You mean like the union that the big operators in Oakland are forming? Seriously, mate... this is history repeating itself. Big business, for lack of a better term, is about profits. They've failed the public trust with every industry they've been able to secure "regulation" over. The proponents of 19 like to say that nothing bad can come of "regulation". I shudder to think of the lives lost and health endangered by "regulated" industries. To date, pot has a zero fatality record. I don't really think it's too far-fetched to consider that some crap factory grow could release a bad batch of product that either ends up hurting or killing someone. It won't matter at that point that it was the mildew that was missed on the buds or the crap residue left in the end product. It's rarely ever, if not never, the organic grower/farmer that starts a salmonella outbreak... it's the intensive production farm using "cost-effective" methods. Large scale intensive operations don't deserve a chance to screw up cannabis. We should be working to build the network of small and medium growers and putting them in contact with patients. We should be working to alter people's perceptions of cannabis and encourage expansion of the patient/public-friendly medical cannabis programs. People need to understand that Prop. 215 is for ANYONE. Not just people with dire medical conditions. Anyone and everyone that derives any benefit to quality of life, be it long or short term, is entitled to seek a doctor's recommendation to use cannabis. Prop 19 doesn't build a responsible and beneficial system of growers and clients, it just gives large-scale currently illegitimate operations a means to pay their way out of illegality. These are the same types of people that both sides of the Prop. 19 have complained about, and we just handed them get-out-of-jail-free card to repay their douchey behavior of price gouging. These are also the same ones that will have no problem uprooting themselves and their operations to move to whatever community decides to cash in on the green rush. The majority of small/medium growers, who'll typically have ties to their communities, will most likely have to face an all-out ban from the powers that be, or as is often typical of government types, exorbitant operational fees and usage taxes that make it almost impossible to maintain anything less than an economy-of-scale operation.
Under Prop 19 ... commercial growers and sellers must follow Health and Safety codes by LAW. Meaning ... they are held to stricter standards with regarding to public safety than you would be held with your own personal grow.
But seriously man .... ? "Bad batch of marijuana" lol Sounds like the same scare tactics the government use to throw to the uneducated public. Where's all the bad batches of cigarettes? Where's all the bad batches of Jack Daniels?
You know why there aren't any? Because if there were ... the government would come down so HARD on them and SO MANY lawsuits would be filed, that they'd be lucky to stay in business. Commercial marijuana growers wont be any different.
Prop 215 is NOT for anyone ... and if people would have said that in 1996 ..
it would have NEVER been passed. Period. Remember all the "Don't send the sick and dieing cancer patients to jail for using marijuana as medicine" campaigns? I Do
Do you remember the "Medical marijuana is for EVERYONE" campaigns? I sure as hell don't.
If you say medical marijuana is for everyone, you single handily undermine the intent and moral standing people have regarding medical marijuana. Now I happen to agree that marijuana has medicinal benefits that everyone can take advantage of. But that ISN'T the purpose of Prop 215.
Saying medical marijuana is for everyone only ensures that people will think twice about "sending sick and dieing people to jail for marijuana" because they'll see it as a scam and excuse for perfectly healthy people "to get high" ... regardless if really sick people TRULY need it or not. I mean ... that was PART of the uphill battle with medicinal marijuana in the first place. And now you want to CONFIRM their fears that it wasn't to prevent sick people from going to jail, but so everyone could legally get high? Now THAT right there will absolutely damage the medical marijuana movement.
Prop 19 doesn't build a responsible and beneficial system of growers and clients? Do you want Prop 19 to do your dishes and clean your car as well? Prop 19 legalizes the possession, cultivation, transportation, and sale of marijuana. That's the intent of Prop 19 ... nothing more ... nothing less. It leaves commercial regulatory and tax legislation up to local government (aka local citizens)to decide.
If you don't like how your city is regulating and taxing marijuana ... get out there and let them know about. Contact your local NORML chapter and stay in the face of your major and counsel members until they cave. Much more effective than having to write a letter to your state representative (that they'll never read) or Obama (that he'll never read).
Some people are so paranoid and overly cautious that they fail to see that any direction that points to keeping responsible adults out of jail for marijuana is a step in the RIGHT direction.
And saying "medical marijuana is for everyone" when the entire movement was built on the idea that sick and dieing people shouldn't be thrown in jail for using marijuana as medicine is a VERY dangerous road to travel. If you tell voters and politicians that they've been duped ... be prepared to see medical rights being taken away.
I can see it now ... "SEE! WE TOLD YOU! Medical marijuana is just an excuse for anyone to get high ... regardless if they have a medical condition!" Trust me ... you don't want to go there.
3 oz's a week, no fucken way! sorry, but i'm calling you out on that. me and all my friend's can't smoke that much>