POLITICS 79
Data can often be misleading, depending on how it is presented and in what context. You may have read up until this point and assumed that California is on track for January 1, 2018 and doing a fairly decent job reflecting the will of the voters; however, that is because I purposely left out one key word in almost the entire article: "Medical." Everything you have read thus far is a reflection of the progression we are witnessing in the MEDICAL market; and actually, has little to nothing to do with what was voted on in November. The passage of the Adult Use of Marijuana Act has acted as a catalyst to force municipalities into finally recognizing and regulating the medical law, the Compassionate Use Act (1996), but almost every single jurisdiction in the state is actually saying (either through the passage of a ban on adult use or through comments at Board of Supervisors meetings) that they want to allow patients access to their medicine (finally), but that they are not on board with allowing non-patients access to having “fun.”
Where exactly the 8 million voters will go on January 1, 2018, when the adult use law they voted for goes into effect, is a question that has not been answered as of yet. If by now, this article has left you feeling adventurous and you now wish to try and figure out what is going on in California’s 482 cities, then may I suggest you subscribe to an amazing service called Cannaregs. They are the only company tracking cannabis specific agenda items and summarizing either their progress or their prohibitive decisions.
Jacqueline McGowan is a Cannabis Licensing Consultant and is the founder of a grassroots Facebook group called “California City & County Regulation Watch” which is tracking statewide Cannabis regulations closely.