TAX
Title: California could see a $643-million marijuana tax haul in first full year of legalization, Gov. Jerry
Author: LA Times
Date: 27 January 2918
URL: http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-gov-brown-estimates-marijuana-taxes-1515613013-htmlstory.html
Extract:
Jerry Brown estimated Wednesday that the state will receive $643 million from excise taxes on marijuana during the first full year of legalization in … But tax law experts working on the bill with De León worried that amount could cause the federal Internal Revenue Service to crack down on the plan, and …
COACHELLA
Title: Lawsuit could determine if license to grow pot prioritizes small businesses over big marijuana farms in areas like Coachella
Author: The Desert Sun
Date: 26 January 2018
Extract:
A lawsuit was filed this week seeking to limit the number of licenses one person or company can receive to grow cannabis. For places like Coachella, where the pot industry carries the hope of economic revival, these regulations may decide whether its locals or outside investors who take home the green.
The California Growers Association argues that the proposition California voters approved in November 2016 included an explicit promise to prioritize small and mid-sized operations for the first five years, a promise that the current legislation does not live up to.
Despite adopting most permit and licensing regulations from its medical marijuana predecessor, the new legislation that legalized recreational cannabis doesn’t specify the total number of permits one person or company could hold.
The CGA calls this a “regulatory loophole that eviscerates the statutory five-year prohibition overwhelmingly approved by California voters.”
Three tiers of permits were created, based on the size of the cultivation area. Permits for operations with more than one acre of cultivation were to remain unavailable until 2023, to create enough time for small and mid-sized operations to develop before allowing larger farms.
County and city governments can create their own regulations on the maximum size of potting plots for cannabis plants to be cultivated by one company. Coachella requires a minimum size of five acres for all cannabis cultivation facilities to receive a permit from the city, 65 percent of which is to be used for growing and testing.
EL CAJON
Title: LOCAL PRO-MARIJUANA GROUP CHALLENGES EL CAJON IN COURT
Author: East County Magazine
Date: 29 January 2018
URL: https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/local-pro-marijuana-group-challenges-el-cajon-court
Extract:
January 28, 2018 (El Cajon) — When California voters approved Proposition 64 legalizing the recreational use and cultivation of marijuana, voters also approved a less publicized part of the proposition which allows individual cities and counties to regulate where it can be bought and cultivated.
A group of unnamed citizens under the moniker “El Cajon Residents for Responsible Governance” in December filed a legal Writ of Mandate with the San Diego Superior Court requesting an immediate stay of El Cajon’s marijuana sales and cultivation ordinance. The writ claims that the stay, approved by the City Council in October, is punitive.
(A write of mandate, as opposed to a full-on lawsuit, is a court order to a government agency or another court to correct its previous illegal behavior in order to comply with the law.)
While the City of El Cajon has welcomed several new large businesses and car dealerships in the past several years, it has never been a “pot-friendly zone” for marijuana dispensaries. Although dispensaries have been banned since October 2010, the City considerably toughened its stance in January 2016 when the City Council specifically voted to prohibit any type of marijuana cultivation, distribution by mobile marijuana dispensaries and other marijuana delivery services, and marijuana storage. El Cajon has also gone as far to prohibit the manufacturing of marijuana products such as edibles and lotions within its city limits.
