California State Senator Scott Weiner, a Democrat from San Francisco, has announced a new bill to save the state\u2019s longtime compassion programs that are providing free cannabis to people with serious illnesses.<\/p>\n
SB 829\u00a0<\/a>would exempt compassionate care programs from paying state cannabis taxes when they are providing free medical cannabis to financially disadvantaged people living with serious health conditions.<\/p>\n According to Weiner\u2019s statement announcing the bill, what he\u2019s actually trying to correct an oversight in how California\u2019s cannabis regulations were drafted. \u201cThese not-for-profit donation programs that have been serving medical cannabis patients for decades are now being forced to pay taxes meant for businesses, which are forcing these charity programs to shut down,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n When the commercial aspects of the state\u2019s legalization law \u2014 passed after voters approved Prop 64 \u2014 began to be phased in on Jan. 1, taxes were placed on both medical and recreational marijuana. According to Weiner, these taxes were designed to impact cannabis entering a market that marijuana grown for compassionate use programs never enters.<\/p>\n With no separation from those taxes levied on the commercial markets,\u00a0compassion providers have been decimated\u00a0<\/a>and many programs have closed up shop entirely.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n SB 829 creates a non-commercial license for compassionate care programs to operate under, thereby exempting qualifying programs from state cultivation and excise taxes. Following the certification of a compassionate care program by the Bureau of Cannabis Control, cultivators would receive their non-commercial license, which will allow them to donate their cannabis without having to pay the cultivation tax.<\/p>\n \u201cCompassionate care programs aid people who are seriously ill and suffering, and we should be helping them thrive, not squeezing them with business taxes that are forcing many of them to close,\u201d said Wiener. \u201cThese programs are a way for cultivators and retailers to donate free cannabis through non-profit collectives to some of our most vulnerable residents \u2014 they are a way for Californians to take care of each other. Let\u2019s correct this oversight in Prop 64, and help people living with serious conditions like HIV and cancer get the medical cannabis they need.\u201d<\/p>\n SB 829 is co-authored by Assemblymember Jim Wood, a Democrat from Santa Rosa. Wood also helped draft the original language for the\u00a0Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act<\/a>,\u00a0which was essentially combined with Prop 64.<\/p>\n \u201cPrior to Prop 64, many not-for-profit compassionate care programs were helping financially disadvantaged folks obtain medical cannabis free of charge for their life-threatening health conditions but Prop 64 threw a pretty big wrench into that system,\u201d said Wood. \u201cI\u2019m proud to join Senator Wiener\u2019s bill, as a co-author, so that these organizations can once again receive donations from cultivators and help patients treat their symptoms and maintain the best quality of life possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Jesse Stout of the\u00a0San Francisco State Cannabis Legalization Task Force<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Greenbridge Corporate Counsel<\/a>\u00a0broke down how the movement to restore compassionate care programs in California all began, exclusively to Cannabis Now.<\/p>\n Stout represents The Green Cross, whose founder Kevin Reed serves alongside Stout on San Francisco\u2019s task force. The dispensary was one of the first retail cannabis establishments in the most pioneering medical cannabis city in the nation. \u201cThe Green Cross has been a leader in the compassion wing of the medical cannabis movement for many years now \u2014 longer than anyone else currently operating as a retail storefront in San Francisco,\u201d Stout told Cannabis Now.<\/p>\n According to Stout, through the work of he and Reed have done on the task force, they were aware of the plight of compassion operators \u201cwho not only do these programs but do them totally for free.\u201d<\/p>\n Stout said California voters don\u2019t just want stores giving away medicine, they also want the diverse ecosystem of compassion operators that existed just a year ago.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cWhen we first heard about Prop 64, and there [was] something in there about patients being exempt from taxes, that sounded great!\u201d said Stout. \u201cNow fast forward to 2018, there are tax exemptions, but it turns out it\u2019s only the sales tax.\u201d<\/p>\n Stout said they first raised the notion of adding additional tax exemptions for compassionate care programs with Weiner\u2019s staff early in the year at a task force meeting to discuss potential ideas for improving cannabis law and implementation at the state level. Since then, the task force has devoted many meetings on how to improve this current plight of compassion operators while hearing testimony from many.<\/p>\n California NORML<\/a>, which supported Prop 64, is also backing this effort.<\/p>\n \u201cCalifornia NORML has heard from many veterans, seniors, and disabled Californians, who are alarmed and often desperate by the effect that newly enacted laws have had on compassionate medical cannabis programs that benefit indigent patients,\u201d said Ellen Komp, Deputy Director of California NORML. \u201cWe thank Senator Wiener for introducing language to protect indigent patients whose access to compassionate programs has been put in peril as a result of unintended consequences of newly passed laws.\u201d<\/p>\n The New York City-based\u00a0Drug Policy Alliance<\/a>\u00a0applauded Weiner\u2019s bill as a common-sense solution.<\/p>\n \u201cWe support allowing compassionate programs to provide free medical marijuana to patients in need without being burdened by taxes,\u201d said Tamar Todd, Director of Legal Affairs at DPA. \u201cThis bill provides a straightforward, common sense solution to an urgent problem impacting many suffering patients in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you get your cannabis from a compassionate care program?<\/p>\n The post Lawmakers Move to Save California Compassion Programs From Extinction<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
California State Senator Scott Weiner, a Democrat from San Francisco, has announced a new bill to save the state\u2019s longtime compassion programs that are providing free cannabis to people with serious illnesses. SB 829\u00a0would exempt compassionate care programs from paying state cannabis taxes when they are providing free medical cannabisContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[148,4408,50,592,53,4409,146,2111],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26477"}],"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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26477"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26478,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26477\/revisions\/26478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Lawmakers Move to Save California Compassion Programs From Extinction<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"