W<\/span>hile California local governments weed out the regulation of recreational cannabis by the state\u2019s start of licensing Jan. 1, Placer County wants to roll out a medical research facility instead.<\/p>\n Two weeks after voters in the state made pot legal under Proposition 64<\/a> last November, Placer banned commercial use in the unincorporated area. Therefore, the local jurisdiction only allows for personal cultivation of six plants on 50 square feet indoors.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, the Placer County Board of Supervisors took a unique approach to the recreational marijuana laws in California when they agreed to look into developing a medical research facility to explore the pros and cons of marijuana.<\/p>\n Board Chairwoman Jennifer Montgomery explained the policy workgroup tasked with overseeing the plan envisions the potential of a research lab in an academic setting.<\/p>\n Montgomery said she would have supported commercial entities to gain the tax revenue like Sonoma County, but will compromise with an agreeable solution board to appease her board.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should regulate it because it\u2019s happening anyway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Placer County voted against Proposition 64, with 96,228 opting out and 89,333 in favor. How county voters cast ballots may say a lot about their receptiveness to adult pot use, California State Association of Counties Senior Legislative Representative Cara Martinson said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still in the beginning phases even though it\u2019s been one year since Prop 64 passed,\u201d Martinson said.<\/p>\n First, the state needed to merge recreational- and medicinal-use laws, resulting in California Senate Bill 94 enacted in June.<\/p>\n Still, HDL Companies\u2019 Matt Eaton, a retired veteran police officer who worked on Colorado\u2019s Marijuana Enforcement Division, noted California is \u201clight years ahead\u201d of the trail-blazing state that legalized it six years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one realized or believed marijuana laws were going to pass, even though it was trending toward it,\u201d Eaton said of Colorado<\/a>. The state received 4,000 applications for licenses within a few weeks.<\/p>\n California represents the largest marijuana industry in the world valued at $7 billion<\/a>. It will need to conduct a massive educational campaign, insisted Eaton, who currently serves on Placer County\u2019s workgroup.<\/p>\n Cities within the county lean largely toward opposing recreational use. They include Lincoln, Auburn, Rocklin, Loomis and Roseville. The exception is Colfax. The small rural town exults support behind a medical cannabis dispensary.<\/p>\n Eight board sessions and 30 public outreach meetings produced \u201ca pendulum swinging back and forth,\u201d Placer Agricultural Commissioner Josh Huntsinger said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is one of the most difficult, controversial issues the county has dealt with in some time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Huntsinger mentioned an area off Highway 65 as an ideal place for a research facility, with crime, water quality and highway safety issues to be examined.<\/p>\n Nevada County Cannabis Alliance Director Diana Gamzon commended Placer\u2019s efforts to build a lab, but viewed the denial of commercial retail enterprises as an economic loss.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d think they\u2019d jump all over it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But John Falk of the Tahoe-Truckee Future Without Drug Dependence warned the supervisors \u201cto be wary\u201d of any marijuana silver linings because of more youth access.<\/p>\n Despite rancorous debate, Placer supervisors forged ahead this month on the research idea to study the drug\u2019s impacts. They directed the workgroup to develop a cannabis testing ordinance and pursue legislative advocacy at the federal level.<\/p>\n The path coincides with U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch\u2019s MEDS bill \u2013 SB1803<\/a>. The Utah<\/a> Republican claimed it was \u201chigh time\u201d the feds made it easier to research the potential medical benefits of marijuana without reams of paperwork now required.<\/p>\n The state also wants to streamline its regulatory processes.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the goal for us. We want people to be regulated, not part of the illegal market,\u201d California Bureau of Cannabis Control spokesman Alex Traverso said.<\/p>\n Marijuana products will be taxed by local jurisdictions and the state. Research facilities may apply for licenses to seek funding.<\/p>\n The Bureau will manage the licenses of the ventures. It has established an email address where the counties may send their ordinances at bcc.localgov.submit@dca.a.gov<\/a>. The state is still working on the penalty phase of non-compliance.<\/p>\n To the U.S. government, cannabis is still classified as an illegal substance with a high potential for abuse. This classification has kept federal law at odds with California.<\/p>\n Medical marijuana has been legal in the state since 1996 when the Compassionate Use Act passed for specified medical purposes under doctor recommendations.<\/p>\n TELL US, <\/strong>how has medical marijuana helped you?<\/p>\n The post Placer County: Medicinal Marijuana Under a Microscope<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
As adult-use cannabis legalization continues to be developed in California, one county is taking a unique approach. While California local governments weed out the regulation of recreational cannabis by the state\u2019s start of licensing Jan. 1, Placer County wants to roll out a medical research facility instead. Two weeks afterContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[148,50,53,2111],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20513,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20512\/revisions\/20513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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