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Gov. Jerry Brown Signs new marijuana legislation

October 10, 2015

prague-potGov. Jerry Brown signed a trio of bills into law Friday that establish statewide rules on the growth, distribution and sale of marijuana.

“This new structure will make sure patients have access to medical marijuana, while ensuring a robust tracking system,” Brown wrote. “This sends a clear and certain signal to our federal counterparts that California is implementing robust controls not only on paper, but in practice.”

AB 243, AB 266, and SB 643 create standards for licensing businesses as well as testing, packaging, labeling, and tracking marijuana products, among other things. The bills also establish a new agency within the Department of Consumer Affairs, the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation, which will oversee the system.

Medical marijuana businesses will need to obtain local approval to continue operating. The bureau is slated to develop detailed rules by Jan. 2017, and businesses will begin to apply for state licenses in Jan. 2018, at which point the current system of collectives and cooperatives will be phased out.

In 1996, California became the first state to adopt a law that allows seriously ill patients to legally access medical marijuana if their doctors recommend it. The law did not include a regulatory structure, resulting in a patchwork system in which some communities allowed medical marijuana providers to operate under local regulations while others opted to prohibit such operations entirely.

“These regulations will ensure patients have legal, safe, and consistent access to medical marijuana,” said Lauren Vazquez, Oakland-based deputy director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project. “New guidelines for testing and labeling products will ensure patients know what they are getting and that it meets appropriate standards for quality.”


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I sure hope that the plan is to eliminate welfare to those who test positive for drug use. Yes, drug testing should be required before obtaining any social service or cash funding, escpecially if it is ok for recreational use.


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“In 1996, California became the first state to adopt a law that allows seriously ill patients to legally access medical marijuana if their doctors recommend it.”


I call BS! I know a guy that got his “get out of jail” card simply by telling the doc, he feels good when he smokes dope! NOTHING serious, just a case of the blues.


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Have you tried medical marijuana? It’s some potent stuff.(yes it gets resold by those who have cards to those who don’t).


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Your response shows just exactly how old and out of the loop you are. No one calls it dope anymore and they haven’t in a long time. Unless you’re talking about heroin or meth. That’s what dope is.


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Just creating the infrastructure for sales, distribution and taxation for when recreational use becomes legal here.


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Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. Taxes just went up again to fund the new baby called Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation. Thank you Governor Brown for your thoughtfulness.


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It’ll be a 5 Billion Dollar industry in this state alone…….It will be taxed just like alcohol and cigarettes. Communities will reap the benefits instead of the cartels. /Time to bring it all to the front……hiding sucks. Some of you would be shocked it you knew who smoked pot!


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That theory sounds fine, except for the number of people smoking medical marijuana and eventual legal marijuana that are on the dole and will be using their state welfare benefits to procure the drug that they can smoke all day while we suckers work and pay taxes, which of course, will continue to rise.


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Marijuana dispensaries should not have to undergo a whole new slew of laws to continue operating. They should be grandfathered in under those written to accommodate the will of the people.


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Dude, it’s a whole new industry. Hello!?


Quit smoking your mind.


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Your not local if you think we have dispensaries…….there are 200 delivery services in this county……..not one dispensary! Legit dispensaries will have first go if they have been legit!


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The more the government defines and regulates, and the more those regulations drive up costs. And the more costs rise, the more it all heads back to the black market system.


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Let’s just say deregulate alcohol…..can you even imagine? 1.3 Billion dollars in California alone….and that is only the legal medical marijuana that is reported. When we go legal as alcohol, I would venture to guess somewhere between 4 and 6 Billion Dollars…..it is a real commerce business and needs to be handled that way. It will do all communities who allow it good to benefit from what is being sold anyway in their community. Great piece of over due legislation. Just sayin’!


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The bills also establish a new agency within the Department of Consumer Affairs, the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation, which will oversee the system.


Medical marijuana businesses will need to obtain local approval to continue operating.

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So in other words, it accomplishes nothing positive for the consumer because the rules don’t supersede local policies. Just more red tape and bureaucracy. Govt. just has its hand out again.


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