California medical marijuana regulations failed in the state legislature last week, but advocacy groups helped advance a bill to better protect collectives, and helped defeat a bill that would have criminalized driving while sober.
All bills in the legislature had until Friday, May 31 to pass through their houses of origin, and the day brought a stinging defeat for San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's AB 473, which would have begun the process of regulating the state's estimated $1.3 billion medical cannabis industry. Assembly Bill 473 would have placed the entire medical cannabis supply chain under the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. The bill failed 35-37, with a handful of Democratic lawmakers from Southern and Central California voting no and effectively stalling the bill.
That's very frustrating considering these are the same regions crying out for one statewide solution to regulating medical cannabis, said Don Duncan, a leading medical marijuana advocate and lobbyist based in Los Angeles.
Even as California's cops and councilmembers call out in the press for tighter regulations on medical marijuana, lobbyists for California's police chiefs, district attorneys, and narcotic officers
