Issue 4, the recreational weed amendment, would allow current medical marijuana licensees to expand into quasi-monopoly bonanzas and pay a 10 percent tax on top of other taxes to raise quite a bit of money for the state.
A small amount of personal possession would be permitted. You couldn’t grow your own, which is a bit like saying you may not grow your own tomatoes and may only get tomatoes from an anointed few supermarkets. But you could argue that a mood-altering substance is somewhat different from a BLT or pasta sauce.
The amendment would remove the THC-content ceiling contained in the medical marijuana amendment. That’s because of commercial flexibility concerns.
The prevailing recreational marijuana content tends to be higher, particularly for candies, which, people tell me, usually offer greater potency. The amendment would leave that and other regulation to the state Alcoholic Beverage Control division, which regulates booze. Either you respect and trust the ABC or you don’t.
Opponents say this kind of thing shouldn’t be in a state constitution, but a statute, because constitutions are forever unless amended by the people, which is not easy. And that’s true.
The U.S. Constitution is a beautifully appropriate document of general concepts. But our state Constitution is already a mess of detail and minutiae including specific property-tax rates, a minimum wage, the location of casinos and the amount of a highway sales tax.
This Legislature is not going to approve…
