Dear Pot Lawyer,
What do you think of California’s brand new pot initiative?
It’s a mixed bag, but I’m getting on board. Last week, California announced that the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) officially has a home on the state’s November ballot. Over the past year, the concept of legalization among California voters has been polling very well. It seems almost certain the AUMA will pass.
My law firm’s California attorneys have been looking at AUMA intensively for the past few months, and report that the 62-pager is more complex than Washington, Oregon, and Colorado’s initiatives. For example, AUMA provides for an astonishing 19 separate business licenses, and its distribution model recalls the convoluted rules of booze. For these and other reasons AUMA has many opponents, even among pot boosters.
The most interesting AUMA takedown we have encountered to date comes from Mark Kleiman, a corporate cannabis scold who made a name for himself consulting with Washington’s legalization rollout circa 2012. When not moonlighting out West, Kleiman teaches public policy at New York University. He refers to AUMA as “horrible, awful, very bad no-good drug policy.” He also says he would vote for it.