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Marijuana Initiative Enters Circulation

Marijuana Legalization. Initiative Statute.

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced the proponent of a new initiative may begin collecting petition signatures for her measure.

The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions. When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponent and to the Secretary of State, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures. The Secretary of State then provides calendar deadlines to the proponent and to county elections officials. The Attorney General's official title and summary for the measure is as follows:

MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Legalizes limited amounts of marijuana, including concentrated cannabis, under state law for personal use, cultivation, possession, transportation, purchase, donation, or consumption by persons 21 years and over. Requires Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to regulate and license commercial marijuana cultivation, transportation, sales, and testing. Imposes 25% tax on nonmedical marijuana retail sales. Allocates revenues to repayment of general fund start-up loan to Department, research, afterschool programs, drug treatment and prevention, local law enforcement/fire, and environmental cleanup. Exempts medical marijuana collectives from licensing and regulatory requirements. Allows local governments to ban/limit number of marijuana businesses. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Reduced costs potentially exceeding $100 million annually to state and local governments related to enforcing certain marijuana-related offenses, handling the related criminal cases in the court system, and incarcerating and supervising certain marijuana offenders. Net additional tax revenues potentially exceeding several hundred million dollars annually related to the production and sale of marijuana, a portion of which is required to be spent on after-school programs, public safety, substance abuse treatment, environmental restoration, and the regulation of commercial marijuana activities. (13-0061.)

The Secretary of State's tracking number for this measure is 1639 and the Attorney General's tracking number is 13-0061.

The proponent for the measure, Sara Behmerwohld, must collect signatures of 504,760 registered voters (five percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2010 gubernatorial election) in order to qualify it for the ballot. The proponent has 150 days to circulate petitions for the measure, meaning the signatures must be submitted to county elections officials by July 7, 2014.

The proponent can be reached at (415) 732-7700.

To sign up for regular ballot measure updates via email, RSS feed, or Twitter, go to www.sos.ca.gov/multimedia.

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