Wednesday, May 13, 2015

What about Initiative 1372


Initiative 1372 is a good step to stabilize the situation short term. For better or worse Recreational Cannabis and Medical Marijuana are married in the eyes of the public. The two things to get government on your side:

1. Public safety.
2. Taxes in their direction.

Neither of those things happened with the medical system but did occur with the recreational side. Since '98 Medical Marijuana operated under the illusion of hands off system which restricted its growth. It was a free market system, growing an illegal product using any methods necessary and paying questionable taxes and licensing. It was to the point where some access points were advertising on the streets that it was tax free. For unity to occur, it is going to require people to work together. We got this far by looking at the standard, seeing that it wasn’t enough and changing the laws. It has required a lot of people giving up something to get this far. Most have forgotten that I-692 was funded by businessmen George Soros, John Sperling, and Peter Lewis using the California based organization Americans for Medical Rights.

The medical side can gain a lot by working together. There have been L&I cases where insurance companies were required by the courts to cover a patient’s medical marijuana. If we want this ability more widespread then it will require regulation on the medical marijuana side. If we want more doctors prescribing it then it will require a change in scheduling so their insurance covers it. We also need for more access points to adopt practices of medical clinics. Yes, this does mean some added costs.

The recreational side worries about lost revenue but it can make long term market gains with access to supplying medical patients. There have been estimates that it is only penetrating 3% to 5% of the market and to make gains it has to absorb from medical or the black market. With the change in laws, most law enforcement has reduced marijuana arrests which have helped the black market. Black market goods support neither medical nor recreational.

The listed sponsors of I 1372 are:

Jared Allaway, James Barber Sr, Mathew S Ramsey, Gina Garcia, Grandma Cat Jeter, Jeremy Kaufman, Frey Allyn, Dana Greetham, Stephanie Viskovich, Steven Crites, Matt Harrison, Adam Assenberg, Savhanna Carter-phipps, Hugh H. Newmark, Savhanna "Batgirl" Carter-Phipps, Joe Corcoran, Kristen Adamson, Trisha Johnson, George Foley, John Novak, David Hansen

The two systems can work for medical and recreational however there has to be some give and take. Right now the majority of us are trapped between new money and old timers that don’t want to budge. Right now we need to work on passing the 1372 however do not discount working with long term groups such as CCSE.