At the February NORML Board of Directors meeting, members decided to officially endorse the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) voter initiative to legalize marijuana in California.
The AUMA permits adults to legally grow (up to six plants) and possess personal use quantities of cannabis (up to one ounce of flower and/or up to eight grams of concentrate) while also licensing commercial cannabis production and retail sales. The measure prohibits localities from preventing responsible adults from possessing and cultivating cannabis for non-commercial purposes in the privacy of their own homes. Both the California Medical Association and the state chapter of the NAACP have endorsed the measure.
Being the most populated state in the country, as well as one of the world’s largest economies, California is arguably the most important state to consider marijuana legalization this year. With such high stakes however, comes disagreement and misinformation. That’s why NORML wants to help familiarize Californians with the AUMA, and how it’s passage will improve the lives of average Californians. And we’re going to need your help to do that!
If you live in California, make sure you know what the AUMA proposal does (and doesn’t) do. . .You can read a summary of the initiative on the AUMA website. Share this summary with friends and family so they too know what the proposal covers.
Next, consider engaging your personal online network to get friends and family educated about this proposal. Be sure to like the campaign on Facebook, share this fact sheet on your page or email your friends letting them know that you’ve researched the initiative and you think they should too!
And finally, continue having conversations with those closest to you on why you believe California should legalize marijuana this November. Policy change, no matter how big or small, can always start as a simple conversation between two people. We hope you’ll join us in supporting the AUMA initiative by adding your name as a grassroots supporter of the campaign here.
Let’s Get It Right, California
It’s a start, but If they want to ‘get it right’ the 1oz limit is stupid. 6 plants should yield significantly more than a pound (16oz+) of bud – and much more if grown outside. Even one plant will yield more than an ounce – so by definition every time you harvest you’re breaking the law.
[Editor’s note: In all of the states with legalization (and DC’s de-penalization) that allow home cultivation, all arguably have low plant counts and possession amounts. Indeed a single ganja plant with good genetics and well-tended can produce well, well in excess of two ounce limits. But this variable is not at all the most salient in the overall public policy discussion: ending cannabis prohibition.
Once the voters, and soon enough a legislature, chuck cannabis prohibition, arrests plummet. In plummeting arrest rates for cannabis-related ‘crimes’ is the pure de-incentivization for law enforcement to no longer pursue minor infractions associated with now legal cannabis in AK, CO, OR and WA. The mollification of historic law enforcement incentives to harass cannabis cultivators, sellers and consumers (i.e., arrests resulting in crippling cascade of criminal charges that lead to 98% plea bargain rate for those charged with crimes; the inducement of civil forfeiture proceeds residing at the law enforcement department that made the case) is one of the most immediate and beneficial public policy outcomes post legalization.
In DC, for example, a household can grow up to 12 cannabis plants/6 of which can be flowering. Almost certainly the many thousands of people who now legally home cultivate cannabis in the nation’s capital are in violation of possessing too much cannabis with the harvest of a plant or two.
However, since the change of laws in DC the police have arrested virtually no one for cannabis (99.8% reduction in cannabis arrests in a two year period), save for those that blatantly push the envelope.
During the cannabis prohibition epoch as well as post prohibition the two primary ways that adults run afoul in the eyes of law enforcement are 1) public use and 2) use in automobiles.
As cannabis legalization takes greater hold across the US citizens concerned with plant and weight amounts that are insufficient can lobby, and in some jurisdictions possibly litigate, for reasonable increases for home cultivation (which is a heck of a lot easier to lobby for than the actual reform work needed to end prohibition…public advocacy work that will keep consumer-oriented interests groups like NORML plenty busy post legalization).]
Preventing, in writing, the government from micro-managing and monitoring our households such as with house plant height and weight requirements is exactly why we have the Bill of Rights:
Although there is much dispute among constitutional scholars about the meaning and legal effect of the Ninth Amendment, there is consensus about its origin. During the ratification debates over the Constitution, some opponents of ratification (“Anti-federalists”) vociferously complained about the absence of a bill of rights. In response, supporters of the Constitution (“Federalists”) such as James Wilson argued that a bill of rights would be dangerous. Enumerating any rights, Wilson argued, might imply that all those not listed were surrendered. And, because it was impossible to enumerate all the rights of the people, a bill of rights might actually be construed to justify the government’s power to limit any liberties of the people that were not enumerated. Nevertheless, because the Anti-federalist demand for a bill of rights resonated with the public, Federalists like James Madison countered with a pledge to offer amendments after the Constitution’s ratification. (from constitutioncenter.org)
HELP USE GET KENTUCKY STRAIGHT , BEST PLACE IN AMERICA TO GROW ALSO HAS MOST PILL USER IN THE NATION
It would be a real blessing for our country if Californian’s support AUMA! It just might have a positive effect on the Nazi-Like states some of us live in.
——–
Off Topic somewhat but check this out:
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2016/03/23/Nixon-aide-War-on-Drugs-created-to-target-black-people-anti-war-protesters/2991458704478/
Most of us already knew this but this is practically an official acknowledgement of the lies and racism that was so rampant in the Nixon administration and how they used marijuana as a tool to control certain populations of people.
One would think that today’s leaders would be anxious to separate themselves from the lies and racism that fostered the prohibition of marijuana but, with the exception of Bernie Sanders, they continue to cling to it.
I sincerely hope that Hilary Clinton wises up on this subject if she becomes our first woman president. I agree with her that cannabis should be further studied but I disagree with her in that she wants to continue prohibition for the forseeable future in spite of the obvious fact that prohibition greatly harms massive numbers of people.
“prohibition greatly harms massive numbers of people”
Mostly it harms the people our Govt chooses to target: Blacks, Hispanics, individuals they don’t like (e.g. Tommy Chong).
I have no idea how much marijuana use goes on in the Muslim community. If it’s not great enough for them to have a reason to round them up, it’s not hard to reason that the Govt will find another way to keep them under control. It just seems to be the way they operate.
It seems completely Un-American to me but that’s just my take on what has been going on for decades and will continue with either of the 2 presidential front-runners; especially if we end up with a Trump/Christie monster in the White House!
I was surprised to find they actually did think John Lennon was a threat to them. I had assumed my generation had idolized John and merely elevated his stature in our own minds
@Miles,
The more I read your post and think about whats happening with AUMA and the vote between Hillary (REschedule II) and Sanders, (DEschedule), I find a few startling correlations between our voting today and the votes that created the Controlled Substances Act of 1970;
1). First and foremost, the black voting community, especially in the south, have been institutionalized by so many generations of disproportionate incarceration from the drug war, and they have been raised to “tow the Democratic line” that they have been late on distinguishing Hillary and Bernie’s marijuana policies; that is, the continued disproportionate incarceration under Hillary’s schedule II, the same caregory as cocaine. Don’t get me wrong; If Bernie doesn’t landslide New York and California, I’ll choose my poison and take the compulsive liar’s pledge for schedule II over the pathological liar, Drumph’s pledge anyday. But the coorelation to the past CSAct is that black Congressman voted for the CSAct because they feared the socioeconomic inequality and bought the propaganda that drug use was the root cause of it… perhaps unwittingly causing the cyclical incarceration of the black race on a global scale. Latinos have been waking up to Sanders’ message since he won the debate in Miami, but too many African Americans have either not made the link in time or have simply had their voting rights gerrymandered, felonized and penalized from state to state.
(to be continued…)
2). Nixon’s Drug Czar, who wrote the CSAct, was created after Nixon became the first US President to visit Communist China. Nixon was impressed by how the Chinese government could quell a rebellion, induce genocide and maintain power by force of the police state. The CSAct has created this dark form of unDemocratic socialism since 1970, by unconstitutionally giving legislative authority to an executive agency, the DEA, to “regulate” drugs, or “controlled substances” (which is an oxy moron for controlling ourselves). In effect, the CSAct has created a predatory police state that reinacts the Jim Crow laws, but extending extortion on any citizen or immigrant or foreign national that has property of value but appears too weak to defend themselves in court; for immigrants and foreign nationals this means getting your country’s passport taken away, issued a J visa, and becoming an enslaved informant for the DOJ. For African American communities this means entire city council budgets are funded by racist court fees for corrupt prosecutors, colluded Sherriff’s Associations and sapropgagic local or special districts like those in Furgeson. Bottom line is that racism is always about the racially bias acquisition of property, and the CSAct, with its “executive privilege” to prevent Congressional investigation, and “asset forfeitures” without due process, is designed to do just that.
3). Finally, the rise of Democratic Socialism with Senator Bernie Sanders is educating and redifining our understanding of the ambiguous word “socialism” and American and international drug policy. Ok, so Cuba’s “revolutionary, 1-party communism” is bad, but clearly an ancient embargo is not how we solve the problem. But what’s this? US drug policy is an armed, rogue communist-style cartel within the DOJ created by Congress through the CSAct? So how do we fight that within our own borders? By voting for the best, Democratically socialist alternative; by not allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good, and recognizing better Democratic Socialist solutions like AUMA when we see them and VOTING for them. Growing 6 plants while theres a one ounce limit might not be perfect law, but its a hell of a big jump forward from eating pills out of the hands of big pharma from a jail cell. Because ultimately what we are creating with legally regulated marijuana is the end of allowing private insurance and the police state to divide us and growing sustainable cannabis communities that will heal and unite us; And as long as we know our rights, we won’t let Nixon’s Drug Czar divide us anymore.
(Sigh) I’ve really got to stop replying to myself, but every black person in America needs to see this before they vote;
http://youtu.be/72-dEItC1pk
Saw Boticelli and a bunch of unwavering drug warriors on CSPAN. Somehow marijuana prohibition is still a good idea to these guys.
Early deaths due to tobacco reached 480,000 this year. Why in the world would you wage a ‘DRUG WAR’ and ignore a legal physically addictive carcinogen that is killing 48 times all illegal drugs combined?
That bears repeating:
Why in the world would you wage a ‘DRUG WAR’ and ignore a legal physically addictive carcinogen!?
Pretty simple really! Many politicians are cigarette/cigar smokers and would never consider their own activities to be illegal. A great many also enjoy alcohol. Prohibition is simply a tool for them to control and abuse anyone they choose to go after. It has NEVER truly had anything to do with health or public safety as they claim; that is obvious to anyone paying attention.
It’s all pretty disgusting.
I’ve read tobacco costs $289 in health care costs. That seems low to me.
The thought of some 13-year-old eager to get breasts who tries tobacco to look cool and older only to wind up with early lines on her face and an addiction to a physically addicting carcinogen withers my soul.
You’re right. Disgusting.
Truly vile.
Might you be referring to the $289-Bil. yearly “cost to US economy of $moking-related di$ea$e” of which $135-Bil is for “medical care” (2014 Surgeon Gen. Report)– i.e. Big Guesswho is making money some of which can be reinvested in some candidate’s campaign chest (2/3 of tobacco giftmoney in recent years to Republicans).
A democracy is an ideal or good idea that exists without specific borders, constitutions, demographics, and systems. You can be for democracy but be too afraid to live in one apparently, eh.
@ Miles,
I’m glad you brought up the racist function of the War On Drugs, and personally think you’re right on topic here.
Like a simple puzzle, if you connect a couple of dots, you can then see the “duck”, which wasn’t too hard to see in the first place!
BlackLivesMatter is intimately related to War On Drugs, via police brutality and corruption. As the Editor noted above, when legalization occurs, arrest rates plummet. Who’s arrests? White suburban soccer moms in minvans? Hell no, it’s minorities in urban areas getting the shaft, primarily. And they’re the ones most in need of immediate relief.
Think of the black and brown lives that WON’T be fucked up in California, if this passes! That’s a really really good thing, something we should all celebrate when we achieve it. A bit of justice in America! We can take heart here, this has already occurred in DC! Such a positive outcome to a social event!
Speaking of Hillary Clinton, Smart People Playing Dumb is still a big problem. Schedule 2, my ass. Don’t gimme that! You’re making me mad again, Hillary, harshing my mellow!
But I think both your points are on topic, and thanks for making those as well.
I once saw the elder Bush declare a war on drugs in the 1980s. I read an op-ed where the guy said when he heard the words ‘war on drugs’ he thought ‘war on blacks’. This seem a bit much to me at the time.
I was wrong.
The first priority remedy for Public Use is for everyone to possess and use an inhalant utensil which produces no direct-escape “Side-Stream” Smoke or blatant odor that others identify and object to.
A flexdrawtube one-hitter, made from a pvc tube, a #40 quarterinchdiameter Cwpscreeen and $1.29 worth of parts left in your Garage by a previous god (see “12 Easy Ways to Make Vapetoke Utensils”), cheaply satisfies this need provided user avoids being seeen using it. OK, same goes for $50-and-up Vaporizers if you have the money. Anyway, “Dwmp the Blwnt.”
What has to disappear is the “feeeling” that you need a whole 500-mg Joint, or a couple hot 100-mg pwfftokes from one, when a 25-mg single serving would do, two of which can be done in reasonable deliberation tempo in an underutilized lockdoored library bathroom stall in less than 7 minutes, allowing time to do 30 warm wet W’s in and out of a Lunchstspielhaus (hyperinhalantizing breadthbag) after each toke to maximize Genius Juice absorption and reduce or eliminate CMDF Carbon Monoxide Dope-factor.
Evolving Worldwide Dagga Rhymed Doggerel How-to Reminder goes:
Hold half-inch light low,
Suck smooth, slow,
don’t start glow
till after 19
seconds or so.
Improved name for above lyric: MIUHD “Microinhalant Utensil How-to Doggerel”
I think we need to stay focused on getting AUMA passed as vital as California is to getting us over the threshold of majority votes in medically legal marijuana, much less arguing (or whining) about recreational semantics.
I mean, threatening the best chance to bring the end of prohibition in our near future by arguing “soccer moms vs. stoners?” Really?
http://www.hightimes.com/read/lt-gov-newsom-wants-californians-support-marijuana-initiative-will-it-lose-stoner-vote
I don’t get it. Just more distractions and bright shiny lights for the intellectually challenged.
Vote AUMA. End Prohibition.
I thought at first since Ive never been to Cali that I had no one to convince, but I remember now that my oldest niece just moved there and she has Chrone’s disease, so its like getting two birds stoned at once! (Hey, Ive got 24 nephews and nieces… It took me a while…).
Just gotta convince 1 person, and spark the conversation into the right direction.
Fascinating that while the silly debate distractions confront the great voter initiative of California, little legislatively legalizing secret weapon Vermont forges ahead…
http://www.thecannabist.co/2016/03/25/vermont-house-panels-set-marijuana-hearing-for-march-31/50548/
The AUMA essentially identifies the cannabis plant as the marijuana plant, unless it has the particular cannabinoid THC below the limit set for the cannabis plant to be considered as the industrial hemp plant. It has such a lengthy summary because it attempts to comply with the twisted understanding of cannabis required by the existing federal definition of marijuana, although it does seem like good legislation.
If marijuana was instead federally defined to be “all parts of the smoke produced by the combustion of the plant Cannabis sativa L. which is prohibited to be grown by or sold by any publicly traded corporation or subsidiary company”, and rescheduled, then much of the AUMA’s particular regulations about the use of the cannabis plant would be unnecessary.
If the federal definition is ever reformed, then the AUMA can be revisited, or the federal government under another administration could just ignore the AUMA by enforcing the Supremacy Clause. Reform at the federal level would certainly nave more permanence. This year is a good time to seek federal reform.
http://www.thecannabist.co/2016/03/23/john-ehrlichman-war-on-drugs-richard-nixon-blacks-hippies/50631/#disqus_thread
This should be shouted from the rooftops! Big media is ignoring it; no surprise!
Oh great, I ran out of replies to myself!
And on that note, in response to my link to Cornel West’s statements on Hillary and my own statements of frustration with people of color in the south that voted for Hillary instead of Bernie, I seem to have escaped the elephant in the room with a badge, a gun and a license to incarcerate without due process, and how directly this generational disproportionate incarceration validates the need for the reinstatement of the voting rights act. States like California straight through the south to Florida NEED voting rights to help correct the 46 year racial war of the CSAct.
Please fast forward to Senator Corey Booker’s response to this discussion with Bill Maher about the drug war and 1 in 5 black Americans in Florida unable to vote their way out of it;
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QAFDRqzLu_8
And the resident comedian says;
“Trump is white people’s Katrina.”
“It’s so intriguing to watch white people scramble in response to Trump.”
This is my first time go to see at here and i am genuinely pleassant to read everthing
at single place.