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Here is your chance to have input on a California state initiative for relegalization of cannabis hemp. If you have any suggestions on wording, please contact Jack Herer at hempjack@earthlink.net.
It is especially useful if you are a lawyer and can make sure that the proposed wording won’t have some of the problems that occurred with Proposition 215 (medical marijuana) when the government twisted the intent of the initiative to forbid cannabis buyer’s clubs.
PROPOSED WORDING:
California Cannabis Hemp & Health Initiative 2000
(Covers the relegalization of cannabis for all industrial, medicinal, nutritional uses, and personal use by adults 21 years and older.)
California Cannabis Hemp & Health Initiative 2000
AN ACT TO AMEND THE HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE OF CALIFORNIA:
I. Add Section 11357.5 to the Health and Safety Code of California, any laws or policies to the contrary notwithstanding:
1. No person, 21 years or older, shall be prosecuted, be denied any right or privilege nor be subject to any criminal or civil penalties for the possession, cultivation, transportation, distribution, or consumption of cannabis hemp / hemp, including:
(a) Cannabis hemp.
(b) Hemp industrial products.
(c) Hemp medicinal preparations.
(d) Hemp nutritional products.
(e) Hemp intoxicating products.
2. Definition of terms:
(a) The term cannabis hemp means the plant hemp, cannabis, marihuana, marijuana, cannabis sativa L., cannabis americana, cannabis chinensis, cannabis indica, cannabis ruderalis, cannabis sativa, or any variety of cannabis, including any derivative, extract, flower, leaf, particle, preparation, resin, root, salt, seed, stalk, stem, or any product thereof.
(b) The term hemp industrial products means all products made from cannabis hemp that are not designed or intended for human consumption, including, but not limited to: clothing, housing, paper, fiber, fuel, lubricants, plastics, paint, seed for cultivation, animal feed, veterinary medicine, oil, or any other product that is not designed for internal human consumption; as well as hemp plants used for crop rotation, erosion control, pest control, weed control, or any other horticultural or environmental purposes.
(c) The term hemp medicinal preparations means all products made from cannabis hemp that are designed, intended, or used for human consumption for the treatment of any human disease or condition, for pain relief, or for any healing purpose, including, but not limited to: the treatment or relief of arthritis, asthma, cramps, epilepsy, glaucoma, immunodeficiencies, migraine, multiple sclerosis, nausea, PMS, side effects of cancer chemotherapy, sickle cell anemia, spasticity, spinal injury, stress, Tourett syndrome, wasting syndrome from AIDS or anorexia; use as an antibiotic, antibacterial, anti-viral, or anti-emetic; as a healing agent, or as an adjunct to any medical or herbal treatment.
(d) The term hemp nutritional products means cannabis hemp for human consumption as food, including but not limited to: seed, seed protein, seed oil, essential fatty acids, seed cake, dietary fiber, or any preparation or extract thereof.
(e) The term hemp intoxicating prodcuts means cannabis hemp intended for personal use, other than hemp industrial products, hemp medicinal preparations, or hemp nutritional products.
(f) The term personal use means the internal consumption of cannabis hemp by persons 21 years of age or older for any relaxational, spiritual, religious, recreational, or other purposes other than sale, that does not conflict with any statutory law not effected by this initiative.
3. Industrial hemp farmers, manufacturers, and distributors shall not be subject to any special zoning requirement, licensing fee, or tax that is excessive, discriminatory, or prohibitive.
4. Hemp medicinal preparations are hereby restored to the list of available medicines in California. Licensed physicians shall not be penalized for, nor restricted from, prescribing cannabis hemp for medical purposes to any patient, regardless of age. No tax shall be applied to prescribed hemp medicinal preparations. Medical research shall be encouraged.
5. Personal use of hemp intoxicating products.
(a) No permit, license, or tax shall be required for the non-commercial cultivation, transportation, distribution, or consumption of cannabis hemp.
(b) Testing for inactive and/or inert residual cannabis metabolites shall not be required for employment or insurance, nor be considered in determining employment.
6. Commerce in cannabis hemp intoxicating products shall be limited to adults, 21 years and older, and shall be regulated in a manner analogous to California’s wine industry model. For the purpose of distinguishing personal from commercial production, up to 48 ounces of dried, cured cannabis hemp flowers produced per adult, 21 years or older, per year shall be considered as being for personal use.
7. The manufacture, marketing, distribution, or sales between adults of equipment or accessories designed to assist in the planting, cultivation, harvesting, curing, processing, packaging, storage, analysis, consumption, or transportation of cannabis hemp plants, industrial hemp products, hemp medicinal preparations, hemp nutritional products, hemp intoxicating products, or any cannabis hemp product shall not be prohibited.
8. No California law enforcement personnel or funds shall be used to assist or aid and abet in the enforcement of Federal cannabis hemp / marijuana laws involving acts which are hereby no longer illegal in the state of California.
II. Repeal, delete, and expunge any and all existing statutory laws that conflict with the provisions of this initiative.
1. Enactment of this initiative shall include: immediate release from prison, jail, parole, and probation, and clearing, expungement, and deletion of all criminal records for all persons currently charged with, or convicted of any cannabis hemp/marijuana offenses included in this initiative which are hereby no longer illegal.
2. Within 60 days of the passage of this act, the Attorney General shall develop and distribute a one-page application, providing for the destruction of all cannabis hemp/marijuana criminal records in California for any such offense covered by this act. Such forms shall be distributed to district and city attorneys and made available at all police departments in the state to persons hereby affected. Upon filing such form with the Attorney General and a payment of a fee of $10.00, all pertinent records anywhere in the state of California listed in the form and covered by this act shall be destroyed. Such persons may truthfully state that they have never been convicted of any cannabis hemp/marijuana related offense which is hereby no longer illegal.
III. The legislature is authorized upon thorough investigation, to enact legislation using reasonable standards to:
1. License concessionary establishments to distribute hemp intoxicating products in a manner analogous to California’s wine industry model. Sufficient community outlets shall be licensed to provide reasonable commercial access to persons of legal age, so as to discourage and prevent the misuse of and illicit traffic in such products. Any license requirement or fee shall not be excessive, discriminatory, nor prohibitive.
2. Place an excise tax on commercial production of hemp intoxicating products, analogous to California’s wine industry model, so long as no excise tax or combination of excise taxes shall exceed $10.00 per ounce.
3. Determine an accptable and uniform standard of impairment based on performance testing, to restrict persons impaired by hemp intoxicating products from operating a motor vehicle or heavy machinery, or otherwise engaging in conduct that may affect public safety.
4. Regulate the personal use of hemp intoxicating products in enclosed and/or restricted public places.
IV. Pursuant to the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the people of California hereby repudiate and challenge Federal cannabis hemp / marijuana prohibitions that conflict with this act.
V. Severability: If any provision of this act, or the application of any such provision to any person or circumstance, shall be held invalid by any court, the remainder of this act, to the extent it can be given effect, or the application of such provisions to persons or circumstances other than those as to which it is held invalid, shall not be affected thereby, and to this end the provisions of this act are severable.
VI. Construction: If any rival or conflicting initiative regualting any matter addressed by this act receives the higher affirmative vote, then all non-conflicting parts shall become operative.
VII. Purpose of Act: This act is an exercise of the police powers of the state for the protection of the safety, welfare, health, and peace of the people and the environment of the state, to protect the industrial and medicinal uses of cannabis hemp, to eliminate the unlicensed and unlawful cultivation, selling, and dispensing of cannabis hemp; and to encourage temperance in the consumption of hemp intoxicating products. It is hereby declared that the subject matter of this act involve, in the highest degree, the ecological, economic, social, and moral well-being and safety of the State and of all its people. All provisions of this act shall be liberally construed for the accomplishment of these purposes: to respect human rights, to promote tolerance, and to end cannabis hemp prohibition.
Here is your chance to have input on a California state initiative for relegalization of cannabis hemp. If you have any suggestions on wording, please contact Jack Herer at hempjack@earthlink.net.
It is especially useful if you are a lawyer and can make sure that the proposed wording won’t have some of the problems that occurred with Proposition 215 (medical marijuana) when the government twisted the intent of the initiative to forbid cannabis buyer’s clubs.
Copyright © 1998 Jack Herer
