis, to be consumed at home or licensed establishments.
  • Give state and local governments the ability to tax the sale of cannabis for adult consumption
  • Put our police priorities where they belong, by ending the arrests of non-violent cannabis consumers, saving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars a year and enabling police to focus on violent crime
  • Generate billions in annual revenue
  • Cut off funding to violent drug cartels across our border who currently generate 60 percent of their revenue from the illegal U.S. marijuana market
  • Protect our kids, our roads, and our workplaces, by increasing the penalty for selling marijuana to minors, banning the smoking of marijuana in public, on school grounds, and while minors are present, maintaining strict criminal penalties for driving under the influence of marijuana, and preserving employers’ rights to maintain drug-free workplaces
  • Protect medical cannabis patients’ rights.

This all sounds great, and it is. However, there are notable sticking points. The fact it makes it illegal for minors between the ages of 18-21 to consume cannabis and it is a serious offense for adults over the age of 21 to provide it to them, akin to alcohol; with penalties ranging from 6 months in jail and fines of $1,000 per offense. And yes, it is disturbing to create a new statute that calls for jail time over marijuana.

Prop 19 also forbids adults over 21 from smoking cannabis where minors are present. This is quite vague and it is also questionable whether an adult should be punished for smoking cannabis if their child can see them – we don’t even require that of alcohol and tobacco. (NORML analysis)

Another fair point made by NORML’s analysis is, even under Prop 215, the adult cannabis consumer is guilty of being a criminal unless proven innocent as a patient. (If) Prop 19 passes, the adult cannabis consumer is considered innocent until proven guilty. It is a complete game changer for law enforcement because; the smell of marijuana on your person is no longer probable cause to search you; a joint in your pocket means nothing; the seizure of stems, leaves, and seeds from your trash is irrelevant; the sight of that bong on your table visible through the kitchen window isn’t a “welcome” mat for a police search; your utility bills raising a bit for water and lights don’t matter and your neighbors smelling skunky plants is just a nuisance, not the source for an “anonymous tip”; infrared signatures of your home isn’t evidence of anything and employment drug testing may depend more on job description and actual impairment.

Basically, Prop 19 would nullify one of the simplest tools law enforcement has for harassing cannabis consumers – the sight and smell of cannabis. As long as you’re an adult, keep your grow in a 25sq/foot area, and don’t smoke in front of kids, drive under the influence or leave the house with over an ounce, you are free from police harassment.

Next in Prop 19 is the commercial aspect that requires municipalities to regulate and tax marijuana if they chose to allow recreational use. According to theofficial California voter guide, local government would adopt ordinances to regulate the size, location and hours of such cannabis establishments and also tax and regulate large-scale, commercial cultivation. Not all localities will permit recreational cannabis business, though transportation and consumption will still be permitted in those areas. The state could, regardless of local ordinances, regulate commercial production of marijuana on a statewide basis. The state could also authorize the production of hemp to make products such as paper and fabric.

However, it is not known to what extent the federal government would enforce prohibitions as no other state permits commercial marijuana related activities for non-medical purposes.

Because of the questions of the enforcement decisions of the federal government, whether the state and/or local governments will choose to regulate marijuana sales, and of those, how many will impose an excise tax (and at what rate of tax) on such sales, the revenue and expenditure impacts of this measure are subject to significant uncertainty.

We’ve all been waiting to see the headlines some day, “California Votes Yes on Marijuana Legalization“. I very much want us to lead the way for the rest of the country in reforming backwards drug policies regarding a harmless plant. Let’s join the Netherlands and Portugal, who’s countries have not fallen apart because they legalized marijuana use. On previous analysis, the World Health Organization agreed stating, “On existing patterns of use, cannabis poses a much less serious public health problem than is currently posed by alcohol and tobacco in Western societies.” It’s a plant that we all know should be celebrated for its many uses and available to all who want or need it. This is my personal opinion however, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Patient’s Care Collective. It’s also my opinion that the only way for it to become legal for adult consumption is if the government has an incentive to do so - that incentive is cash. Cash from taxes which will be collected by local municipalities and hopefully used to all of our benefits.

Something should be said about how the newly legal cannabis consumption by adults will affect medical marijuana. It’s kind of a fallacy for the YesOn19 organization to publish, as they do on their Medical FAQ page that absolutely no part of Prop 19 will affect the medical cannabis patient or dispensary owner. True, the patient will have all the same legal rights as they did before, and they do claim that Prop 19 may even lower the burden of taxes on medical marijuana patients and collectives. But wondering what will happen to your medical cannabis business after the flood-gates are opened to outright legalization is not a bad type of “self-interest”.

Most of the impact is so unclear, it’s very hard to address. Will the majority of cannabis patients who do not have seriously debilitating illness’ (patients like me, who use cannabis medically but are not currently ill) no longer try to or be able to obtain medical recommendations? Will the market become over-saturated with cannabis business in certain areas? Will cannabis use become an even bigger weapon within child custody battles because of the stipulations about child endangerment and adult consumption? Who will grow their own cannabis? Who won’t? What will the Feds do?

Personally, I think we will have to iron out all the kinks over the next couple of years, once it passes. Vote Yes this November, and vote for a first step in the right direction.

Websites of interest regarding this topic are: Ballotpedia , Yes On 19, Just Say Now, Cannabis Culture Magazine and just this morning, The Hill blog written by Paul Armentano.