California medical marijuana regulations failed in the
state legislature last week, but advocacy groups helped advance a bill
to better protect collectives, and helped defeat a bill that would have
criminalized driving while sober.
All bills in the legislature had until Friday, May 31 to pass through
their houses of origin, and the day brought a stinging defeat for San
Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s AB 473, which would have begun the
process of regulating the state’s estimated $1.3 billion medical
cannabis industry. Assembly Bill 473 would have placed the entire
medical cannabis supply chain under the California Department of
Alcoholic Beverage Control. The bill failed 35-37, with a handful of
Democratic lawmakers from Southern and Central California voting no and
effectively stalling the bill.
That’s very frustrating considering these are the same regions crying
out for one statewide solution to regulating medical cannabis, said Don
Duncan, a leading medical marijuana advocate and lobbyist based in Los
Angeles.
Even as California’s cops and councilmembers call out in the press
for tighter regulations on medical marijuana, lobbyists for California’s
police chiefs, district attorneys, and narcotic officers
