Ban on cannabis retail stores fueling the illegal market – Orange County Register

In 2016, 57% of voters in California supported Proposition 64, the Adult Cannabis Use Act. No doubt, voters expect legalization to increase access to regulated cannabis while helping to eliminate dangerous illegal market conditions. But the five years since then prove once again that reality rarely goes as expected.

This “disappointment gap” has very real negative connotations. Proposition 64 begins with the blunt statement: “It is the intent of the People in enacting this Act… to take the production and sale of non-medical cannabis out of the hands of the illicit market.” However, there are fewer licensed retail stores in the state today than there were in 2015; Legal marijuana sales are declining, and an incentivized illegal market is growing.

At the heart of the matter is the dual licensing structure that has been implemented while transforming Prop 64’s broad agenda into a regulatory framework. This not only requires cannabis businesses to be licensed by both the state and local jurisdictions, but also allows fully self-governing municipalities to choose not to license businesses. marijuana. In doing so, it resulted in the closing of thousands of medical marijuana dispensaries and the creation of new “dry” zones across the state.

It’s time we recognize the unintended consequences of Proposition 64 and this Prohibition Era mindset, which reduces access to medical marijuana and opens up more doors to the illicit market.

Despite the popular approval of Proposition 64, only 85 of the state’s 500 municipalities allow the retail sale of marijuana. This leaves 82% of the state’s towns underserved or underserved, and their residents between a rock and a hard place: forced to travel long distances to buy legal marijuana or buy other products. unsafe products from illegal traders.

To put it another way, under California’s medical marijuana program, there were thousands of nonprofit dispensaries operating prior to Proposition 64. Today there are only about 800 licensed cannabis retailers in the state. That means California has just two legal businesses for every 100,000 residents while other older recreational markets (Oregon and Colorado) have seven to nine times that number.