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A California Voter Initiative - 2012
In Short - This California Voter Initiative for 2012 intends
to:
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Repeal prohibition of marijuana for adults
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Strictly regulates marijuana, just like the wine industry
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Allows hemp agriculture and products
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Does not change laws regarding
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Provides specific personal possession exemptions
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Requires dismissal of pending court cases
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Defense against all related litigation
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Prevents California from supporting federal enforcements
that conflict with this
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law and requires the State to
petition the Feds to remove marijuana from
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Schedule One
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Prohibits commercial advertising of non-medical marijuana
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Generates new revenue from sales taxes, while creating no
new taxes
THE INITIATIVE LANGUAGE | Updated: SEPTEMBER 2, 2011
The Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act 2012
The People of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 1. Findings, Declarations, Purpose, Directives, and
Orders
Section 11420 is added to the Health and Safety Code as
Chapter 6.8 Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana. This
section shall be known as and may be cited as the "The
Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act of 2012," known hereinafter
as the "Act."
(a) The People of the State of California find and declare
all of the following:
(1) Outlawing marijuana has created illicit markets,
empowered gangs, drug cartels and terrorists, resulted in
violence, corruption and violations of rights against search
and seizure, and contributed to the highest incarceration
rate in the world.
(2) Marijuana is an untapped revenue source for the State of
California. The best way to tap that source for the benefit
of all Californians is to regulate and tax marijuana just
like wine.
(3) The regulation of marijuana will benefit the People of
the State of California by reducing criminal gang and cartel
activity, promoting agriculture, creating jobs by
reestablishing a hemp industry, and reducing the fiscal and
incarceration overpopulation burdens on law enforcement, and
courts.
(b) This Act does all of the following:
(1) Repeals California Health and Safety Code sections
11357, 11358, 11359, 11360, 11361, 11485, Vehicle Code
section 23222(b). Marijuana is removed from Health and
Safety Code sections 11364 through 11375, 11366, 11366.5,
11469 through 11495, 11532(b)(7), 11590, 11703, and 11999.
Adults 21 years of age and older, and approved business
entities shall no longer be prohibited from association,
use, possession, trade, processing, packaging, gifting,
vending, sales, distribution, storage, transportation,
production, or cultivation of marijuana. This Act
establishes rights not defenses.
(2) Establishes that the following shall be punishable by a
fine of, up to $2,500.00 per occurrence.
(A) The sale or distribution of marijuana by or to any
individual under 21 years old, or;
(B) The sale or commercial activity authorized herein, when
outside the commercial and regulatory system established
herein.
(3) Removes “marijuana,” “THC,” and “CBD,” explicitly or by
inference as a controlled substance, from Health and Safety
Code section 11054.
(4) This Act does not control, repeal, modify, or change
statutes pertaining to:
(A) Operating a motor vehicle;
(B) Using marijuana or being impaired while in the workplace
or in public;
(C) Medical marijuana statutes as set forth in Proposition
215 (H&S11362.5) and its progeny.
(5) For persons under 21 years of age it is an infraction
punishable by a fine up to $2,500.00, for any one of the
following:
(A) Possession of over one ounce of marijuana.
(B) Cultivation of marijuana.
(C) Gifting, sharing, distributing, sales, storage,
transporting over one ounce of marijuana.
(D) Possession of one ounce or less of marijuana, in this
class shall be an infraction with a $100 fine.
(6) This Act enjoins the search, arrest, prosecution,
property seizure, asset forfeiture, eradication costs,
and/or any criminal or civil penalty, or sanction, for
activity authorized herein.
(7) No later than February 1, 2013, the state Department of
Alcohol Beverage Control shall adopt regulations and
procedures, provide and accept forms for the implementation
of commercial activity under this Act. Such regulations
shall not prohibit marijuana farming, the operation of
marijuana establishments or point of sale outlets, either
expressly or through regulations that make their operation
different than wine or beer regulations and fees, or
unreasonably impracticable. Should the Department of Alcohol
Beverage Control fail to have procedures in effect by this
date, it shall use forms presently used for wine and beer,
and replace the words wine, beer, alcohol, with the word
marijuana, and accept and process those forms within sixty
days of submission or approval is automatic. Localities may
not adopt higher or extra fees, limits, site plans, zoning,
regulations or procedures for commercial activity which are
different than those which regulate grape farms, wineries,
distribution and sales of wine and beer. Commercial
cultivation, infused-product manufacturing, and distribution
licenses, consistent with the declarations, purposes and
goals of this section may be issued if fees are equal to or
less than any such fees charged for similar wine industry
activity. Should the Department of Alcohol Beverage Control
fail to enact regulations, a person or business acting
commercially, shall not be subject to the penalty provided
in 11420 (b)(2)(B).
(8) All pending state court actions under said amended
statutes which conflict with the provisions of this Act,
shall be dismissed with prejudice.
(9) The state and/or local jurisdictions may regulate the
processing, distribution, sales, and outdoor use within 600
feet of a school, and in residential zones.
(10) Experimentation, development, research, testing,
cultivation, sales, or possession of genetically-modified (GMO)
marijuana, hemp, and its seeds, shall be banned throughout
the state of California.
Section 2. Provisions
(a) This Act adopts the definitions of marijuana,
concentrates, and THC as they presently exist in Health and
Safety Code Sections 11018 and 11006.5. However, those
definitions shall be broadly interpreted to include the
species Cannabis Indica, Ruderalis, and Americana, as well
as any plant part, form, derivative, interspecies hybrids or
cross-breeds, and all non-genetically-modified strains of
the Cannabis genus and plant.
(b) State taxes and regulations which may be similar and
apply to the grape farming and wine industries, produce and
processed agricultural products and brokerage industry,
distribution, wholesale and retail sales, and transactions
of agricultural crops and products shall apply to marijuana,
regardless of THC level, using the grape farming and winery
industry as an example, so long as the results support these
declarations, purposes and goals.
(c) All wholesale and retail products with a final THC level
below 0.3 percent shall be authorized for sales as hemp
products. All marijuana or hemp products with a final THC
level of 0.3 percent or above shall be restricted for sales
to persons 21 years of age or older and regulated in a
manner similar to wine, so long as the results support these
declarations, purposes and goals. Both hemp and marijuana
are declared agricultural crops.
(d) The State of California, and all branches of its
government, shall liberally construe the meaning and
implementation of this Act to favor and benefit this class
of adults, and business entities as follows:
(1) No taxes, fees, laws, rules, regulations, zones, local
city or county zoning requirements may be adopted or enacted
to defeat, deny, or prohibit the purposes of this Act, or to
defeat, deny, or prohibit this adult class or, associations,
organizations, commercial, agricultural, or industrial
businesses authorized herein, from engaging in the
activities authorized and protected by this Act.
(2) Adults 21 years and older may produce up to 6 mature
outdoor flowering plants, or up to 12 mature indoor
flowering plants per person; or a total number of plants
cultivated per household not to exceed 12 mature flowering
plants outdoors or 24 plants indoors. The cultivation shall
take place in an indoor or outdoor space or area not visible
to the public. These plants and their produce may not be
made available for sale.
(3) Nothing in this section shall prevent a property owner
from prohibiting conduct that damages their property.
(4) This Act creates and requires statewide standards and
preempts and nullifies any and all conflicting local
regulations, while allowing local jurisdictions limited
regulation under Health and Safety Code 11570 over
cultivation in residential and school zones only. Local
regulations cannot decrease plants in (d)(2) above but may
allow a greater number of plants instead.
(5) No regulations, taxes, or fees shall be enacted or
imposed upon marijuana for qualifying business entities,
which are more severe or restrictive than those comparable
and reasonable in the commercial wine grape farming and
winery regulations of the alcohol industry model.
(e) State, local, elected, appointed, hired employees,
officers, and officials shall not directly or indirectly
cooperate with or assist federal, state, local officers or
officials, volunteers, or employees who eradicate marijuana,
act for seizure or forfeiture, or to defeat any liberally
construed purpose of this Act, nor may any state or local
agency contract to eradicate marijuana that is being grown,
manufactured or stored under the provisions of this Act.
(f) Within 30 days of passage of this Act, the offices of
both the state Attorney General and the Department of Public
Health shall inform the United States Department of Health
and Human Services, the United States Attorney General,
Congress, Drug Enforcement Agency, and Food and Drug
Administration that in 1996 the state of California
recognized the current medical use of marijuana in treatment
in the United States, and since 1996 has approved a
state-regulated physician medical marijuana practice.
Physicians have recommended the use of marijuana to
thousands of patients. For that reason diligently demand or
petition as is appropriate (see 21 CFR 1308.43, 21 USC
811-812) that marijuana and tetrahydrocannabinols as defined
in §21 USC 802(16) be removed from Schedule I of the
Controlled Substances Act, 21 USC 800 et seq., where it is
currently listed as an addictive drug with no accepted
medical use in treatment in the United States.
(g) The State of California is ordered to protect and defend
all provisions of this Act from any and all challenges or
litigation, whether by persons, officials, cities, counties,
the state or federal governments.
(h) This Act prohibits all commercial advertising for sales,
distribution, and use of marijuana, except for medical
marijuana and products that contain less than a final THC
level below 0.3 percent. This provision shall be enforced
hereafter by penalties to be set forth by the Legislature.
(i) This Act shall become effective immediately upon
passage.
Section 3. Severability
If any of the provisions of this Act, or any part thereof,
is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional,
the remaining provisions shall not be affected, but shall
remain in full force and effect, and to this end the
provisions of this Act are severable.
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