MMJ: Bills, Bills, Bills

What’s up with the state Legislature and comprehensive statewide medical cannabis regulation? Curious about Cannabis

Nothing on the AB 266 front (the Legislature is on summer recess, so debate should resume when they get back), but two new bills have made their way to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk: SB 212, introduced by Sen. Tony Mendoza, D-Buena Park, would add proximity to schools and residences as an “aggravating factor” during sentencing for people found guilty of manufacturing hash oil. You do realize that it is illegal to make cannabis concentrates using chemicals (butane, CO2, propane, whatever) in the state of California, yes? It’s part of the law against making meth. Anyway, if you are caught, you get three, five or seven years in jail plus a fine of up to $50,000, depending on the aggravating factors. So all you folks making butane hash in the backyard of your apartment complex need to cut that shit out immediately. In an interesting twist, this same law uses 200 feet as the limit for adding an aggravating factor to a manufacturing meth conviction, so I guess some of you may catch a break.

This part of the bill doesn’t bother me at all, because I think people who make hash using chemical solvents should do so in an industrial area using the proper safety equipment. I do have a quibble with section “e” of this bill, however. If I am reading it right, just offering to make hash oil is now punishable by 3-5 years in jail.

What if you had no intention of making hash oil but said you would just to be polite? Americans for Safe Access opposes this bill, and so do I.

Meanwhile, SB 165 by state Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel and signed by Gov. Brown Aug. 10, imposes a whole new set of fines for people growing cannabis on public and private lands. You can be fined for growing medical cannabis on private property even if you have the landlord’s permission.

Oh, for crying out loud. This is ridiculous. I get wanting to discourage people from having gigantic 40,000-plant grows, but this law won’t do anything but cause headaches and backlogs when everyone goes to court to fight their gigantic fines. The same thing is already happening in Fresno. There’s no need for this sort of overreach to go state-wide, but it appears that’s exactly what’s going to be happening.